Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 41
Third Report - The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on
Published 30 Jul 2021
Paragraph 227
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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.
From: Home Affairs Committee, Third Report - The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on (HC 139), paragraph 227, 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.