ONE in three people in the North West are not confident that if they complain to the police their issue will be handled fairly.

The statistics come from a survey for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which had a three year plan to improve public confidence in the complaints system.

While 57 per cent of respondents in the North West were either very or fairly confident, 37 per cent were either not very or not at all confident that the police would deal with their complaints against them fairly.

IPCC chair, Dame Anne Owers, said: "The majority of the 30,000 complaints made annually about the police are handled by the police service itself.

“This survey shows that too many people are still either unsure of how to make a complaint about the police or don’t believe their complaint will be dealt with fairly.

“It is particularly worrying that young people and those from ethnic minorities have lower confidence in the complaints system "There is clearly more work to be done by both the police and IPCC.”