‘Institutional misogyny’

Although Sir Tom is seen as a contender, it is thought ministers are more likely to favour a former judge or senior QC, and preferably a woman to oversee the independent inquiry that will also probe the alleged “institutional misogyny” that campaigners claim within the police.

Sir Tom warned last week of a culture of cover-up within the police where officers protected each other. 

“The concern that I have is that there is in too many respects and in too many places a culture of colleague protection,” he said.

“In too many respects, there is evidence of police officers – who become aware of damaging or worrying characteristics in police officers – not reporting them, or not putting up a warning flag, and that needs to change.”

Sir Tom said the resourcing of police counter-corruption units – called directorates of professional standards – was inadequate, the quality of their investigations was sometimes “quite poor” and there were too many backlogs in vetting officers including in the Met at the time Couzens was recruited.

Controversial choice 

Sir Tom was a controversial choice in 2012 by Theresa May not only as an outsider, but also one who had just completed a review of police pay and conditions for her, proposing scaling back benefits and a tougher approach to unfit officers (including powers to remove them). 

The first non-police officer in the post since the inspectorate was established in 1856, he had previously been the rail regulator who took on the “incompetence” of Railtrack and held the privatised rail companies more closely to account for their performance.

He was reappointed in 2014 and then in 2017 for his final five-year term, which ends in March next year, around the time at which Ms Patel’s inquiry into the Couzens scandal and lessons to be learned from it is expected to be completed.