Question
1. to confirm the total number of applicants from the 2025 civilian recruitment competition, if any, that have withdrawn from the competition to date due to personal circumstances and by gender, sexual identity/LGBQIA+, ethnicity, disability, religion and council area;
2. to confirm if police vetting processes have been completed in relation to the civilian recruitment competition and if so, the total number of applicants, if any, that have failed vetting and by gender, sexual identity/LGBQIA+, ethnicity, disability, religion and council area;
3. to confirm in relation to the civilian recruitment competition if all preemployment processes have been completed and if so, the total number of persons who have successfully completed all pre-employment processes and by gender, sexual identity/LGBQIA+, ethnicity, disability, religion and council area.
4. The number of persons further to the civilian recruitment competition that have been appointed to date, if any, and by gender, sexual identity/LGBQIA+, ethnicity, disability, religion and council area.
Answer
There were 583 applicants in January and 459 applicants in November. As at
December 3rd 2025, 38 candidates from our 2025 (January) Call Handler recruitment campaign have withdrawn. Equality analysis provided within the tables below. For further information, we launched a further Call Handler recruitment campaign in November 2025 – initial assessments are ongoing at present.
As at December 3rd 2025, 2 candidates from our 2025 (January) Call Handler recruitment campaign merit pool have failed the vetting stage. Due to the small numbers, it is not possible to provide an equality analysis.
As at December 3rd 2025, 45 candidates from our 2025 (January) Call Handler recruitment campaign merit pool have successfully completed all pre-employmentstages (Vetting, Health Assessment, Substance Misuse Test and Online Learning). Equality analysis provided within the tables below.
As at December 3rd 2025, 18 candidates from our 2025 (January) Call Handler
recruitment campaign have been appointed to date, with further Call Handler training courses planned for January, April and June 2026. Equality analysis provided within the tables below.
Equality Analysis with respect to Questions 1, 3 and 4
Colin McGrath MLA - SDLP