§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many serving members of the full-time Police Service of Northern Ireland Reserve have passed entrance examinations for full-time posts in the PSNI and have not been appointed because of restrictions arising from 50:50 appointment legislation. [152460]
§ Jane KennedyFrom competitions 1 to 4, 1,706 non-Catholic and 604 Catholic applicants have qualified for appointment to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Of these, 530 of each community background have been appointed. Of the qualified Catholic candidates, all were offered appointment, but some withdrew in the time intervening between qualification for appointment and the time of appointment.
Appointments from competition 5 have started, although the pool is not yet finalised, and the pool for competition 6 is not expected to be ready until April this year.
The information on the number of candidates who have passed the entrance examinations (i.e. have been successful in becoming qualified candidates and reaching the merit pool) more than once is taking some time to collate. As soon as the figures are available, they will be forwarded.