Equal opportunities and diversity management information report

Report: 12
Date: 1 December 2005
By: the Chief Executive and 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 receive the attached management information report and note 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. The main trends to be noted are:

Hate crime

2. There have been 101 homicide crimes recorded between April and September 2005, 2 fewer than the same 6 months in 2004 (includes 13 homicides in July attributed to the Terrorist Attacks). 86 homicides have been detected between April and September 2005, 7 fewer than for the same period in 2004. The detection rate stands at 85.1%.

3. The detection rate for rape offences stands at 30.9% this financial year to date. This is a reduction of 3.4 percentage points on last financial year and below the rape detection rate target for 2005-06 of 38%.

4. The sanction detection rate for rape offences is 26.35%, an increase on the same period last year of 1.1 percentage points. The MPS are nearer to the sanction detection rate target for 2005-06, which is 27%.The actual number of female rape victims recorded has increased by 16.3% year on year, and male victims recorded has increased by 25.3% (94 victims compared to 75), indicating that although still the minority, male victims reporting rape offences are increasing. Female rape victims make up 93.3% of all victims of recorded rape offences. The percentage of recorded BME victims of rape has increased, rising from 36.1% between April 04 and September 04 to the current level of 40.8%.

5. The number of racist offences recorded in the first six months of 2005-06 has dropped by 8.8% when comparing with the same six months the previous year. The proportion of female victims has reduced by 22.1% year on year with the current level of 42.5% showing slight gender disproportionality. The percentage of victims of racist crime that are BME has increased, with 81.8% of BME victims compared to 75.3% in the previous year.The current detection rate for racist crime is 34.6%, currently below the 2005-06 target of 36%. The sanction detection rate for racist crimes is much lower, at 19.0%, also below the 21% target set for the 2005-06 financial year.

6. The number of domestic violence crimes recorded has increased by 3.7% year on year. The sanction detection rate has also increased, rising by 7.3 percentage point to 24.9% recorded between April and September 2005. The total detection rate for the current financial year 2005-06 is 59.0%. The proportion of recorded victims of domestic violence that are female remains at a similar rate of 79.8%, with the actual number of female victims increasing by 6.6% year on year. The proportion of recorded BME victims of domestic violence is 46.2%, with an increase of actual numbers year on year of 21.6%, a higher increase than domestic violence offences as a whole.

7. There has been a 3.3% increase in homophobic crimes recorded between April and September 2005 when comparing with the same period the previous year. Latest data available shows the proportion of victims of homophobic crime who are female increasing from 18.6% to 27.6%, with a 52.9% or 72 victim increase in the actual number of female victims recorded. The proportion of victims who are BME has also increased, rising from 13.7% to 27.9%.The current sanction detection rate for homophobic crime is 15.5%, a similar rate recorded for the period last year. The MPS have recently provided the MPA with data on transgender crime. The number of transgender crimes recorded between April and September 2005 is 46 compared to 34 recorded in the same period in 2004.

8. The recording of faith hate crimes in London has increased significantly this financial year compared to last. There were a large amount of faith hate crimes recorded in July and August 2005, directly relating to the terrorist attacks, that have significantly attributed to the increase. The latest level of faith hate crime is 276% or 417 crimes higher than those recorded between April and September 2004.

Strength

Police Officer

9. Police officer strength has increased by 2.0% to the end of September 2005, reaching 31,237. The percentage of police officers that are female is 19.4% and 7.2% are from BME communities.

10. The number of police officers at sergeant and above ranks has increased at a greater rate than total strength. There are 11.7% more officers at these ranks this year than last. Despite the increase, the percentage of male to female officers in this group is disproportional. There are 15.1% female officers at sergeant and above ranks as a proportion of all female officers compared to 27.4% of male officers as a proportion of all male officers.

11. BME officers at sergeant and above ranks as a percentage of all BME officers are 12.8%. This percentage is significantly disproportional to the percentage of non-BME officers at the same rank (26.0%). The recruitment drive to increase the strength of female and BME officers will have an impact in time on the number of officers that have reached these higher ranks.

12. At the EODB meeting in July it was requested that a full breakdown of BME officers at all ranks would be useful information for the committee. There are 2,245 BME officers at the MPS at the end of September. Of those officers, 74% or 1,660 are police constables, 13% or 297 are detective constables, 6% or 134 are sergeants, 3% or 63 are detective sergeants, 2% or 37 are inspectors and 1% or 24 are detective inspectors. There are 11 chief inspectors and 11 detective chief inspectors. There are 4 BME superintendents, 2 BME chief superintendents and 2 BME officers at commander and above rank.

Police Staff

13. Police staff strength has risen by 7% year on year with 13,759 staff at the end of September 2005. The proportion of female staff is higher than male staff at 59.2% and 40.8% respectively; where as 22.0% of police staff is from BME communities. PCSO strength has risen by 13.4% year on year with the current strength at 2,053. The percentage of female strength is 31.4%, where as BME staff makes up 36.7% of total PCSO strength.

Recruitment

14. The number of police officers joining the MPS is relatively low in comparison to strength, with 738 officers joining in 6 months. Of those officers joining, 26.7% were female and 13.7% Black & minority ethnic. Both proportions are higher than the current total strength figures.

15. The number of police staff joining the MPS has decreased by 25.1% year on year with 845 persons joining at the end of September 2005. The proportion of female and BME staff joining is similar to the current strength (56.8% and 25.0% respectively). There has been a slower intake of PCSOs this year compared to last, with only 151 PCSOs joining this year compared to 449 in the same period last year. Of those staff joining, 45.9% were female and 33% BME staff.

16. MPS Recruitment project that 318 new female police officer recruits will join by the end of March 2006, 33.5% of the planned number of new recruits, 7.5% below the recruitment target of 41%. MPS Recruitment project that 181 black and minority ethnic police officer recruits will join by the end of March 2006, 19.1% of the planned number of new recruits (revised to 948); 9.9% below the recruitment target of 29%.

Retention

17. Retention rates have remained high, with the overall police officer rate of 95.7%. Female officer retention rate is higher than male officers, with rates of 96.8% and 95.4% respectively. The retention rates for BME officers and non-BME officers are 96.7% and 95.6% respectively.

18. Police staff retention rates are slightly lower, but still remain at a high level. The overall police staff retention rate is 93.8% with male and female retention rates of 93% and 94.3% respectively. The retention rate for BME staff is 94.3% and non-BME staff 93.6%.

Stop and Search

19. The number of stop & searches recorded in the past 12 months has increased by 2.4% year on year. There are currently 34 stop & searches per 1,000 residents recorded in London. The number of stop & searches varies by ethnicity groups. 23 stop & searches recorded per 1,000 white population, 99 per 1,000 black population and 31 per 1,000 Asian population. Stop & searches recorded for most groups show a year on year increase, with the largest for Asian persons, increasing by 4.6%.

20. The proportion of stop & searches of male persons is 93.7% (227,994 rolling year), with just 12,367 women being stopped & searched.

21. The actual number of arrests made from stop & searches has remained at a similar rate year on year. The arrest rate for all groups are also similar year on year, with the only increase recorded for Asian arrest rate which has risen from 8.7% to 8.8%. The arrest rate for white persons is 10.5% and black persons 11.7%. The overall arrest rate currently stands at 10.9% to August 2005.

MPA personnel data

22. Total strength at the MPA remains at a similar rate year on year, with the figure at the end of September 2005 at 88 full time staff. Female staff represents 47% of the total workforce and BME staff represent 45%.11% of the MPA have identified themselves as having a disability (10 staff). Female staff holds 41% of management posts within the MPA and BME staff hold 39% of management posts.

23. Since 2003/4 the opportunity has been taken to give existing staff and new recruits the opportunity to complete the monitoring revised form which includes categories for faith or belief and sexual orientation. Not all staff or new recruits availed themselves of this opportunity and the small numbers that have done so have not been further sub-divided in order to avoid the possibility of individuals being identified. Those that did complete the form did not form a statistically significant proportion of the overall number of staff and no conclusions can be drawn from the responses or lack of responses.

24. Of those that did respond, 42 identified themselves as heterosexual and nine identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Twenty six staff identified themselves as followers of Christianity, three as followers of Hinduism, three as followers of Islam, one each as followers of Sikhism and Buddhism and three as having no religion.

C. Race and equality impact

All equality and diversity information has been incorporated within this report.

D. Financial implications

None

E. Background papers

None provided

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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