CENTREX

Codes of Practice of the Police Revision 2005

Various changes are to be made to the Codes of Practice of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1998 (PACE) and are due to have effect from midnight 31 December 2005.

The primary alterations made to the Codes are to reflect the modifications to PACE as a result of the enactment of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCAP) and the Drugs Act 2005. Some of the provisions of SOCAP are already in force and have been highlighted in previous editions of the Digest since the beginning of this year. The majority of SOCAP will come into force in January 2006 and the Codes of Practice coincide with the enactment.

The detailed changes to the codes of practice can be viewed at www.policeprofessional.com in PDF form.

Consultation on Introduction of a Public Sector Duty to Promote Gender Equality

The Government has published a consultation paper on its proposals to introduce a public sector duty to promote gender equality. The proposals will require public authorities to eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity between men and women.

The proposals centre around three main components, obliging public authorities to:

Draw up and publish an equality scheme which should identify gender equality goals and show the steps that authority will take to implement them.

Develop and publish a policy on their equal pay arrangements, including measures to ensure fair promotion and development opportunities and tackle occupational segregation.

Ensure that they assess the impact of new legislation, policies, employment and service delivery changes. These assessments must also be published.

The consultation paper can be found in full at http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/legislation/index.htm

HOC 44 / 2005

Improving the Quality, Efficiency, Effectiveness and Economy of Police Learning and Training

This Circular gives guidance on the best known practice, derived from the Best Value Review of Police Training, HMIC inspections of force training departments and the products of dedicated working groups, in the areas of development of strategy and plans for training, and its costing and evaluation, and establishes a benchmark for use and application across all force training departments in England and Wales.

It does not change the requirements of previous Circulars, namely, 18/2002, 53/2003 and 7/2005, but is intended to build on them and also on the letter from the Head of the Police Training and Development Team at the Home Office of 15 September 2004 on Force Training Plans, by clarifying, enhancing and standardising guidance for good practice where it has been vague, ineffective or variable. It also provides guidance in areas omitted in the previous circulars. _

The guidance is provided as a series of annexes, each of which is a substantive guidance document in its own right. From these, forces will be able to determine the appropriate responsibility for implementation. Where a force is already applying best known practice the relevant annex will serve simply to confirm this. Where current practice is at variance with the relevant annex, however, appropriate action must be taken to adopt the guidance.

The annexes are as follows:

A – The Structures and Processes to Support the Strategic Direction of Police Training

This annex identifies the fact that greater national and regional co-operation, and the harmonisation of training practice in general, requires mechanisms for the timely identification, prioritisation and action of areas of common concern. Prior to the Best Value Review of Police Training, these mechanisms either did not exist or were ad hoc. Since 2003, new mechanisms have been put in place to do this, in some cases re-defining the roles of existing bodies and in others creating new ones. This annex is provided primarily as a reference to the constitution and functions of, and relationships between, these bodies.

B – Force Training Strategies

Home Office Circulars 18/2002 and 53/2003 remain the def