Police will be encouraged to disclose the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile and sensitive investigations under new guidance, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) says.
It is hoped the change will reduce the risk to public safety where there are high levels of misinformation about an incident or in cases of significant public interest.
Decisions on releasing such information will remain with police forces, with wider legal and ethical considerations also considered, the NPCC added.
It comes after a series of high-profile cases including that of two men, reported to be Afghan asylum seekers, charged over the alleged rape of a 12-year-old in Warwickshire.
Welcoming the new guidance, a Home Office spokesperson said: “Public trust requires transparency and consistency from the authorities that serve them.”
The guidance, which comes into immediate effect, forms part of a wider review of the College of Policing’s professional practice for media relations.
The NPCC said the guidance would reaffirm that verifying a suspect’s immigration status was not the police’s responsibility.
“It is for the Home Office to decide if it is appropriate in all the circumstances to confirm immigration status,” the council said.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC last week that there needed to be “more transparency in cases” over the background of suspects.
The NPCC said the new guidance aimed to ensure policing was more consistent, fair and transparent, as well as addressing possible mis and disinformation.
The change was in recognition of public concern and ensured police processes were “fit for purpose in an age of rapid information spread”, the council added.
Before 2012 police forces made decisions on what information to give to the media on a purely case-by-case basis.
But after Lord Leveson published his report into the ethics of the press, police forces became much more cautious abut what information they released.
As it stands, there is nothing in the College of Policing’s guidance on media relations that prevents police giving information about the nationality, asylum status or even ethnicity of someone who has been charged.
However there is nothing that specifically mentions them either which is why the information released to the media largely comes at the discretion of the police force. Hence the very different measures taken in recent cases.
In May, when a car ploughed into crowds celebrating Liverpool FC’s winning of the Premiership title, Merseyside Police were quick to reveal that the man arrested was white and British, in order to quash rumours of a terrorist attack in the public interest.
Conversely, the forces decision not to release information about Axel Rudakubana – the man jailed for murdering Alice Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in Southport last summer – allowed false information to spread.
That misinformation was deemed at least partly responsible for the riots in England and Northern Ireland between 30 July and 5 August 2024.
Referring to the riots, Deputy Chief Constable Sam de Reya, the NPCC lead for communications and media, described it as the “real-world consequences” of the information the police release into the public domain.
He said: “We have to make sure our processes are fit for purpose in an age of social media speculation and where information can travel incredibly quickly across a wide range of channels.”
He added that “being as fair, consistent and transparent as we can will improve confidence in policing”.
Chief Constable Sir Andy Marsh, CEO at the College of Policing, added that the interim guidance would “bring consistency” and that “information can be released for all ethnicities and nationalities when it meets the right criteria.”
The guidance has been developed following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Home Office and the College of Policing will update its current authorised professional practice for media relations later this year.
The Home Office spokesperson added: “The public, and police forces themselves, want greater clarity on when, why and how information is released and the legitimate and compelling reasons it may need to be withheld.
“The Home Office will support that effort by authorising the release of relevant accompanying immigration information in future cases, where it is appropriate to do so, and where the police have requested it. All cases will of course take account of consultation with the police and CPS.
“The government also asked the Law Commission at the end of February to speed up the elements of its review around the law of contempt in relation to what can be said publicly ahead of a trial.”
