Honours
| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
 | Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal |
|
 | Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal |
|
 | Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal | |
Michael Veale was the Chief Constable of Cleveland Police in northeast England until his resignation in January 2019. From 2015 until 2018 he was Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police, the force responsible for policing Wiltshire and Swindon in the southwest of England. He came to national prominence in 2017 when Wiltshire Police presented the findings of its investigation into alleged sexual abuse by former prime minister Edward Heath.
Veale was born in 1966 [1] and grew up in Midsomer Norton and Chilcompton, Somerset. He began his policing career as a police cadet aged 16, before joining Avon and Somerset Constabulary as a constable in 1984. He served in Bristol and Somerset before being promoted to Detective Superintendent and transferring to Wiltshire Police, where he was promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent as Head of CID. In 2009, Veale was appointed Temporary Assistant Chief Constable and then took up the post of divisional commander. He became Deputy Chief Constable in March 2013 and Chief Constable on 1 June 2015. [2]
Angus Macpherson, the Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner, decided not to renew Veale's contract which had been due to expire in June 2018. [3] [4] In January 2018, Veale was appointed Chief Constable of Cleveland Police. [5]
Veale said budget cuts prevented Cleveland Police from providing an effective service for the public. He stated in November 2018: "Forces across the country including Cleveland are more efficient and more effective than ever before, but despite this efficiency the service we are providing the public is nowhere near where it needs to be. (...) The cuts created and caused by austerity are too deep and have gone on for too long. It is about time that trend was reversed. My message is clear; give us the tools and we will do the job." [6]
Veale resigned his Cleveland Police position in January 2019. [7] An inspection in the following May by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services graded the force as 'inadequate' in three areas, a deterioration since the previous inspection. [8]
In the summer of 2021, Veale was hired as an advisor by Rupert Matthews, recently elected as the Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner. [9] In December 2022 he was appointed as interim CEO of Leicestershire PCC, but resigned two months later in response to continued negative media coverage. [10]
In the summer of 2023, a disciplinary panel ruled that Veale's 2018 remarks to junior colleagues on the Cleveland force amounted to gross misconduct. Subsequently, Cleveland PCC Steve Turner barred Veale from future police work, saying he would have been dismissed if still a serving officer. [11]
In 2015, Veale authorised the Wiltshire force to commence an enquiry, named Operation Conifer, into allegations (which turned out to be false) made by Carl Beech ("Nick") of sexual abuse by former prime minister Edward Heath, whose Salisbury home (prior to his death in 2005) was within the force's area. This reported in September 2017. The enquiry concluded that while many reported accusations against Heath were unfounded, there were seven that would have led to him being questioned under caution. Veale faced public calls for his resignation for a £1.5M investigation of historic events. [12]
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police had set up Operation Midland in 2014 to investigate other allegations by Beech, and closed their investigation in March 2016 without bringing any charges. [13] Beech would go on to be convicted of charges related to fabricating those allegations in July 2019, and sentenced to 18 years prison. [14]
On 10 October 2017, former MP Harvey Proctor who had previously been falsely accused of sexual abuse by Beech, criticised Veale for allegedly "trashing" his reputation a second time by reviving claims of an establishment paedophile ring. Veale had called for a fresh inquiry into claims of cover-up and conspiracy in Westminster. [15] On 11 October 2017, Lord Finkelstein stated in an article headed "This disgraceful chief constable must quit" in The Times newspaper that "the investigation of Heath was naive and disproportionate" and that Veale "should go" for "the attempt to win a public relations battle using the moral authority of the police". [16]
In September 2018, he was found by the Independent Office for Police Conduct to have lied about how his Wiltshire Police mobile phone became damaged. The IOPC had found that Veale had a case to answer for "alleged misconduct for providing and maintaining an inaccurate account of how damage to his work mobile phone was caused". [17]
| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
| | Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal |
|
| | Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal |
|
| | Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal | |
Keith Harvey Proctor is a British former Conservative Member of Parliament. A member of the Monday Club, he represented Basildon from 1979 to 1983 and Billericay from 1983 to 1987. Proctor became embroiled in a scandal involving sexual relationships with males under 21 which culminated in criminal convictions and ended his parliamentary career. He was later one of those accused by Carl Beech of being part of an abuse ring, something which Harvey utterly denied. In 2016, the investigations into Proctor concluded and found the accusations to be baseless. Proctor was subsequently paid £900,000 in compensation for victimization through the botched Operation Midland. His experience has seen him lead efforts to protect those in the public eye from unfair attacks by the media.
Avon and Somerset Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in the five unitary authority areas of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, Somerset, and South Gloucestershire, all in South West England.
Cleveland Police is a territorial police force in England responsible for the policing the boroughs of Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire and Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham within North East England. The force is overseen by the Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner. Since 2022, the chief constable has been Mark Webster.
Devon and Cornwall Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial counties of Devon and Cornwall in South West England. The force serves approximately 1.8 million people over an area of 3,967 square miles (10,270 km2).
South Wales Police is one of the four territorial police forces in Wales. It is headquartered in Bridgend.
Surrey Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in South East England.
Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the East Riding of Yorkshire, including Kingston upon Hull, and northern parts of Lincolnshire, including Grimsby and Scunthorpe.
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Mayor Oliver Coppard.
Wiltshire Police, formerly known as Wiltshire Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Wiltshire in South West England.
Ian David Karslake Watkins is a Welsh former singer who was best known as the lead singer and frontman of the rock band Lostprophets. His career ended after he was sentenced to 29 years imprisonment in 2013 for multiple sex offences, including the sexual assault of young children and infants, and the possession of "extreme" child and animal pornographic material, a sentence later increased by ten months for having a mobile phone in prison. His bandmates disbanded Lostprophets shortly after his conviction and formed No Devotion with American singer Geoff Rickly.
A police and crime commissioner is an elected official in England and Wales responsible for generally overseeing police services. A police, fire and crime commissioner (PFCC) is an elected official in England responsible for generally overseeing both police and fire services. Commissioners replaced now-abolished police authorities. The first were elected on 15 November 2012.
Susan Robertson, is a British independent politician. From November 2012 to May 2021, she served as the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner. She is the first person to hold the post and was first elected on 15 November 2012, having stood as an independent candidate.
The Elm Guest House was a hotel in Rocks Lane, near Barnes Common in southwest London. In a list produced by convicted fraudster Chris Fay, several prominent British men were alleged to have engaged in sexual abuse and child grooming at the Guest House in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Labour MP Tom Watson, having heard testimony from Carl Beech, suggested in an October 2012 statement to the House of Commons that a paedophile network which had existed at this time may have brought children to parties at the private residence.
Nicholas "Nick" Gargan is a former Chief Constable in England, who now runs his own consultancy company, Nick Gargan Consulting.
Operation Midland was a criminal investigation which the London Metropolitan Police carried out between November 2014 and March 2016 in response to false allegations of historic child abuse made by Carl Beech.
Rodney Maibam Hansen is a British police officer.
Operation Voicer was a major police investigation into serious sexual offences against pre-school aged children and infants across England, launched in 2014. The perpetrators groomed the families of the young victims, in some cases before the babies were even born. By September 2015, seven offenders were jailed, 28 further suspects had been arrested, three victims were identified, and 33 children were safeguarded. Ten offenders received significant prison sentences.
Elections of police and crime commissioners in England and Wales were held on 6 May 2021, on the same day as the Senedd election in Wales and the local elections in England. This was the third time police and crime commissioner elections have been held. The elections were originally due to take place in May 2020 but were postponed by 12 months in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Turnout was an average of 34.1% across the elections, with Wales having much higher turnout mainly due to the simultaneous Senedd election held across Wales, whereas only parts of England had simultaneous local elections.
Mark Grosvenor McNeill Shelford is a British Conservative politician and former lieutenant colonel in the British Army, who served as the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner from 2021 until 2024.
To Catch a Copper is a 2024 British documentary series about investigations into officer misconduct within the Avon and Somerset Police. The series has three episodes, which are themed around mental health, race, and sex crimes. Concerns include use of force and racial profiling. In one case, a constable is fired after publishing revenge porn; in another, an officer is acquitted after having sex on duty with an intoxicated woman.