§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to change the method of recording racial incidents in order to record more accurately(a) the nature of incident, (b) the local distribution and (c) the ethnic origin of the victim or the offender. [39958]
§ Mr. MichaelAt present, individual forces submit their racial incidents figures to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary at the end of each financial year on the basis of the Association of Chief Police Officers definition of a racial incident
Any incident in which it appears to the reporting or investigating officer that the complaint involves an element of racial motivation, or any incident which includes an allegation of racial motivation made by any person".The figures are not broken down into the nature of the incidents, the local distribution or the ethnic origin of the victim or offender. However, some forces hold such information locally.
The Association of Chief Police Officers have recently published a Good Practice Guide for the Police Response to Racial Incidents which advises police forces that it is essential to keep an accurate record of the number and types of racial incidents that are reported to ensure that management information is available to inform resource deployment and to monitor trends. It also advises that information should be shared with other local partnership agencies.
The Home Office will, however, look at the way in which the racial incidents figures are submitted centrally and will consider ways for improving the recording of information in consultation with the police.