24 January 2010
Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000-
Review of Temporary Recruitment Provisions Consultation
Response by Democratic Unionist Party
21st January 2010
The Democratic Unionist Party welcomes the opportunity to respond to the NIO Consultation document on Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 Review of Temporary Recruitment Provisions.
The DUP strongly opposed the Report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (Patten Report) 1999, including Recommendations 120 and 121, and subsequently Sections 44-47 of The Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 which gave effect to these recommendations.
This blatant state-sponsored discrimination must end with immediate effect. It is clearly unjustified and runs contrary to every principle of equality of opportunity and fairness, and yet it goes unchecked because of the opt-out from the equality provisions enforced throughout the rest of the Union. Indeed, the policy of 50 / 50 recruitment renders Protestants in Northern Ireland the only group of people throughout the whole of the UK against whom discrimination on the basis of religious belief or background is legally permitted.
The legislators and defenders of this institutionalised discrimination justify it as a necessary evil to correct a longstanding imbalance in Roman Catholic numbers in the Police. However, this disingenuously ignores the evident and verified fact that the principal reason for under representation of Roman Catholics was the intimidation by the IRA of any potential Roman Catholic recruits.
Many people from the Roman Catholic tradition identified fear of attack against themselves or their families as their main reason for not joining the police, rather than any aversion to the RUC or the PSNI. This is reflected in the fact that during the period immediately after the first paramilitary cessation of violence in 1994, applicants from a Roman Catholic background rose as a percentage from 11% of total applicants to 22% . This increase in applicants was not brought about through any unfair recruitment policies discriminating against one section of our society at the expense of the other, but rather as a consequence of a decline in the fear of attack.
As a result of this legislation governing recruitment to the PSNI, hundreds of fully qualified and capable Protestants have been denied employment simply because of their religion.
We were unable to access up to date statistics on the ratios of Roman Catholics and non-Catholics who had been appointed to the PSNI. However in response to a written Parliamentary question by Gregory Campbell MP in 2005, NIO Minister Ian Pearson confirmed that by 28th January of that year, 3,243 candidates from a non-Catholic community background had reached the pool of suitably qualified candidates and of this number 2,427 had been unsuccessful and 816 appointed.
For the same period, 1,089 candidates from a Catholic community background had reached the pool of suitably qualified candidates, 279 had been unsuccessful and 810 were appointed.
Therefore for those who reached the pool of being suitably qualified, only 25.6% of Roman Catholics failed to be appointed compared with 75% of non-Catholics. This was clearly an unacceptable differential and something we consider unjustifiable.
There has been strong evidence over recent years that the 50 / 50 recruitment policy has had a detrimental effect on the willingness of young people from outside the Catholic community to go forward for positions within the Police. As a Party we can substantiate this evidence based on the number of people who have contacted our constituency offices throughout the Province seeking our help on this matter.
Needless to say, it was frustrating that the NIO did not take on board our concerns and proceeded with the implementation of these provisions and their subsequent previous renewal. We must insist therefore that further renewals of this insidious policy are out of the question.
Whilst everyone in Northern Ireland desires the Police Service to be representative of the community, it does not in any way justify the use of discrimination. Confidence in the police can only be achieved by offering a fair and equitable, merit-based recruitment process. That this is not presently the case has corresponding significant bearing on the public’s support for the PSNI as an institution.
Public confidence in general policing is enhanced through ensuring effective and efficient performance, especially in terms of fiscal resources and how these resources are put to the best use to meet the needs of local communities. Natural justice dictates that someone should be selected for a job on the basis of his or her ability to do it, not on what religious belief or community background. Indeed, wider public confidence would be achievable if people knew that every person serving in the PSNI was appointed purely on the basis of merit, and not on an officer’s religious belief or background. Equality of opportunity must be guaranteed to every citizen. Sadly this is lacking at present due to the discriminatory and highly offensive recruitment procedures which are currently in place.
Given the progress that we have made in Northern Ireland, especially in terms of policing, we as a Party demand and expect that discrimination no longer plays any part in the recruitment of Police Officers. On that basis the DUP insists that the Government moves immediately to end this discrimination in order to help increase public confidence.
It should be noted that the September 2009 Policing Board Module of the Omnibus Survey highlights the fact that within the Protestant community, confidence in the PSNI and its ability to do a good job had decreased by 14% in the 6 months since April 2009.
The Government must recognise that the legitimacy of this iniquitous recruitment policy creates an uneven playing field for prospective applicants from the Protestant community, which is not only discriminatory but also damaging to the effectiveness of policing in Northern Ireland. Discrimination against any person on the basis of their religious belief or background is entirely unacceptable whatever the motivations. Therefore, it is for these reasons that we oppose the renewal of this discriminatory practice.
We thank you for the opportunity to submit our views with regard to this consultation, and respectfully urge you to take them on board in your future deliberations.
Posted at 19:36:25
