Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Accepted
Paragraph: 69
Significant confidence and fairness gap for Black communities persists for over two decades
Conclusion
Overall the majority of people from all communities still report confidence in their local police. However, there is no getting away from the significant confidence and fairness gap for Black communities. The fact that this persists twenty-two years after the Macpherson report is deeply troubling. It undermines the principle that all victims of crime should feel confident in turning to the police for help and puts in jeopardy the principle of policing by consent that lies at the heart of British policing. It should be cause for serious concern and urgent action among police forces and policing leaders.
Government Response Summary
The government outlines existing governance mechanisms, such as the National Policing Board and the Police Uplift Programme Board, which are tasked with strategic oversight and ensuring progress on diversity within policing to address issues of confidence and fairness.
Paragraph Reference:
69
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
In July 2019, the Home Secretary set up the National Policing Board to bring partners together to provide strategic direction and strong national grip over the law enforcement system. The Board is chaired by the Home Secretary and is attended by the most senior policing leaders, including the Chair of the NPCC on behalf of Chief Constables in England and Wales. Through the National Policing Board, the Home Secretary holds the sector to account for delivery of key strategic policing priorities and to ensure the Government and policing are collectively delivering what matters to the public. This includes delivery of the Police Uplift Programme. As a sub-board, the Police Uplift Programme Board provides a regular progress update to the National Policing Board, which often includes progress on diversity. The Police Uplift Programme Board also receives an update on performance at its bi-monthly meetings. This national-level governance provides strong strategic scrutiny of forces’ progress. The Police Uplift Programme publishes quarterly data on progress. This provides transparent data on the diversity of recruits since April 2020, when data reached sufficient quality for publication. Data is also used to produce monthly officer recruitment and attrition dashboards which are circulated to forces and PCCs. Scrutiny is supported by data developments in a range of pre-employment processes. The programme successfully agreed standardised data for all protected characteristics, which is now being used to create richer, more useful data on a range of workforce areas. Using these data sets enables comparable data to be extracted on outcomes against all protected characteristics to assess any disproportionality. The Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Probation, The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP, wrote to all PPCs and Chief Constables in March and October 2021 to reinforce the Government’s commitment to recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers, the opportunity to build a more representative police officer workforce and the importance of retention. This included the latest PUP data and progress towards greater diversity where forces in England and Wales have recruited over 13,500 additional officers as part of the PUP. Across the service, 34.4% of officers are female and 8.1% of officers are from ethnic minority groups. Across new intakes since April 2020, 42.4% of new recruits are female and 11.7% of new recruits are from ethnic minority groups. Partners across the policing system also have a role to play in ensuring scrutiny. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) is a member of the Uplift Programme Board, and these links are being used to enable HMICFRS to make best use of new and improving data to drive improvements. The core police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) question set for 2021–2023, on which the Home Office was consulted, includes assessing individual forces on how well they establish, develop and care for their workforce, including ensuring an ethical and inclusive working environment. The Home Office will continue working with HMICFRS and other partners on the National Policing Board to assess and keep under review options, where necessary, for ensuring forces make progress on the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority officers and staff. As part of the actions outlined in Inclusive Britain in relation to policing and the wider criminal justice system, the Minister of State for Levelling Up Communities and Equalities will report to Parliament in 12 months’ time from the publishment of the Inclusive Britain response. Police misconduct and discipline Replied together We take some encouragement from the NPCC’s national review into ethnic disparity in police misconduct and the work done by some individual forces to attempt to close the gap. The follow-up work from this review which has been reported to us in 2021 shows that the NPCC has recognised and accepts the need to prioritise correction of these failings. However, it is essential that progress is consistently monitored and reported transparently across all forces. Progress in implementing the NPCC review recommendations should be subject to an HMICFRS audit after two years.