Steve McCabe – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many awards of damages have been awarded in respect of cases in which police officers from each police force caused substantial damage during the execution of a police raid or warrant in each of the last five years.

Mike Penning

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act Code of Practice B governs the searching of premises and the seizure of property from those premises by police officers. This includes the conduct of officers executing a search warrant (see paragraphs 6 to 6.15) and a note on compensation matters (see note 6.A). A copy of the PACE Code of Practice B can be found at GOV.UK.

The execution of a search warrant is an operational matter for the Chief Constable of the force concerned and so too is the consideration of damage claims which, as PACE Code B makes clear, will depend on the circumstances in each case.

The Department does not hold or collect data concerning the number of awards of damages paid out by police forces.