§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many racially motivated crimes in the Greater London area have been reported during 1997; and if he will make a statement. [21888]
§ Mr. MichaelRacial incidents figures are submitted by each police force to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary at the end of each financial year. The incidents are recorded under 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".Precise figures for the Greater London area are not available because that area is not exactly coterminous with police force areas. However, the number of racial incidents recorded by the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police during 1996–97 is 5,631. This is higher than the 1995–96 figure (5,013), which reflects a general increase in the number of racial incidents recorded by the police in England and Wales.
It is difficult to be precise about the extent to which rising figures may be partly due to increasing willingness among ethnic minority communities to report these incidents and an increasing confidence that the police service take these matters seriously. Police forces are also taking steps to increase the reporting rate of racial incidents to derive a better picture of the type of incidents taking place, and to discover when and where they are taking place and on whom. Such developments are also likely to be influencing both public confidence and the number of offences reported.