Recommendation 15

HM Government Not Addressed

The College and police forces are responsible for developing and delivering quality training that meets the varied needs of police officers and staff to ensure that they can best engage with, support and protect our communities. The Home Office supports the College’s ambitions to continuously review and improve guidance and training on offer for police forces. As part of this, police officers need training that helps them engage with all the communities they serve. We already see some aspects of training on community engagement or particular protected characteristics available as part of the training offer to police officers and support staff. Many training programmes, such as the Fast-Track programmes, Senior Leadership Development curricular and the new Police Education Qualification Framework entry routes, emphasise the importance of diversity, equality, and inclusion. Training on the use of police powers also provides guidance on their best and appropriate use, and training on conflict management is also provided. However, the Home Office agrees with the Committee that more work needs to be done to understand the consistency of the training available across forces in England and Wales. The importance of training was stressed in the independent CRED report and as part of the ‘Inclusive Britain’ response, the Home Office has committed to supporting the College and the NPCC by autumn 2024 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. Both the NPCC and the College have also co-developed, with policing stakeholders, a new ‘Race Action Plan’ which outlines a series of measures to improve policing and secure the confidence of black people, both within policing and the public. Across policing including forces, the College and NPCC, there is a drive to ensure officers guidance and training reflects the needs of both the police and the communities they service. Deliverability and accountability Replied together The Home Secretary should establish and chair, under the aegis of the National Policing Board, a Race Equality Steering Group. The Home Secretary should have oversight of progress in addressing race equality across the 43 police forces, including the implementation of action plans, through the Steering Group which should also hold Chief Constables in England and Wales to account on the specific actions they have taken to improve outcomes for Black and minority ethnic officers in all areas of their employment. This oversight must include accountability for reaching force-level recruitment targets as part of a commitment to achieve a representative police service by 2030. We recommend that, in place of the oversight board, a new Race Equality Commissioner for policing is established to provide ongoing scrutiny, including analysis and advice on policing policy, tools and procedures that are likely (or have been shown) to have a potential impact on racial disparities. The remit of the post would include scope to instigate investigations and to report at the Commissioner’s discretion, with powers to gather information, make recommendations on policing institutions and where appropriate to refer concerns raised by their inquiries to HMICFRS for further examination and inspection. The Race Equality Steering Group chaired by the Home Secretary should consider and respond to the Commissioner’s independent reports. To ensure that the Commissioner has sufficient resources and powers, it should be established on a statutory basis and provided with ring-fenced funding from Government. However it is vital that the post is, and is seen to be, independent of both policing and central Government to ensure it can win the confidence of BME communities. Therefore, the Commissioner should be appointed through an independent process and be accountable directly to Parliament.