Police: Ethnic Groups

(asked on 11th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to increase the number and proportion of police officers from a black and ethnic minority background in (a) the Metropolitan Police Service and (b) police forces in England and Wales.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 17th June 2020

Police forces have worked hard to improve equality and diversity in policing and the workforce is more diverse than ever before, however we know that we cannot be complacent. Our drive to recruit 20,000 officers gives us a significant opportunity to attract a wide range people into a career in policing and support the police to become more representative of the communities they serve.

At 31 March 2019, there were 8,329 black, Asian and minority ethnic officers representing 6.9% of all police officers in England and Wales, compared with 4.7% in 2010.

The Metropolitan Police Service has the highest proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) officers in England and Wales (15.0%) and had almost 4,500 BAME officers in total. One in four new recruits joining the Metropolitan police were from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background in 2018/19.

We continue to work across policing to support forces in addressing under-representation in the recruitment, retention and progression of officers, including those from BAME backgrounds.

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