ONLY one third of recently hired police officers in Wiltshire are female, the lowest representation in England and Wales, but it’s “not just about hiring more women”, says the force.

New data from the Home Office has revealed that female recruits made up only 33 percent of the 241 police officers hired by Wiltshire Police between April 2020 and March this year – the fewest of any police force in England and Wales.

Wiltshire Police welcome these figures but the force is also focused on long-term career progression for women.

Assistant chief constable Deb Smith from Wiltshire Police said: “It’s not just about hiring more women, we’re working hard to help women develop throughout their career.

“We are seeing an increased number of females applying for promotion and being successful in their exams.”

The figures are a headcount of the number of people hired – female officers are also more likely to work part-time, meaning that the number of female police officers on the streets is likely to be lower than these numbers suggest.

In 2019 the government pledged to hire 20,000 new police officers by March 2023 through an uplift programme, alongside a campaign to improve gender and ethnic diversity in the force.

The total amount of serving female police officers has risen from 34 percent to 37 percent over three years to March 2022.

"There's still a long way to go"

Rick Muir, director of the Police Foundation, a policing think tank, said: "The number of female police officers has gradually been increasing over the past two decades, but there's still a long way to go."

Speaking about the uplift, he said the Government has focused on "quantity over composition" to hit its manifesto target – not giving enough focus on the diversity of new recruits to the police force.

Separate snapshot data from the Government’s Gender Pay Gap Service shows that across all jobs at Wiltshire Police, women were earning 10 per cent less than their male counterparts as of March 31, 2021.

Mr Muir added that it is too early to tell whether recent policing scandals, and declining trust in police forces, will put a dent in the number of women signing up.

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