Police representatives have said they are "sceptical" about plans to recruit officers from abroad to boost the Metropolitan Police's quota from ethnic minorities.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens told The Times newspaper's on Tuesday: "I am asking our recruitment people to look at recruiting abroad and this would be similar to the NHS recruitment of medical staff and nurses.''

However, police officer representatives expressed scepticism at the idea and a Met spokesman on Wednesday said current laws meant there could be no plans at present to implement such recruitment.

The spokeman added that Sir John was engaging in ''blue sky thinking'' regarding the plans.

Practical experience

The recruitment could only take place if and when the Police Reform Bill became law, the spokesman said.

''We will react to circumstances if the law does change,'' he said.

''Clearly, officers will need some experience in the UK to be practical officers.''

We would be looking at Commonwealth countries and use short-term contract

Sir John Stevens, Metropolitan Police Commissioner

In his Times interview, Sir John said he needed another 7,000 officers to take the force up to 35,000 and that the plan would help increase the proportion of ethnic officers.

"We would be looking at Commonwealth countries and use short-term contracts," Sir John said.

Ethnic targets

The government has said that 25% of the Met's workforce should come from ethnic minorities by 2010.

Ethnic minorities currently make up about 5% of the Met's total workforce.

If Sir John is to meet both his workforce target for the force of 35,000 officers and the government's plans for ethnic composition, almost all of the extra 7,000 officers would have to be from a minority ethnic group.

Rick Naylor, vice-president of the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales, said it would be ''imaginative'' but ''ambitious'' to recruit most of them from overseas.

More effort should be made to recruit from ethnic communities in Britain

Rick Naylor, vice-president Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales

''More effort should be made to recruit from ethnic communities in Britain and on recruitment conditions as a whole,'' Mr Naylor said.

''All the UK forces would welcome more ethnic officers.''

He said the quality of overseas recruits would not be a problem if they underwent the same procedures as UK-based recruits.

But he added: ''What would be a problem would be that a policeman from, say, Bangladesh wouldn't have any background in the UK or London in particular.

"You have to have some cultural awareness.''

Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Glen Smyth echoed Mr Naylor, questioning the recruitment of ''people who have got little contact with what it's like to live and work'' in UK communities.

Improved visibility

Sir John said increasing the workforce would allow the police to do "everything we need".

The public would see "a tremendous improvement of police visibility on the streets," he said.

The Met said that any foreign recruits would have to pass the same literacy, numeracy, security, psychological, medical and fitness tests as domestic recruits.