Letter from the Secretary of State for
Northern Ireland
At the meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs
Committee on 26 October, I undertook to provide members with a
detail breakdown of figures for PSNI Trainee Constable competitions.
I have therefore enclosed information on every competition since
2001 from which appointments have been made (see annex).
In light of specific interest regarding the
impact of the temporary 50:50 provisions, I would like to draw
members' attention to the following information for the first
eight competitions:
— the figures show that there is a
significant surplus of Suitably Qualified Candidates. It is clear
that the main reason for this is the very encouraging number of
applications received (almost 44,000 in the first eight competitions;
with over a third of these coming from the Catholic community);
— the figures project that of the 3,879
unsuccessful Suitably Qualified Candidates, only 541 will
be rejected as a result of the temporary 50:50 provisions. The
remaining 3,338 would have been rejected regardless of 50:50;
and
— importantly, less than 2% of
all non-Catholic applications are affected in any way by the 50:50
measures.
I am sure that the information attached will
be of interest to all members.
The Rt Hon Peter Hain MP
8 November 2005
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