Police: Racial Discrimination

(asked on 4th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken in 2020 to investigate potential institutional racism in the police.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 12th June 2020

Racism, in any form, is abhorrent and has no place in our society.

In this country, the power of the police to fulfil their duties is wholly dependent on their ability to secure public support for their actions and behaviour and to maintain public respect. Police forces that reflect the communities they serve are crucial to tackling crime and maintaining public trust and confidence in a modern diverse society. The police have worked hard to improve equality and diversity in policing - the workforce is more diverse than ever before, but there is still much more to be done.

Police training has improved and professionalised, and we continue to work with the College of Policing to support forces in their efforts to address under-representation in the recruitment, retention and progression of officers, including those from BAME backgrounds. Our drive to recruit 20,000 officers over the next three years gives us a significant opportunity to attract a wide range of people into a career in policing and support the police to achieve this aim.

We have also ensured that there is greater transparency and accountability in many areas of policing and continue the drive for improvements. If there is a death or serious injury following contact with the police, or if there are allegations of racially aggravated misconduct, these matters must be referred to the independent police “watchdog”, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). In February of this year, the Government implemented reforms to provide the IOPC with a power to investigate serious police conduct matters on its own initiative.

However, we know that we cannot be complacent and we continue to work across policing to ensure that those we trust to protect us meet the high standards of professional conduct expected by the public.

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