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<p>It is vital that the police reflect the communities they serve and I am determined
to improve BME representation in all 43 forces in England and Wales.</p><p>Decisions
on when and how to recruit individuals are for the chief officer of a police force.
It is important that they use equalities legislation, including positive action provisions,
to make better progress in terms of recruitment of under-represented groups.</p><p>The
Government's reforms have already made improvements, for example we set up the College
of Policing which has embarked on a major programme of work, BME Progression 2018,
looking at recruitment, retention and progression of black and minority ethnic officers,
including the development of an evidence base of successful approaches used by forces.</p><p>As
part of this programme the College recently published Positive Action Practical Advice,
which advises forces on the use of lawful positive action to support the recruitment,
retention and progression of officers from under-represented groups, and it has published
case studies from forces showing what can be done.</p><p>The College of Policing is
currently undertaking a review of initial police recruitment, including the SEARCH
assessment centre for police recruits, to better understand disproportionality that
can occur between white candidates and those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The review is due to report by the 31 March 2016.</p><p>Under this Government, innovative
schemes such as Direct Entry and Police Now are increasing the number of BME recruits
to the police, showing that you can achieve better representation while attracting
the best and the brightest into policing.</p><p>Of the nine direct entry superintendents
who began their superintendent training on November 2014 four (44%) are women and
two (22%) are from an ethnic minority background. This is significantly more representative
than the current make up of the superintendent rank which comprises 17% women and
4% ethnic minority.</p><p>Police Now, introduced in the Metropolitan Police, has appointed
69 people to start their training, up from an anticipated 50 owing to the high calibre
of applicants. Of these, 43% are women and 9% are from a BME background, compared
to the national BME proportion of 5.5%.</p><p>With the joint leadership of the Mayor’s
Office for Policing and Crime and the Commissioner, the Metropolitan Police also introduced
its London residency criteria for recruits in August 2014. Recent Metropolitan police
figures show that in the three months from June to August 2015, 26% of new Metropolitan
police recruits came from a black or minority background, more than double the 12%
recruited in the same quarter of 2014, and the 12% of Metropolitan police officers
currently from a black and minority ethnic background.</p>
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