Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with police forces in England and Wales about ensuring that all police officers undertake unconscious bias training.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The public rightly expect police officers to meet high standards of professional conduct. In this country, the power of the police to fulfil their duties is wholly dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour and on their ability to secure and maintain this public respect.
The College of Policing, which sets and maintains training standards for policing, published the Code of Ethics in 2014. This includes a set of principles for policing, including that all officers and staff should take active steps to oppose discrimination and make their decisions free from prejudice. This is a cornerstone of police training and development.
The College of Policing’s foundation training for all those entering the service includes substantial coverage of police ethics and self-understanding, including the effects of personal conscious and unconscious bias. Initial training covers hate crimes, ethics and equalities, and policing without bias.
Forces also provide local training and development at several different levels ranging from initial entry, leadership and ongoing development to reflect and reinforce organisational values.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that financial pressures on local authorities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic do not lead to cuts to local police force funding.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government has been clear that the police will get the financial support they need to keep our communities safe through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government took immediate steps to increase the availability of funding for forces to meet cashflow pressures caused by the pandemic. We flexed half of the £168 million Police Uplift ringfenced grant to include expenditure on COVID-19 related pressures for the first six months of the financial year. We also brought forward payment of the £142.6 million police pensions grant, which forces received in April this year.
The Government also recently announced that council tax and business rates collection fund deficits accumulated 2020-21 can be phased over three years rather than paid off in 2021-22. This will give police and other local authorities in England a breathing space when setting their budgets for next year.
The Home Office continues to gather evidence of forces’ additional Covid-19 related expenditures since the introduction of social distancing measures, de-veloped in close consultation with policing sector finance leads. We will use this evidence base to inform cross-Government decisions on the police’s fu-ture funding needs.