§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if his Department will begin to collect and monitor data on the ethnic origins of complainants in the statistics they gather from the police forces in the United Kingdom in order to assess the effectiveness of the police complaints system;
(2) what is his policy in respect of the case for the Police Complaints Authority to gather data on the ethnic origins of complainants in cases that it has dealt with.
§ Mr. Peter LloydNo central data are currently collected on complainants since they are not always the aggrieved party and sometimes have no direct involvement in the complaint. Complaints of racially discriminatory behaviour accounted for less than 1 per cent. of all complaints made against the police in 1989, both in the Metropolitan police district and elsewhere in England and Wales.
175WThe Police Complaints Authority does not seek personal data of any kind from police forces for statistical purposes, nor has it specific powers to do so. I understand, however, that the authority intends to start publishing details of the number of complaints of racially discriminatory behaviour in its annual report for 1990.