- Conference
- 2025 Police, Probation and CAFCASS Conference
- Date
- 19 June 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference welcomes the commitment of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), and police services nationally, to the collection of data to better understand the demographic make-up of police services.
College of Policing Guidance for Forces in Requesting Workforce Data (published in 2022) acknowledges the reluctance of staff to share protected characteristic data, especially around sexual orientation and religion.
Conference recognises that there are undeniable benefits for staff who declare their protected characteristics:
a. An organisation that understands its workforce can provide better resources and facilities;
b. Declarations can prompt discussion about reasonable adjustments, or other necessary workplace accommodations;
c. A robust pool of data provides evidence to help the organisation support the diverse needs of staff;
d. The organisation is under increased legal obligation to protect staff from discrimination.
The organisation benefits too, being able to respond to workforce needs, ensuring equitable application of policies and processes, monitoring equality of opportunity and access, and making the workplace as inclusive as possible to meet the public sector equality duty.
The launch of the Safe to Say internal communication campaign in 2022 was a step in the right direction. It encouraged staff to declare, and provided reassurance that the data was safe because it would kept securely, strictly controlled, and only accessed by authorised personnel. Staff were assured the data would be anonymised for statistical use only and that provision of the data would only ever be voluntary.
However, it is now clear that some organisations are seeking to extend the use of this data, and there have been discussions in some police services on how to make provision mandatory.
Conference is aware that, in the current climate of distrust of government and public organisations, as well as the rise of the far right, and the deteriorating narrative on identity politics, there is every reason why police staff would be resistant to disclosing their protected characteristics. In an environment where the risk of being ‘labelled’ can have serious consequences, it is entirely appropriate that staff may wish to keep their protected characteristics confidential, but at what cost?
Conference calls on the Police, Probation and CAFCASS (PPC) Service Group Executive (SGE) to:
1. Work with all relevant Self-Organised Groups (SOGs), especially the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender plus (LGBT+) SOG to develop guidance for regions and branches on what appropriate protected characteristics data collection should look like, utilising UNISON’s Workforce Monitoring for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity factsheet as good practice;
2. Engage with appropriate national staff networks, such as the National LGBT+ Police Network, with a view to building a shared narrative around protected characteristics data collection;
3. Encourage PPC branches to engage with their Human Resources (HR) departments to use the produced guidance to develop a culture of good protected characteristics data collection.