The City of London Police has been assigned to Level One under the new HMICFRS Policing Performance System, the highest and default position in the framework. The announcement, made on 16 July 2026, confirms that no further action or intervention is required from the performance system for the force at this time. The assignment forms part of a national approach intended to assess and improve police performance and replaces the previous Scan and Engage monitoring framework.
What Level One signifies under the new system
Level One is the default and highest position within the new Policing Performance System, intended to indicate that a force currently does not require additional oversight or targeted interventions from HMICFRS. Under this structure, placement at Level One represents that the system has no immediate concerns about a force’s performance that would prompt extra monitoring activity. The designation recognises that the force sits within the ordinary course of national performance assessment and that routine engagement is sufficient to oversee its work.
The Policing Performance System applies a national framework for assessment and improvement across forces, and replaces HMICFRS’s previous Scan and Engage monitoring framework. That change is intended to provide a clearer, consolidated route for tracking force performance and determining whether further support or intervention is necessary. For the City of London Police, assignment to Level One therefore signals a routine status within the new model and means HMICFRS does not, at this time, require further action from the system.
How the new system differs from Scan and Engage
The Policing Performance System replaces HMICFRS’s previous Scan and Engage framework and represents a new national approach to assessing police forces. It has been introduced to provide a refreshed structure for evaluating operational effectiveness, governance and other aspects of police performance across forces. The change reflects an institutional decision to update monitoring arrangements and to create a system intended to be clearer and more coherent in identifying where assistance or intervention may be needed.
The new approach emphasises assessment and improvement with the aim of strengthening how police force performance is monitored nationally. HMICFRS has framed the system to determine whether further action or intervention would be required for a force, with Level One indicating no such requirement at present. The revision aligns the monitoring framework with current priorities for oversight while providing a single, national reference point for assessing forces including the City of London Police. Details about the Policing Performance System are published on the HMICFRS website and the announcement for the City of London Police was made on 16 July 2026, with the force’s website also publishing news of the assignment.
Implications for operational effectiveness and governance
The assignment to Level One under the Policing Performance System reflects positively on the City of London Police’s operational effectiveness and governance within the capital, as presented in the assessment outcome. Being placed at the system’s default and highest position means HMICFRS does not require additional monitoring or targeted intervention at this time, which is an outcome aligned with the system’s purpose of identifying forces that are operating within expected standards. The position therefore has a practical implication for the force’s immediate oversight needs.
The new national approach aims to strengthen how police performance is monitored and to provide clarity on whether further support or action should follow assessments. For the City of London Police, the Level One status was announced on 16 July 2026 and publicised on the force’s website, reflecting the completion of that assessment within the new framework. Information on the Policing Performance System is also available on the HMICFRS website, which sets out the parameters of the system and how assignments are recorded.
What the assignment means for the City of London Police’s oversight
The Level One assignment indicates HMICFRS does not require any immediate further action or intervention for the City of London Police under the new system. As the default and highest position within the Policing Performance System, Level One places the force within the standard range of national oversight rather than on a pathway requiring remedial measures. The system is designed to assess and improve police performance, so this placement reflects the outcome of that process as applied to the force during this assessment cycle.
The announcement on 16 July 2026 was made publicly and details of the Policing Performance System are available on the HMICFRS website. The City of London Police website also published news of the assignment, and the force’s Commissioner Pete O’Doherty welcomed the placement at Level One. Together these elements mark the administrative completion of this stage of assessment and provide published records of the outcome for local stakeholders. This information forms part of the published record of the assessment.
Public record and transparency
Details of the Policing Performance System and its assignments are available on the HMICFRS website, establishing a public point of reference for the system’s work. The announcement that the City of London Police had been placed at Level One was made on 16 July 2026 and was included in those published records. The publication of assignments is intended to provide transparency about the outcomes of national assessments and to show how forces have been classified under the new framework.
The City of London Police website also published news of the assignment, and the force’s Commissioner Pete O’Doherty welcomed the placement at Level One. These official postings give local stakeholders accessible information about the assessment outcome and the status assigned under the national model. This publication supports accountability in policing within the capital.
