Currently, all allegations of misconduct in research are investigated and eventually sanctioned by the Universities. UKRIO, the UK Research Integrity Office, has no investigation powers, being limited to an advisory role. This system does not work correctly any more.
While NSF reports every year tens of cases of malpractice by academics, in the UK there is a single case in a decade. This situation does look curious.
In the case of research grants, there is a clear conflict of interests. If misconduct has been committed in a successful grant proposal, the hosting institution would lose significant funding by properly investigating the case.
There are situations indicating that the system may be used for purposes like mobbing and abuse.
It is time that UK will have a proper agency for independently investigate the cases of research and academic misconduct.