Race and Ethnicity Action Plan 2025 - 2030

About our Race and Ethnicity Action Plan 

On Thursday 7 August 2025 we launched our Race and Ethnicity Action Plan at an event in Belfast attended by over 200 senior police, partners and community members and leaders.

Speaking at the launch, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said “This plan represents our ongoing commitment to our ethnic minority communities ensuring that everyone in Northern Ireland feels safe, supported and respected. We recognise the importance of listening to all communities and working together to build a policing service that truly reflects the diversity of the society we serve.”

“Recent events have demonstrated the need for decisive action and clear leadership to stamp out racism which clearly exists in communities in Northern Ireland.  We are confident this action plan will drive the work of the Police Service and help us to work more effectively with ethnic minority communities and partners”. 

“The Race and Ethnicity Action Plan aligns with PSNI’s broader equality, diversity and inclusivity and our work through our ‘Policing with the Community’ vision, ensuring that tangible actions to address race and ethnicity are embedded across all areas of policing.”

“PSNI is committed to regular updates on the progress of the plan and to continuing open dialogue with ethnic minority communities to ensure it meets their needs”.

What is the Race & Ethnicity Action Plan?

The Race & Ethnicity Action Plan sets out our clear commitment to building a service that is fair, inclusive, and trusted by everyone across Northern Ireland. It’s a five-year programme of work that focuses on how we recruit, develop, and support our people; how we deliver policing fairly and professionally; and how we build stronger relationships with all communities, particularly those from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The plan sets out five headline commitment statements as ambitions for the service to achieve:

1. We are committed to being an anti-racist Police Service.
2. We are committed to people from an ethnic minority background feeling safe, valued by and engaged in policing.
3. We are committed to officers and staff from an ethnic minority background feeling safe, valued, and who are treated fairly and equally in the workplace.
4. We are committed to being a Police Service that respects and is trusted by people from ethnic minority communities.
5. We are a Police Service committed to excellence in diversity, equality, representation and inclusivity.

The progress required to realise success in our commitments is based around five key workstreams:

1. Internal Culture and Inclusivity
2. Community Engagement and Relations
3. Professionalism, Powers, and Policies
4. Protection, Partnership, and Justice
5. Performance and Accountability

Each of these areas sets out specific, practical commitments to drive real change — and every officer and member of staff has a role to play.

Race and Ethnicity Action Plan Consultation

In October 2024, the Police Service of Northern Ireland undertook an eight-week public consultation for the ‘Race and Ethnicity Action Plan - Equality in Action, Delivering Effective and Trusted Policing for Ethnic Minority Communities, Officers and Staff’.

Feedback was received from a diverse range of individuals, stakeholders and partners via a number of methods including REaL events, surveys and online/postal returns. The feedback was analysed and used to shape the final version of the Race & Ethnicity Action Plan to ensure it represented the needs and concerns of our communities and those with lived experience of racial and ethnic inequality.

A Race and Ethnicity Action Plan Consultation Report outlining the full details of the consultation process, feedback received and resulting changes has been published.