NPPF Sergeants' Exam 2027: Dates, Registration and Exam Format

The NPPF sergeants' legal exam is Step Two of the National Police Promotion Framework, the four-step route from constable to sergeant. The October 2026 sitting has just finished, so the next chance is Tuesday 16 to Thursday 18 March 2027. This guide gives the College of Policing's dates for both 2027 sittings, who may enter, how registration works through your force, and the exact format of the paper. ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not part of the College of Policing or any police force.

College of Policing NPPF step two candidate handbook (2027) and step two page, read 21 Oct 2026.

In 2027 the sergeants' exam is held in March and October, and all four 2027 exams "are held over three days": "There is flexibility to sit the exam on any day within the official exam period of each exam."

The registration closing dates are the national final dates, and your own deadline may be earlier. The handbook warns: "Forces and agencies may have earlier closing dates that candidates need to register by." The handbook says to check with your force examinations officer to confirm your force's closing date. Late registration is considered only in exceptional circumstances, and "A heavy workload or being unaware of the registration period will not be accepted as exceptional circumstances."

Entry is through NPPF Step One, which your force confirms. The handbook restricts the sergeants' exam to regular constables who, by the date of the exam, have:

If you are close to finishing probation, you "may only register for the examination if they are supported by their force and will have achieved substantive rank by the date of the NPPF step two legal examination." The handbook is blunt about the risk: "Any officer who takes the examination before they are substantive for any reason will have their result voided." There is no national restriction on the number of resits; any restriction is a local force decision.

All candidates register on the assessment information management system (AIMS), using the link that comes from the force examinations officer when registration opens. Your line manager signs the Step One eligibility form, and the force is asked to verify that you are eligible and assign you to the exam. Two practical points from the handbook: enter your personal details correctly, because errors in your date of birth, national insurance number or email address delay your access to feedback; and do not register twice, because "this will create duplicate entries in the system."

To request a reasonable adjustment or accommodation, contact your force exams contact first; the request must reach the force no later than the registration closing date. If you are signed off sick, or on limited duties through illness or injury, you need a certificate of fitness from your force medical examiner (or equivalent), submitted at registration, even to sit at home.

The paper is online. The College says there is "no national requirement for candidates to take the examination at a testing centre or under supervision", and its candidate guide says "This could be in your own home or at a force location if preferred." Candidates are responsible for a suitable testing environment, and the College cannot accept appeals about an unsuitable one. On the platform, questions are grouped by subject, one per page; you can move back and forth, flag questions to review, and answer in any order (scheduled breaks, where agreed as an adjustment, split the exam into sections you cannot return to). The College's own advice on order: "There is no benefit to starting from the back and working backwards, as all the questions are equally weighted".

The arithmetic of the paper is worth knowing before you start revising: 180 minutes for 150 questions is 72 seconds a question. The College's March 2026 breakdown gives the paper's length as "approximately 24,606 words" for the full 150 questions, about 164 words a question on average. The College describes them as "multiple-choice application questions": you apply the law to facts, not recite it. How the 150 split across the three areas is in our syllabus guide.

The College's online examinations candidate guide sets out how the day works. Once you start, the timer runs for the full three hours, and the exam must be completed in one sitting unless an agreed reasonable adjustment gives you scheduled breaks; a comfort break is taken with the clock running. If you run out of time, the answers you have given are submitted automatically. The link to the familiarisation exercise is emailed about a week before the exam, and you can open it only once.

If something goes wrong that is outside your control, the reporting window is short: a report of an unscheduled incident must reach the College's exams team no later than three days after you sit, and for the March 2027 sitting the final deadline is 8pm on Sunday 21 March 2027.

Step Two is a qualifying step, not a promotion. After a pass come Step Three (local selection and matching to vacancies) and Step Four (12 months' temporary promotion with a work-based assessment). A pass is valid for "five years (less one day) from the date of taking the examination"; and the date of the Step Three process must fall within that period. Pass mark, results and validity are covered in our results guide.

The College also set up a test phase of a different process, the Sergeant and Inspector Promotion and Progression (SIPP) process, with a small number of partnership forces, due to run from April 2024 until March 2026. The College says no decision has been made about the future promotion process.