HC Deb 31 July 1998 vol 317 cc835-6W
Mr. Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how he plans to develop better relationships between the police and(a) inner city and (b) ethnic minority communities. [53963]

Mr. Michael

The Government are committed to developing better relationships between the police and all sections of the society they serve. My right hon. Friend gave his full personal endorsement to the thematic report on Police Community and Race Relations, published by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) last October.

The report concluded that, although much work had been done by police forces in this area, performance was patchy and further steps needed to be taken to ensure that racism and discrimination were eliminated.

The main recommendations of the report were that forces should: publicly re-affirm their commitment to investing in good community and race relations as a core function of policing; give a higher priority to dealing with neighbourhood incidents and anti-social behaviour; clearly state that they regard the behaviour of officers who show racial or other prejudice in their behaviour and language as completely unacceptable; continue to attract minority ethnic recruits and retain them; and consider a community and race relations audit to identify areas needing improvement. The report also recommended that training in community and race relations should be given greater emphasis, and that priority should initially be targeted towards first line supervision.

In order to co-ordinate the implementation of the report, a working group has been set up under Home Office chairmanship, on which the Association of Chief Police Officers, HMIC, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Black Police Associations are represented. A key part of the work to follow up the report will be undertaken by HMIC in the autumn. All forces will be asked to report on the progress they have made on the issues raised in the report and a further inspection will be undertaken of 15 forces.

The Home Office is currently tendering for a new contract to provide independent specialist support to the police service in community and race relations training. The new contract will contain two elements: integration of community and race relations throughout the national curriculum of police training; and support and training to individual forces to place community and race relations firmly within operational policing. One of the ways in which a better relationship can be developed between the police and the community will be through the involvement of the community in the needs analysis, the implementation and the evaluation of this new training strategy.

On 24 July, the Home Office submitted written evidence to the Inquiry into matters arising from the death of Stephen Lawrence. That evidence gives a fuller account of work in progress or planned to improve relations between the police and the communities they serve. That evidence is available in the Library.