*West Yorkshire Police encourages black and Asian candidates to apply early to become police constables before jobs opened up to others*

*One of the UK’s biggest police forces has temporarily blocked applications from white British candidates in an attempt to boost diversity, The Telegraph can disclose.*

*West Yorkshire Police (WYP) is currently preventing white British candidates from applying for jobs as recruits to its police constable entry programmes. However, “under-represented” groups can lodge their applications early.*

*The process has raised concerns that white British candidates are being unfairly treated, amounting to a form of positive discrimination that could be potentially unlawful.*

*WYP has said the policy is to ensure that “diverse communities” are represented by the officers serving them. But former officers have accused it of effectively running a “hidden” recruitment policy that targets certain groups.*

*One whistleblower claimed black and far east Asian candidates were considered particularly under-represented and given a “gold” ranking, followed by those of south-east Asian origin who were in the silver tier. “White others”, including candidates from Irish and eastern European backgrounds, were bronze.*

*The whistleblower, who was heavily involved in sifting job applications for recruits, said he raised concerns over the policy with bosses but was warned not to interfere.*

*In a report to senior officers, seen by The Telegraph, he said: “This feeds into a general theme where the pipeline for anyone white British is strangled, whilst anyone not white British is ushered through onto the next available stage.”*

*WYP, the fourth largest force in the country, employs 19 diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) staff – many of them serving police officers – at a cost of just over £1 million a year. A report earlier this year suggested it spends more money on DEI than any other force.*

*Recruits must go through a lengthy process that includes an online assessment, an interview and physical tests. The starting salary for new constables, either in uniform or as plain-clothes detectives, is just under £30,000.*

*On its website, WYP admits that, because of a lack of ethnic minority officers, it accepts “applications all year round from these under-represented groups” but that white British candidates must wait until “our recruitment process is open”.*

*It stresses that only nine per cent of officers are from an ethnic minority background “while 23 per cent of people in West Yorkshire are from these communities”.*

*The website states: “We are currently accepting applications for the two police constable entry programmes (uniform and detective) from people from our under-represented groups... If you are not from one of these groups, please keep checking this page for future recruitment opportunities.”*

*WYP says online that applications from ethnic backgrounds “are processed through to interview stage, but then held until recruitment is opened for everyone”.*

*It adds: “Enabling people from an ethnic minority background to apply early does not give them an advantage in the application process, it simply provides us with more opportunity to attract talent from a pool of applicants who reflect the diverse communities we serve.”*

*The Telegraph has seen a document circulated last year to senior members of the force by the police officer, who has since left WYP, which details how the jobs for recruits were held back from white British candidates until ethnic minority candidates had been given time to apply.*

*According to the document, minority candidates were given months to register an interest and fill out applications. By contrast, some white candidates were given as little as 48 hours, he claims.*

*The force insists the preferable treatment given to ethnic minority candidates is conducted in accordance with equality laws.*

*But a senior employment lawyer, who did not wish to be named, said that the recruitment policy strayed into positive discrimination that is practised in the US but prohibited in the UK.* 

*The legal expert said delaying the opening of recruitment for white people was a grey area in law that had not been tested and may not be a “proportionate” response to the problem of recruiting ethnic minority officers to the force.*

*The whistleblower voiced concern that the force was breaking the law in its attempts to boost diversity, also claiming ethnic minority candidates were being coached through the application process, including interviews.*

*Minority candidates who express interest in a job via email are assigned police officers from the force’s Positive Action Team (PAT), who mentor them through recruitment. Such steps are not illegal and can be commonplace across different sectors.*

*But the document seen by The Telegraph claims that PAT officers also conduct the interviews and that, in a three-month period, not a single ethnic minority applicant failed the recruitment process.*

*Police officers who had worked inside the force’s recruitment department told The Telegraph that entry-level vacancies for new constables and detectives were marked internally with an H, meaning Hidden, on the force’s computer system.*

*That meant the jobs were at that stage only open to ethnic minority candidates. They would become open to white British candidates at a much later stage in the process.*

*The former officer who wrote the internal document told The Telegraph: “The use of hidden vacancies marked on the internal computer systems was intended to ensure non-white people apply. You can’t see these jobs online. You can only know about them after you’ve been emailed by the Positive Action Team.”*

*The whistleblower said that when he raised concerns with senior management, he was warned off. “I was pulled in by supervisors a couple of days later and told ‘do what you are told’,” he said.*

*The whistleblower said he had examined recruitment over a 15-month period, focusing on vacancies for police constable entry programmes for uniform officers and detectives.*

*In the 489 days between June 2022 and October 2023 that he analysed, vacancies were available for ethnic minority candidates for 446 days. In comparison, his analysis showed that white British candidates only had 99 days available for applicants to apply for entry-level policing jobs.*

*He said that for one vacancy window for entries for the police constable degree apprenticeship – open to applicants without a degree – white British candidates were given just two days in December 2022 to submit an application.*

*He also claimed that, over three months during the summer of 2022, no ethnic minority candidates failed the interview process. He claimed approximately 100 such applicants passed their interviews in that timeframe, although some failed physical tests or the vetting process.*

*Candidates put forward by the PAT who failed the assessment were not rejected but instead “put on hold” and invited to the next available assessment to be appraised a second time, he claimed.*

*He added that WYP’s insistence that positive action was not used in the interview process was false, claiming to have “personally witnessed” members of the PAT “greeting candidates with unprofessional hand clasps and hugs and heard them tell candidates on numerous occasions words to the effect of ‘don’t worry, you’ve already passed and this is just a formality’.”*

*In his document, the whistleblower claimed: “I have several examples of direct dishonest, fraudulent and incompetent actions by candidates that PAT have not only turned a blind eye to, but often defended in order to hit their figures.”*

*Under WYP’s recruitment system, candidates apply online when the window is open to do so. Dozens of jobs are available at each intake.*

*The whistleblower told The Telegraph he was told to begin processing ethnic minority candidates before the window for white British applicants had even been opened.* 

*WYP has repeatedly insisted that no ethnic minority candidate can be interviewed before the general application has gone out. But the whistleblower alleged that while that was strictly correct, “there can be a PAT candidate shortlisted, sifted, assessed and invited to an interview before white candidates can even apply”.*

*A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “The most recent census found that 23 per cent of people in West Yorkshire identified as being from an ethnic minority background. Our current police officer representation from ethnic minority backgrounds is around nine per cent. To address this under-representation, we use Positive Action under the Equality Act 2010.*

*“Our use of this was recently reviewed by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services in an Activism and Impartiality inspection, and no issues were identified.*

*“Positive Action allows people from under-represented groups who express an interest in joining the force to complete an application, which is then held on file until a recruitment window is opened.*

*“No interviews are held until the window is officially opened to all candidates.”*

West Yorkshire Police blocks white applicants to boost diversity