Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Programme
Public Accounts Committee
HC 261
Published 22 July 2022
Conclusions (7)
7
Conclusion
As of March 2022, the Programme was on track to deliver the planned number of additional officers. By the end of its first year (2020–21) the Programme had helped police forces to recruit 8,762 police officers, against a target of 6,000. The Programme benefited from commencing recruitment six months prior …
8
Conclusion
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 …
Government Response Summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the point made in the conclusion.
9
Conclusion
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 …
Government Response Summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the point made in the conclusion.
12
Conclusion
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 …
Government Response Summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the point made in the conclusion.
24
Conclusion
At the end of March 2022, the Department was ahead of its second-year target of 12,000 additional officers, having recruited some 13,500. This means that in the Programme’s final year police forces will have to recruit a further 6,500 additional officers to meet the 20,000 target.36
25
Conclusion
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 …
Government Response Summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the challenges of meeting recruitment targets.
26
Conclusion
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 …
Government Response Summary
The government's response discusses police diversity data and initiatives, and does not address the point made in the conclusion.