Scotland Yard has issued controversial guidance to its officers on language to be used in reports, prompting warnings from legal experts that the force could be risking miscarriages of justice. The 14-page document, titled 'Language Matters Guidance,' instructs officers to avoid dozens of 'inappropriate terms' in reports submitted to senior officers or Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers prior to prosecution decisions.
Critics argue the guidance, intended to ensure that victims are treated with compassion and to avoid victim-blaming language, could compromise the neutrality required for fair trials. Concerns have been raised that the document may lead to police records becoming slanted, which could benefit defense teams and potentially harm the prosecution of guilty parties.
This new guidance was developed in response to a critical report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in 2024, which found the Metropolitan Police used victim-blaming language and failed in cases of sexual and criminal exploitation of vulnerable children. The force stated that acting on such inspection recommendations is a requirement.
Nazir Afzal, a former Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North-West, reviewed the guidance and expressed apprehension. "Miscarriages of justice often begin with good intentions," Afzal stated. "This document does not merely ask officers to be humane, it tells them to abandon neutrality in records that later reach a courtroom. They are told to drop the word ‘alleged’, to write so that an unproven suspect becomes ‘the perpetrator’, and not to ‘draw attention to’ inconvenient material already on a report."
Afzal added that every instruction erodes the impartial record essential for a fair trial, noting that Sir Richard Henriques had warned of similar issues following the Operation Midland inquiry in his 2016 report. The Metropolitan Police's handling of Operation Midland, a botched investigation into child sex abuse allegations against prominent figures, is widely considered a significant failure in modern policing. In that case, accusations made by Carl Beech, who was later jailed for perverting the course of justice and child sex offenses, led to raids on innocent individuals and damage to their reputations.
Harvey Proctor, who received a £900,000 payout from the Metropolitan Police after being falsely accused in relation to the Operation Midland inquiry, echoed these concerns. He believes the guidance will "increase the number of falsely accused people in the UK" and constitutes "a charter for police wrongdoing."
The Metropolitan Police acknowledged Operation Midland as a "matter of deep regret" and affirmed their commitment to preventing a repeat of such errors. They stated that training officers on victim-blaming language is one initiative to improve trust in policing. The guidance aims to ensure suspects are not prejudged while ensuring victims are treated with sensitivity.
Examples from the 'Language Matters Guidance' include replacing terms like 'Victim refused to hand over phone for examination' with phrases acknowledging the victim's trauma, and changing 'Sexual activity with...' to specifying the offense under investigation as rape. The document also advises against using terms like 'rude and dismissive to police' or 'associates with a gang,' suggesting alternatives that frame the individual as potentially exploited or a victim of circumstance rather than culpable.