Our Race Action Plan

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The Police Race Action Plan is a coordinated effort across every police force in England and Wales to improve trust and confidence in policing among Black communities.

Every Chief Constable signed up to support the plan, which was published in 2022, and achieve its objectives. This was the first time there was a coordinated, unified response across policing to making the vital improvements envisaged under the plan.

The plan sets out the changes policing intends to achieve to improve outcomes for Black people who work within or interact with policing. It looks at how policing works and challenges the policies, procedures, operations and cultures in policing where racism, bias and discrimination exist, so that collectively we can create a police service that is anti-racist.

The plan was developed jointly by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), working in collaboration with Black communities and partners.

What is the progress of the national Police Race Action Plan so far?

In 2025, a Police Race Action Plan – Update Report was published to highlight the significant progress made so far and outline future direction.

You can find an overview of this progress – including key products that have been delivered, here: Police Race Action Plan - Update Report

What is Merseyside Police doing to support the plan?

One of the main areas of focus currently is the completion of the national PRAP ‘maturity matrix’, a tool used to measure, assess, and account for forces’ progress against the PRAP. It uses both quantitative (data-driven) performance measures and qualitative narrative to assess our work. This will be ready for publication at the end of September 2026.

Since the launch in 2022, Merseyside Police has remained committed to delivering the Race Action Plan with the development of four workstreams which have evolved over the past four years. The current workstreams are as follows:

The updates on each of these four workstreams are outlined below:

This workstream aims to deliver a police service that is representative of Black people and supports its Black officers, staff and volunteers. It deals with issues such as recruitment, career progression and misconduct.

We take a constant review of recruitment and promotion processes, looking at data to explore where disparities occur and inputting ‘Positive Action’ support and training interventions.
Thanks to investment from our Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Emily Spurrell, the force worked with local training provider, the Anthony Walker Foundation (AWF) to deliver Anti-racism training forcewide. The training was designed to ensure all officers and staff have a better understanding of the origins of racism, the impact of systemic racism in UK society and how this affects the relationship between the Black community and policing. The first sessions started at the end of April 2023 and were completed in January 2026.
All progress under the PRAP is shared and consulted with members of the Merseyside Police FORE (Focus on Race and Ethnicity) Network, meaning all work is valued and is influenced by lived experience.

This workstream aims to deliver a police service that is fair, respectful, and equitable in its actions towards Black people. It deals with issues such as stop and search, use of force and new policing technology.

We regularly work with the Merseyside Independent Advisory Group (MIAG) to review our use of Stop and Search. The MIAG is a diverse group of people and acts as a critical friend to the force, ensuring we police with legitimacy and professionalism and we have dialogue and engagement with our communities.
We have also further developed our Public Scrutiny Panels to include use of force and to review police complaints and we are proud to be one of the leading forces in embracing this type of open feedback from our communities. Body-worn video of the encounters is shared as part of the review, any learning for the force or individual officers is fed back into the force to support us in improving public trust and confidence.

This workstream aims to deliver a police service that routinely involves Black people in its governance. It deals with issues such as community engagement and independent scrutiny.

Since the launch of the plan in 2022, a host of representative community members were brought together to form a ‘Race Action Plan Stakeholder Group’. Quarterly meetings, each held in a different community location, provide a direct way to keep members up-to-date on developments and enable them to give informed and constructive feedback, which has been key.
Between 2024 and 2025, a PRAP scrutiny committee made up of external community members was formed to provide a closer critical eye on our progress and utilise their lived experience to guide future decision-making.
In addition to the MIAG, the force has also developed a YIAG (Youth Independent Advisory Group) to enable young people and underrepresented groups to have a stronger voice on the issues affecting their lives and provide a platform for young people to influence the future of policing and crime prevention in their local areas.

This workstream aims to deliver a police service that protects Black people from crime and seeks justice for Black victims. It deals with areas such as violence against women and girls, adultification bias and services for victims of crime.

Within each of the four policing areas of Merseyside, each will have its own Hate Crime coordinator who will help ensure a consistent and professional police response through the gathering of intelligence, improving understanding and testing new investigative methods.
In order to improve the quality of service for victims, new guidance has been developed that will improve crime data integrity, as well as the quality and accuracy of compliance.

How can you support our Race Action Plan?

If you would like to share your views with the National Police Chiefs’ Council team who are leading the Police Race Action Plan, or ask questions or obtain information, you can do so by emailing: [email protected]

Alternatively, you may wish to share your views by joining the Merseyside Independent Advisory Group (MIAG).

The MIAG is made up of a variety of community members, each with an interest or background in something that might resonate with you. The MIAG advises police on an array of matters, including:

Stop and Search practices and scrutiny panels
Hate crime statistics
Critical incidents
Wider concerns raised in the local area
Specific police training (Hydra)

They also provide a critical eye over policing in order to ensure that officers and staff continue to serve and protect the public and operate transparently.

To find out more information about the MIAG, please email: [email protected] stating that you have particular interest in the Police Race Action Plan.