The Revenue and Customs (Complaints and Misconduct) Regulations 2010

Complaints, matters and persons to which these Regulations apply

9.—(1) In these Regulations references to a complaint are references (subject to the following provisions of this regulation) to any complaint about the conduct of a Commissioner or an officer which is made (whether in writing or otherwise) by—

(a) a member of the public who claims to be the person in relation to whom the conduct took place;

(b) a member of the public not falling within sub-paragraph (a) who claims to have been adversely affected by the conduct;

(c) a member of the public who claims to have witnessed the conduct;

(d) a person acting on behalf of a person falling within any of sub-paragraphs (a) to (c).

(2) In these Regulations “conduct matter” means (subject to the following provisions of this regulation, and regulation 19(3)) any matter which is not and has not been the subject of a complaint but in the case of which there is an indication (whether from the circumstances or otherwise) that a Commissioner or an officer may have—

(a) committed a criminal offence, or

(b) behaved in a manner which would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings.

(3) In these Regulations “death or serious injury matter” (“DSI matter”) means any circumstance (other than those which are or have been the subject of a complaint or which amount to a conduct matter)—

(a) in or in consequence of which a person has died or has sustained serious injury, and

(b) in relation to which the requirements of either paragraph (4) or (5) are satisfied.

(4) The requirements of this paragraph are that at the time of the death or serious injury the person—

(a) had been arrested by an officer and had not been released from that arrest, or

(b) was otherwise detained in the custody of an officer.

(5) The requirements of this paragraph are that—

(a) at or before the time of the death or serious injury the person had contact (of whatever kind, and whether direct or indirect) with an officer who was acting in the execution of duties, and

(b) there is an indication that the contact may have caused (whether directly or indirectly) or contributed to the death or serious injury.

(6) In paragraph (3) the reference to a person includes an officer, but in relation to such a person “contact” in paragraph (5) does not include contact that the officer has whilst acting in the execution of duties.

(7) The complaints that are complaints for the purposes of these Regulations by virtue of paragraph (1)(b) do not, except in a case falling within paragraph (8), include any made by or on behalf of a person who claims to have been adversely affected as a consequence only of having seen or heard the conduct, or any of the alleged effects of the conduct.

(8) A case falls within this paragraph if—

(a) it was only because the person in question was physically present, or sufficiently nearby, when the conduct took place or the effects occurred that the person was able to see or hear the conduct or its effects, or

(b) the adverse effect is attributable to, or was aggravated by, the fact that the person in relation to whom the conduct took place was already known to the person claiming to have suffered the adverse effect.

(9) For the purposes of this regulation a person shall be taken to have witnessed conduct if, and only if—

(a) that person acquired knowledge of that conduct in a manner which would make that person a competent witness capable of giving admissible evidence of that conduct in criminal proceedings, or

(b) that person possesses or controls anything which would in any such proceedings constitute admissible evidence of that conduct.

(10) For the purposes of these Regulations a person falling within paragraph (1)(a) to (c) shall not be taken to have authorised another person to act on that person’s behalf unless—

(a) that other person is for the time being designated for the purposes of these Regulations by the IPCC as a person through whom complaints may be made, or is of a description of persons so designated, or

(b) the other person has been given, and is able to produce, the written consent to such action, of the person on whose behalf that action is taken.