The Home Office introduced a statutory duty of cooperation in February 2020 for serving police officers as part of wider integrity reforms. Police officers now have a responsibility to give appropriate cooperation during investigations, inquiries and formal proceedings, participating openly and professionally in line with the expectations of a police officer when identified as a witness. A failure to cooperate is a breach of the statutory standards of professional behaviour, by which all officers must abide, and could therefore result in disciplinary sanctions. Since December 2017, provisions are in place for proceedings to be brought against former officers to increase public confidence in the accountability of those who committed serious wrongdoing when they were serving, and to ensure that such persons cannot evade being held accountable by the formal disciplinary processes by leaving the police.