Recommendations & Conclusions
5 items
8
Conclusion
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Not Addressed
Diversity in policing is slowly improving, but it has continued along the same trend for the past ten years. Prior to the launch of the Programme in September 2019, almost 32% of police officers were female, and by December 2021 this had increased to 34%.10 The Department told us that …
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Diversity in policing is slowly improving, but it has continued along the same trend for the past ten years. Prior to the launch of the Programme in September 2019, almost 32% of police officers were female, and by December 2021 this had increased to 34%.10 The Department told us that 36.9% of all officers recruited in 2019–20 were female but that this had increased to 42.4% for those recruited between April 2020 and December 2021 as a result of the Programme’s efforts. It explained that in Lancashire, the proportion of officers recruited who were female had exceeded 50%. The Department told us that it had visited the area to see what learning it could identify for other forces. It explained that Lancashire had an excellent outreach approach with short, targeted bursts of recruitment.11
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Government response AI summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the point made in the conclusion.
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HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Not Addressed
Policing in England and Wales has struggled with increasing ethnic diversity within its ranks. Based on the 2011 census some 14% of the population of England and Wales are from ethnic minority groups, but in 2019 only 6.9% of serving police officers were from these backgrounds.12 The Department told us …
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Policing in England and Wales has struggled with increasing ethnic diversity within its ranks. Based on the 2011 census some 14% of the population of England and Wales are from ethnic minority groups, but in 2019 only 6.9% of serving police officers were from these backgrounds.12 The Department told us that, while there were no targets for ethnic minority recruitment, since the Programme began, the proportion of new recruits from these groups had increased from 10.3% of new recruits to almost 13%. It explained that, as a result, 8% of all police officers who reported their ethnicity were from ethnic minority groups. However, it also admitted that female and ethnic minority candidates are most likely to withdraw from the process.13 Again, there are examples of some forces doing particularly well with West Midlands Police seeing 19.4 per cent of all new recruits being from an ethnic minority background. 7 Q45; Home Affairs Select Committee, The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on, HC 139, 30 July 2021, para 2.16–2.17 8 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.11, 2.13 9 Home Office, Police officer uplift, England and Wales, quarterly update to 31 March 2022, published 27 April
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Government response AI summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the point made in the conclusion.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Not Addressed
The recent Strategic Review of Policing also concluded that the Programme was ‘having a negligible impact on workforce diversity’.18 We asked the Department if it was disappointed that the comment had been made. The Department told us that it did not believe this was still the case, and that while …
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The recent Strategic Review of Policing also concluded that the Programme was ‘having a negligible impact on workforce diversity’.18 We asked the Department if it was disappointed that the comment had been made. The Department told us that it did not believe this was still the case, and that while it would have wanted the Programme to have had a greater impact, it disagreed that its impact had been negligible.19 Impact of the Programme on training reforms
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Government response AI summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the point made in the conclusion.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Not Addressed
The Department told us that it expected the recruitment of the remaining officers to be more challenging than the proceeding two years. Firstly, it explained that the final year of the Programme required a greater number of officers to be recruited than in the preceding two. The Department set the …
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The Department told us that it expected the recruitment of the remaining officers to be more challenging than the proceeding two years. Firstly, it explained that the final year of the Programme required a greater number of officers to be recruited than in the preceding two. The Department set the Programme a target of 8,000 officers for its final year, compared to 6,000 in each of 2020–21 and 2021–22, although it has been helped by gaining an extra 1,500 by the end of year two. Secondly, it told us that the employment market had changed, with “shifts in the number of vacancies in various different sectors”. Finally, it recognised that the debate around public trust and confidence in policing had made recruitment more difficult than before.37
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Government response AI summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the challenges of meeting recruitment targets.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Not Addressed
These challenges were particularly evident in relation to the Metropolitan Police Service, which has faced a number of recent high-profile incidents involving serving police officers. In his evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee in April 2022, the Acting Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service stated that he was less …
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These challenges were particularly evident in relation to the Metropolitan Police Service, which has faced a number of recent high-profile incidents involving serving police officers. In his evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee in April 2022, the Acting Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service stated that he was less confident than before that the force would reach its final year target, partly because the job market was more challenging and because of the higher salaries being offered by some organisations.38 The Department told us that it believed officer pay remained competitive within the public sector, with a starting range of pay for a new officer between £23,000 and £24,000 and rising to almost £40,000 when a police officer was fully competent after six years’ service. It confirmed however that the Metropolitan Police Service was receiving only half the number of applications it needed to achieve its final year target, though applications for detective roles were “very healthy”. The Department told us it was working with the force to improve this and identify how it could better attract applicants.39
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Government response AI summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the point made in the conclusion.
Read full response →
HM Treasury