§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress is being made towards the creation of a sufficiently large and well-trained police service in Kosovo. [HL1444]
§ Baroness Scotland of AsthalGood progress has been made so far. Three hundred and forty-nine recruits have graduated from the OSCE Police School and a further 250 recruits are currently undertaking their training. Following their academic training, each recruit will receive a further 17 weeks of field training with an UNMIK police officer, and an additional 80 hours of advanced classroom training. Having successfully completed the three phases of instruction, the recruit is eligible for certification and independent assignment.
The OSCE training mandate is to develop and deliver democratically oriented, basic police training for approximately 3,500 locally recruited students within the next 16 months. On completion of the refurbishment of the Police School, it is anticipated that 500 students will be housed and trained at the same time.