Addressing gender imbalance
Under Section 48 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 the Policing Board is responsible for developing an action plan to monitor the number of females in PSNI, its support staff, and the Policing Board’s staff.
In October 2004 the Gender Action Plan (GAP) was developed by PSNI and jointly launched by PSNI and the Policing Board. The plan, designed to address gender imbalance in both civilian support staff and police officers identified six key areas where PSNI intend to focus in order to address gender based retention and promotion issues within PSNI.
Progress is monitored by the Human Resources Committee every six months.The current percentage of female officers in PSNI is 21%, an increase of 9.4% since 2001.