Scotland Yard is to ask its officers about their sexual orientation to assess how well the force reflects the community is serves, according to a newspaper report.
The request is part of the Metropolitan Police’s equality monitoring initiative. But police chiefs denied suggestions yesterday that they would use the data to recruit more homosexual people if it turned out they were under-represented.
Sir Ian Blair, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, will present a paper on diversity to the Metropolitan Police Authority in London today, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The report says: “Data on sexual orientation is not currently held and, therefore. no meaningful analysis can be undertaken. To address this, a self-service facility will be available in July [to] enable staff to self-disclose their sexual orientation.
“It has been estimated that approximately 10% of the population is gay or lesbian. However, in a city as cosmopolitan as London, this could be a considerable underestimate. The figures for the bisexual and transgender communities would be even harder to estimate.”
The Metropolitan Police already collects information on age, gender and ethnicity to fulfil statutory requirements or for use in recruitment, training, promotion and ‘progression’ decisions.
A spokesman for the force said there was “no question” of setting up positive discrimination quotas to reflect sexual orientation.
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