Recommendation 12

HM Government Acknowledged

The Home Office agrees on the importance of training for police officers to ensure they have the practical skills to use powers legitimately and better interact with the communities they serve, and welcomes the significant improvements made by policing bodies and forces in this area. Policing partners, including the College have developed a series of training and guidance packages, such as the recently published conflict management guidelines. These include learning materials in relation to stop and search that give officers the tools to better serve their communities and keep people safe. The College also has a strong focus on vulnerability and mental health guidance, where learning standards encourage a person-focused approach. It is essential that officers are supported in accessing conflict management and de-escalation training. In September 2020, the College published national evidence-based guidelines for policing on conflict management, including de-escalation and negotiations skills. These are aimed at resolving conflict in everyday police-citizen encounters without using force by encouraging safer resolutions and therefore reducing the risks of assaults to the public and officers. This is supported by a one-day training package to build on the guidelines and provide further support to forces to reduce the likelihood of police officers needing to use force to resolve issues. This training is included in the new curriculum recommended by the Officer and Staff Safety Review. The Officer and Staff Safety Review, conducted by the College and published in 2020, assessed existing arrangements governing police officer and staff safety in England and Wales. The review presented recommendations designed to reduce the risk of police officers and staff being injured, assaulted or killed in the line of duty. We have committed in Inclusive Britain to supporting the College and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to review and deliver any necessary improvements to police officer training in de-escalation skills and conflict management in everyday police-citizen encounters, such as use of stop and search and use of force powers by autumn 2024. This will offer standardised training offer for officers which will ensure stop and search is not an unnecessarily hostile experience because of an officer’s behaviour. Use of police technologies and tools Evidence of disproportionality must be carefully considered and presented transparently, with robust systems of independent oversight. Although the NPCC conducted a detailed analysis of the use of covid Fixed Penalty Notices by ethnicity during the first lockdown, in response to issues raised in the media and questions from this Committee, we note with concern that neither the NPCC nor the Home Office have published any further analysis of covid-19 enforcement by ethnicity during subsequent restrictions or lockdowns even though they know there is an unexplained racial disparity. Leaving it to individual forces to follow up is not good enough, especially when the NPCC has pointed out that data analysis is more difficult at local level where smaller numbers are involved. The NPCC and Home Office should be continuing to monitor the data to see whether the racial disparity persists, what the reasons are behind it, and what action may be needed to ensure that there is no unfairness or racial injustice in the use of new powers.