§ Lord Dholakiaasked Her Majesty's Government:
What arrangements are in place to monitor the provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 on an ethnic basis. [HL1701]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Williams of Mostyn)As far as local crime reduction partnerships are concerned, Home Office guidance has emphasised the importance of measures to tackle racially motivated crime. Partnerships should actively encourage participation by ethnic minorities, and secondary legislation requires partnerships to invite at least one different racial group to participate in their work. As part of its work on the Lawrence report, the Home Office will be looking at the extent to which racist crime has been addressed in the strategies.
We are considering how monitoring arrangements for anti-social behaviour orders can include an ethnic breakdown. Guidance already recommends that local monitoring of the orders should include the defendant's ethnicity. The police have been asked to record incidents of racial harassment where the orders are used or considered, and the local authority has a duty to keep such records under the Race Relations Act 1976.
Research is in hand to monitor the effectiveness of the provisions in the Act on racially aggravated offences so that we can ensure that, where there is inter-communal violence, they are not used disproportionately against one group.
The evaluation of home detention curfew will be examining its impact on ethnic minorities.
The Youth Justice Board will be promoting good practice in collating and using ethnic monitoring information in the youth justice system.