Police

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many police officers there are in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, broken down by (a) sex and (b) religious belief. (185676)

The figures shown in the following table are as at 1 February 2008 and relate to regular officers only.

*Regular officers as at 1 February 2008*
	Number	Percentage
Total number of Regular Officers	7,402	—

Gender
Male	5,771	77.97
Female	1,631	22.03

Community background¹
Protestant	5,460	73.76
Catholic	1,753	23.68
Not Determined	189	2.56
¹ The PSNI currently meets statutory monitoring obligations in line with the Fair Employment and Treatment Order (NT) 1998, the Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations (NI) 1999 and the Police (NI) Act 2000, by monitoring community background. The PSNI holds data on members who are members of the Roman Catholic community, the Protestant community and on those who belong to neither community. The PSNI does not currently monitor beyond these categories.

We remain on track to reach our target of 30 per cent. Catholic composition within PSNI regulars by March 2011.

Volume 472: debated on Wednesday 20 February 2008