His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces and fire & rescue services across England and Wales.

In respect of police forces, it reports publicly on the following:

• Individual force’s efficiency, effectiveness, and legitimacy through its PEEL inspections. (See below for more information about South Yorkshire Police’s inspection)
• Joint inspections with other inspectorates to address problems that involve more than one agency. These inspections include work with Ofsted, Care Quality Commission and HMI Probation on child protection, and the programme of police custody inspections with HMI Prisons.
• A national overview of particular aspects of policing through thematic reports. These thematic inspections can be commissioned by the Home Secretary.

The latest PEEL inspection for South Yorkshire Police (SYP) published in February 2023 can be found here. A summary of judgements from the PEEL inspection can be seen below.

The Police and Crime Commissioner is required to respond to HMICFRS inspection reports within 56 days of publications. These can be found in the publications section of the OPCC website. (Filter by HMICFRS report or type HMICFRS response in the search bar.)