Surrey Police Requires Officers to Write 500-Word Essays on Racism as Part of Mandatory Diversity Training

Surrey Police officers must write 500-word personal essays detailing their reactions to the force's view on racism and their commitment to change as part of mandatory diversity training. Employees also attend DEI lessons funded by British taxpayers.

The Surrey and Sussex forces anti-racism statement recognizes that black and dual heritage communities experience disadvantages and barriers from the police service.

It commits the forces to move at pace to build capacity, capability and awareness to be anti-racist, to interrogate why disadvantages exist, to understand community trauma and to recognize the burden on those with lived experience. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp described the equality classes as a catastrophic waste of money.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy called for the abolition of the public sector equality duty and said much DEI training on unconscious bias, gender or institutional racism is pure left-wing ideology.

He urged a culture change across the police and justice system and the abolition of DEI officers. A Surrey Police spokesman said foundation training includes lessons on culture and inclusion and on hate crime as guided by the College of Policing curriculum.

The spokesman added that the force does not instruct officers on recording non-crime hate incidents, noting a national announcement in March 2026 that the current system will be replaced.

The requirements come after the murder of 18-year-old university student Mr Nowak by Vickrum Digwa. Two officers from the responding force are alleged to have failed to recognize that Mr Nowak needed immediate medical attention. After Digwa's sentencing, officers from the force claimed in a survey they felt controlled and pressured after mandatory diversity training.