THE Catholic church has called on Scottish police forces to conduct a Northern Ireland-style religious audit of their officers amid fears of sectarianism in the ranks.

Senior figures in the Catholic church say they have received complaints from members of the public who claim they have been victims of sectarian discrimination by the police. Police officers are also said to have claimed that they are being denied promotion because of a “stained glass ceiling” that bars Catholics from top jobs.

The call for an audit, which is backed by the anti-sectarian charity Nil By Mouth, was first proposed during a summit on sectarianism convened by Jack McConnell, the country’s first minister, earlier this month.

Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell, said: “Information on how successful Scotland is in creating police forces which reflect the communities they serve in terms of religion, ethnicity and age, should be made public in pursuance of the noble goal of truly representative police forces. The question of openness and transparency in the recruitment and promotion policies of public agencies is a matter of public interest.”

A senior church source added: “We have heard a huge number of allegations. One is that in some areas it can be difficult for Catholics to get into the police but the more common allegation is that they rarely rise above the level of sergeant. It raises the question: is there a stained glass ceiling?” In Northern Ireland, the

UK government has introduced reforms aimed at recruiting more Catholic police officers into the force after complaints that it was dominated by Protestants. In future 50% of new officers must be Catholic.

However, the reforms, drawn up by Chris Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, have angered both sides of Northern Ireland’s religious divide.

Catholics say they do not go far enough to achieve their goal of recruiting a large number of officers from their communities, while Protestants view them as an insult to officers who have risked their lives fighting terrorism.

The Catholic church says the police must ensure that Catholics are not under-represented in the Scottish force in the same way. It also argues that recruitment policies, which already ensure that officers are drawn from gay and ethnic minority communities, should also target Catholics.

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