Affirmative Action in … Action! By Mrs Vera West
Thanks to our London correspondent Richard Miller for sending me this little item of woke absurdity of the gender agenda. The British Transport Police once required police to be able to pass the so-called bleep test. This required them being able to run up and down a 15-metre track for three minutes 35 seconds. It was not an unreasonable request, anymore than fire fighters being able to carry a person from a burning building. Police would often be required to chase suspects, and this level of endurance is therefore necessary. Or, so one would have thought.
But women often failed the endurance test. So, rather than seeing this as so much the worst for women, who need to lose some weight and step up their fitness levels, it is … wait for it, drum roll … discrimination against female offices! Chalk up another woke victory to the gender agenda, and another fall in the standard of public safety.
"A police force has come under fire after scrapping compulsory fitness tests on the grounds they are unfair on women.
British Transport Police said female officers were suffering 'indirect discrimination' from doing a so-called bleep test – in which they have to run up and down a 15-metre track for three minutes 35 seconds – because they were far more likely to fail than men.
Now only new recruits and specialists, including dog handlers and armed officers, are required to pass a fitness test.
BTP, whose 3,000 officers patrol railway stations across Britain, said the move had meant 50 people who had failed the test had been allowed back on the front line.
But last night critics said that officers had to be in shape.
One serving officer told The Mail on Sunday: 'Members of the public call the police expecting officers capable of doing the job of protecting them.
'It's embarrassing to see colleagues who can barely do up their stab vest, and knowing they might not even be able to manage a two-minute jog is not just concerning but dangerous.'
For the past decade, all police officers have been required to take part in the annual Job Related Fitness Test (JRFT). Those who repeatedly fail to reach the required standard can be put on light duties or back-office work.
But there have been complaints that the so-called bleep test is too demanding, and may discriminate against older PCs and women.
It can be revealed today that BTP has become the first force to drop the test for all officers.
It had said in a 2021 report on the gender pay gap that it had concerns about the impact the test has 'on women, particularly those going through menopause'.
Now the force has told the MoS: 'We stopped doing JRFT in August 2022. This test was undertaken before officers were allowed to undertake personal safety training. It only remains in place for new recruits and those in specialist roles.'
It said its figures show that as of June 2022, 8 per cent of female officers (42) had failed the test compared with 1.9 per cent of men (45).
Of the 87 test failures, 86 per cent (75) were over 35 years old and 32 per cent (28) were above 50.
Rachael Etebar, director of people and culture at the force, said that since the removal of the JRFT 'there has been no rise in injuries and it has meant we have returned 50 officers back to the frontline whilst avoiding any indirect discrimination'.
The force's 'union', the BTP Federation, had been calling for the test to be scrapped. Its chairman Stuart Cowan said: 'We asked the force to consider the role of the fitness test and we welcome the pragmatic approach they have taken.'
Chief constables across the UK have commissioned research into new fitness standards but are yet to decide what they should be.
Liberal Democrat MP and former police officer Wendy Chamberlain said: 'It is clear that the National Police Chiefs Council needs to move forward with its review of fitness standard tests so the public can be confident that officers are working to the same standard across the country.'"
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