Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Conclusion 24
Third Report - The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on
Published 30 Jul 2021
Paragraph 165
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee The Macpherson Report: twenty-two years on All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
What is equally shocking is that so little changed in terms of BME recruitment and retention in the decade following our predecessors’ last inquiry on the Macpherson report. While there has been progress in BME recruitment by some forces in the last twelve months, several forces, including large forces like the Metropolitan Police Service and the West Midlands Police, had not at 31 March 2021 met the 10-year target for levels of BME representation set in 1999. Moreover, BME officers are over- represented in certain junior roles within the police service, for example as Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), and are under-represented in the most senior ranks, with no Black chief constables currently leading an English or Welsh police force. This problem is not restricted to policing and similar patterns of under- representation are evident across the public sector but in policing it is particularly important given the need for legitimacy. We welcome the efforts of those forces who have increased BME recruitment in the last twelve months, but it should not have taken this long to see those changes start to happen.
From: Home Affairs Committee, Third Report - The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on (HC 139), paragraph 165, 30 July 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 26 May 2022 (deadline 30 September 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's work and acknowledges that "there is more to be done" on trust and confidence in policing, while declining to set recruitment targets or establish a new Race Equality Commissioner.
- On recruitment, the Government does not agree that setting diversity recruitment targets "is the right lever", citing differing local populations, and says it believes the existing framework is "the most effective way" of driving change.
- On proposed changes to the Equality Act 2010, Ministers say "more evidence" of the benefit of the Metropolitan Police proposals would be required before a proposal to make temporary amendments "would be considered".
- On stop and search, it commits to a new framework for scrutinising use of police powers "by summer 2023". On the Committee's call for a new independent study, it says it wishes to allow Inclusive Britain actions to be implemented "before we consider further commissioning research".
- It does not consider a new Race Equality Commissioner for policing "necessary", pointing to existing oversight through the National Policing Board, HMICFRS and Police and Crime Commissioners.