Recommendation 41

The significance of representation for the legitimacy of the police, and for the Peel principle that the police are the public and the public are the police, means that the Home Office must ensure that all forces can make the progress required to address historic underrepresentation, with all recruits meeting the standards required from our police officers in order to sustain local legitimacy. We agree with former Greater Manchester Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy that the police service holds a unique position with a need for legitimacy in its use of power and that, where appropriate, additional measures could be justified to ensure that the police are broadly representative. The Home Office should also work with the Law Commission on measures which might be considered where forces can show that tried and tested positive action measures have not successfully addressed historic underrepresentation, and where such additional measures might be required in order to sustain local legitimacy. This should include examining the Metropolitan Police proposal or other approaches, for example to broaden the tie breaker provisions so they can be more easily applied to larger recruitment processes–not just to individual appointments— or other ways to allow forces to give priority to suitably qualified BME candidates as, for example, attempted by Cheshire Police in 2017. Furthermore whether the proposal by Dame Cressida Dick is deemed feasible or not, we recommend that the Home Office affirms to forces that it wishes to see more progress against these measures and that Chief Constables and their senior officer teams will be held accountable for their success or failure in achieving representative recruitment.