Equal Opportunities and Diversity Management Information Report

Report:14
Date: 02 September 2004
By: Clerk

Summary

This report provides equal opportunities and diversity management information. The main trends are highlighted and more detailed figures are provided in the appendix.

A. Recommendations

That members note the attached management information report and any emerging trends.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The report aims to supply committee members with information relevant to equal opportunities and diversity, and highlight any emerging trends.

2. Some management information is still under development or awaiting data collection from the MPS. The MPS Diversity Directorate is currently developing a Corporate Performance Pack, which will provide a variety of information that would be of benefit to this committee. The information deemed relevant will be added to the report in due course.

3. The main trends to be noted are:

Police Officers

· Police Officer strength is 30,301 at end of June 2004. The rise in officers joining has slowed, partly due to a planned absence of a training school in April and a relatively low growth target for 2004-05 of 30,812

• Police Officers who are female are under strength target, currently at 18.5% (target 19%).
• Police Officers who are from visible ethnic minorities (VEM) are under strength target, currently at 6.6% (target 7%)
• Female and VEM officers are largely under-represented at senior level (sgt and above) when compared to their male and non-VEM counterparts. A large contributing factor being the high proportion of female and VEM officers with 0-4 year’s service.
• A slight rise in female detectives – currently at 17.3% of female strength, slightly lower than male detectives, currently at 19.4% of male strength.
• A disproportional number of VEM to Non-VEM detectives stands at June 2004. 14.1% of VEM strength is made up of officers at a detective rank, whereas 19.3% of Non-VEM strength is made up of those same officer ranks.
• The number of SO & SCD officers has increased over the past year from 5,087 in June 2003 to 5,962 in June 2004.

Police Staff

• A rise in Police Staff strength can be seen over the past year, currently standing at 12,575 in June 2004.
• The percentage of police staff that is female has remained around 59% for some time, showing a much better representation than the equivalent strength for police officers.
• Similarly, the percentage of VEM police staff has steadily risen and is nearing 20% for June 2004.
• The recruitment drive for PCSOs has led to a steeper increase in strength, rising from 683 in June 2003 to 1778 in June 2004.
• Female PCSOs make up 29.3% of overall strength, with VEM PCSOs making up a third (33%).
• The proportion of females at a senior police staff level (A-C pay bands) is significantly lower than male staff at this level (7.4% to 18.3% respectively).
• The same can be said for VEM and Non-VEM staff, although this has also risen significantly since last year (16.7% and 43.3% respectively).

Recruitment

• Applications have dropped since last year. Between April and June 2004 158 applications were received, a significant reduction from 2,077 for the same period in 2003.
• Of those applications received, 46% were from female applicants and 48.3% from VEM.
• The number of officers joining has heavily reduced in line with targets for the year.
• The rate of selection process attrition has risen for VEM candidates compared to the same period last year. This is primarily explained by the adoption of the National Recruitment Standard, which has resulted in lower pass rates for all ethnicity and gender groups.
• A number of events planned throughout the year are hoped to increase the intake of visible ethnic minority and female applicants.
• The proportion of police staff joining who are female has dropped from 62% last year to 30.5% this year. The same can be said for VEM staff joining (22.5% last year, 10.1% this year)
• The number of PCSOs joining has increased significantly, with the proportion of female staff joining remaining around 28%, whereas VEM staff has dropped from 49% last year to 24% this year.

Retention

• The retention rate for police officers is very positive and averages 95% across all groups.
• The same positive rate can be seen for police staff, with no disparity between female and male staff retained. And only a slight difference in VEM and Non-VEM staff, with the former retained longer.

Fair Practice

• Stop and Search activity has reduced following a significant rise in levels during 2002-03. This reduction is across all ethnic groups.
• The proportion of white persons stopped per 1,000 population is 1.3, whereas for VEM persons the current rate is 4.3.
• The arrest rate remains static around 9%.

Investigation

• The number of homicides is relatively low and monthly trends are difficult to determine. The detection rate is currently at 90.6% for the FYtD
• The proportion of females falling victim to rape is extremely high as would be expected (93%). VEM persons making up 42% of all rape victims. The detection rate stands at 20.6%.
• Racist crimes have not increased over the past year. The detection rate has reduced slightly to 15.9%.
• Homophobic crime has increased by 18% from April to June last year. The detection rate stands at 15.1%.
• The number of domestic violence crimes has increased significantly over the past 2 years. The detection rate stands at 17.5%

C. Race and equality impact

Included within the report and attached management information.

D. Financial implications

None.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Gemma Walters, Performance Analyst, MPA.

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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