Police recruitment standards

Tom Winsor's report into the police force was released yesterday. There are many recommendations, but one of them seems eminently sensible.

A few weeks ago I was researching the police recruitment process for a story. I was alarmed to come across their 'Numerical Reasoning Test'. Nottinghamshire Police give an example paper (and laughably states that calculators are not required):


TEST 3  Working with numbers (to be done without using a
calculator)
1. How much will five tins of soup cost at 55p a tin?
   A           B          C           D        E
£2.25     £2.55    £2.60    £2.75    £2.95

2. A person saves £35 in four weeks. At this rate how much will have been
saved in one year?
   A           B          C           D        E
£200       £250    £355      £420     £455

3. What is the total cost of a journey when £1.65 is spent on bus-fares and
an Underground ticket costs £2.50?
   A           B          C           D        E
£3.15     £3.60     £3.95    £4.05    £4.15

4. What is the average number of people per car, when six cars carry
thirty people?
   A           B          C           D        E
4.5           5.0        5.5       6.0      6.5

5. If shopping items cost £12.64, how much money remains out of £20?
   A           B          C           D        E
£6.36      £6.63    £7.36    £7.46    £7.63


The candidate gets twelve minutes to get the correct multiple-choice answers. I would think that these standards need increasing - these tests are farcically simple.

At a time when nurses are expected to have degrees, is this really the minimum standard we need for police officers?