Human Resources
Equality and Diversity in the Police Service
The equality and diversity team has responsibility for producing policy and good practice guidelines for the police service across the seven diversity strands (race, faith, age, gender, disability and sexual orientation).
They work in partnership with internal and external stakeholders to make sure the police service reflects diversity within its workforce. We are working to ensure we provide a fair, effective and efficient service for all communities. The team also contributes to Home Office strategic priorities to help people feel safer in their homes and local communities, cut crime and support visible, responsive and accountable policing.
What we do
The equality and diversity team sits within the police productivity unit (PPU) and has the following responsibilities:
- coordinating and implementing equality based programmes
- creating coherent race equality and diversity policy across the police service
- supporting colleagues with equality and human rights issues in all aspects of the Home Office’s policy affecting the police service
- providing advice to the Home Secretary and policing ministers on equality issues and how they can help diversity staff support associations, community groups and independent members
- Equality and Human Rights Commission (new window) (EHRC)
- Ministry of Justice (new window) (MoJ)
- Communities and Local Government (new window) (CLG)
- Association of Chief Police Officers (new window) (ACPO)
- Association of Police Authorities (new window) (APA)
- National Police Improvement Agency (new window) (NPIA)
- Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (new window) (HMIC)
- equality groups/boards
- promoting the Home Office equality and human rights strategy and the work of the police reform and resources directorate (PRRU) to internal and external police partners, including independent members/groups.
Minority ethnic recruitment
On 20 November 2008, Policing Minister Vernon Coaker published his Assessment of Minority Ethnic Recruitment, Retention and Progression in the Police Service.
The report confirms that police forces are already doing good work to assist minority ethnic recruitment, retention and progression in the police, but recognises that there is still more to do. A new ministerial steering group will work to implement the recommendations from this assessment. Read the full news story
Our partners
A number of units in the Home Office work on race equality and diversity in the police service. Our main partners in this work include:
- ACPO, APA and individual police forces
- HMIC has a major role in assessing force performance and the performance of the service as a whole, in all aspects of human resources policy, including diversity
- the NPIA, which is police lead for the police service and an important partner for the Home Office. They work with the local forces ensuring that our equality and diversity policies are supported and implemented
- the staff associations and trade unions, including the British Association of Women Police Officers (BAWP), National Disabled Police Association (NDPA), National Black Police Association (NBPA), National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP), the Police Federation, the Superintendents’ Association and Unison.
Useful documents
We have produced a variety of useful documents, which can be found under the following categories:
- the Stephen Lawrence inquiry
- race-related documents
- faith-related documents
- sexual orientation-related documents
- disability in the police service
- gender equality
Contact us
If you would like to know more about our work, please email the head of the equality and diversity team Maqsood Ahmad.
