The Police National Sift: How the SJT and Behavioural Styles Questionnaire Work
The College of Policing national sift in 2026: the five-point SJT scale, the seven-point questionnaire and its rankings, the 30th percentile line and resits.
If you have applied to be a police officer in England or Wales, the first assessment you meet after the application form is the national sift. It is short, untimed and taken at home, and it filters out roughly one applicant in five. Most of what you will find about it online describes an older process, so this is what the College of Policing says about it now.
Since March 2026, every force uses the same sift
On 17 March 2026 the College announced a change to the Police Regulations that fixes four stages for police constable recruitment in every force in England and Wales: a national application form, online sifting tests of judgement and behaviours, the online assessment process, and a face-to-face force interview. Before that, forces could run their own sift instead. Now the national sift is the stage-two gate whether you are applying through the degree apprenticeship, the degree holder entry programme, the entry programme or after a policing degree. The College also describes it as the national standard for special constable recruitment.
It is not used in Scotland. Police Scotland runs its own Standard Entrance Test, which is a different assessment with different content.
The SJT scale has two halves, and most mistakes come from missing that
Each scenario describes something a police constable could face, followed by four possible actions. You rate every action on its own, on a five-point scale the College defines word for word:
- Counterproductive: an inappropriate action that will have a negative impact or make the situation worse.
- Ineffective: a poor action which will not help to resolve the situation.
- Slightly effective: an action that will have a small positive impact on the situation.
- Effective: a reasonable action that will help to resolve the situation.
- Very effective: one of the best actions that could be taken to resolve the situation.
Read those again and count. Three of the five points mean the action helps; only two mean it does not. Candidates who have practised on a scale with a neutral middle treat Slightly effective as "neither here nor there", and it is not: it is a positive rating. The most useful habit you can build is to decide first which half an action belongs in, and only then choose the point within that half.
A worked example, written for this article rather than taken from the test. You are on foot patrol when an elderly man approaches you, visibly distressed. He says his wallet has been stolen but cannot remember where he last had it, and keeps repeating that he needs to get home to take his medication. People at a nearby bus stop are watching.
- Moving with him to a quieter spot, reassuring him and checking whether he needs urgent help with his medication before asking about the wallet is Very effective: it deals with the most pressing need first and adapts to the state he is in.
- Asking the people at the bus stop whether anyone saw what happened is Slightly effective: it could produce information, but it skips his welfare and discusses his situation in public.
- Taking his name and address and telling him he can report the loss online once he is home is Ineffective: harmless, but it does nothing about his welfare or the theft.
- Telling him there is little the police can do without knowing where he lost it is Counterproductive: it dismisses a vulnerable person and leaves him alone and distressed.
Notice what separates the bottom two. Ineffective does nothing useful; Counterproductive makes things worse. Actions that dismiss someone vulnerable, cover up a mistake, promise something you cannot deliver or step outside your role are the ones the key tends to put at the very bottom, and rating one of those as helpful is the costliest error on this scale.
The scenarios are keyed to the six competencies of the College’s 2024 competency and values framework at practitioner level: we analyse critically, we are innovative and open-minded, we take ownership, we are emotionally aware, we collaborate, and we support and inspire. You do not need to know any law or procedure, and the College says so. What helps is knowing what the framework describes as good practice: listening, checking the facts, involving the right people and keeping others updated usually rate above enforcing or escalating first.
The questionnaire counts, and it can make you choose
The behavioural styles questionnaire asks how you typically behave at work. Each statement is rated from 1 Completely disagree to 7 Completely agree. It covers nine areas: the six competencies above plus three values, courage, respect and empathy, and public service. The 2016 values of integrity, impartiality and transparency are no longer on the list.
Two things about it surprise people. The first is that it counts. Many personality-style questionnaires are background information; this one is combined with your SJT into the score that decides whether you pass. The second is the ranking step. Depending on your responses, the College says, you may be asked to pick the statement most like you from three, and then the more like you of the remaining two on the next screen. The statements in a ranking are all good things to be, which is the point: it makes you say which quality you really lead with.
The College does not publish what triggers a ranking or how the questionnaire is scored. Its advice is blunt: the key is honesty, and you should think about how you genuinely behave at work rather than how you think you should respond. Practically, that means picking one reference period, such as the last year of work, study or volunteering, and answering every statement about it; treating somewhat, strongly and completely as three different claims; and reading each statement to the end, because some are worded the other way round.
The line is the 30th percentile of the combined score
There is no pass mark in the sense of a number of correct answers. The two exercises are combined, and the total is compared with a group of applicants to policing roles as a percentile. In a 2022 freedom of information response the College said the standard was "currently set as 30% (combined test score)", described that as a typically recommended level for screening assessments, and said cut scores are set on the combined score rather than per test. Its figures to July 2022 show about 81% of candidates meeting the standard.
Two consequences follow. A weak SJT cannot be rescued by a questionnaire you have tried to inflate, and a strong SJT gives you room. And because the line is relative, it moves with the applicant field: the aim is to be comfortably inside the group that passes, not near its edge. The College has not published a newer figure since the 2026 contract renewal, so treat the 30th percentile as the last published line rather than a guarantee.
You will be told by email whether you met the standard, and, unlike in 2022, you now receive a personalised feedback report with your score.
What the College no longer says: item counts and timings
Up to October 2024 the College’s guidance said 15 SJT scenarios in about 30 minutes and 80 questionnaire statements in about 20. The 2026 guidance gives no counts and raises the SJT estimate to about 45 minutes, which suggests the SJT may now be longer. The College’s own reasonable adjustments guide, updated in August 2026, gives about 20 minutes for the SJT and 30 for the questionnaire instead. Since neither exercise is timed, none of this changes how you should work: steadily, with a fresh read of each scenario. The platform opens with a practice area you can use once or skip, and you can pause and return within your seven-day window.
Where most preparation material is out of date
Police recruitment in England and Wales has changed three times in six years, and the preparation market has not kept up. Before buying anything, check it against this list:
- Numerical and verbal reasoning tests belonged to the SEARCH assessment centre, which the online assessment process replaced in May 2020. You will not sit them.
- A 12-question SJT with a two-hour window used to sit inside the online assessment process. It had gone by 2024.
- A four-point "efficient" scale is not the College’s scale. The current scale is the five points above.
- Integrity, impartiality and transparency are the 2016 values. The 2024 framework, which forces had to adopt by May 2025, replaced them.
After the sift
Pass, and the next stage is the online assessment process: a recorded interview of five questions, a written exercise and a briefing exercise, all marked by trained assessors against the framework. After that comes a face-to-face force interview, then fitness, medical and vetting checks. Fail, and you can resit from three months after the date you completed the sift, at most twice in 12 months, retaking both exercises.
Our national sift practice runs the SJT on the College’s scale with its definitions on screen and the questionnaire with ranking screens, and the feedback says which of your habits cost you marks. If you are wondering whether any of it can be gamed, the national sift cheating guide explains why the questionnaire’s rankings make that a poor bet.