§ Lorna FitzsimonsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken to ensure that police data on racial harassment and racially motivated crime are documented on the same basis by all police forces. [88911]
§ Mr. BoatengUntil recently, all forces recorded racial incidents 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".The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry recommended that these incidents are referred to as "racist incidents" and that a simpler and clearer definition should be used:
A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person".This was adopted by all police forces on 28 April 1999.
A breakdown of the number of racist incidents recorded by the police in each police area in 1997–98 is given in the Home Office publication "Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 1998", a copy of which is in the Library. The new definition will be incorporated into the Notes for Guidance 1999–2000 to forces on collecting this data.
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 introduced new offences for racial crime which came into force on 30 September 1998. These correspond to the existing main offences which deal with violence against the person (except those which carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment), criminal damage and offences of harassment. They relate to cases in which there was either racial motivation or any aggravating evidence of racial hostility in connection with the offence and provide the courts with higher maximum penalties to reflect the racial aspect to the crime. These are separate criminal offences in law and will be identified as such at all stages of the criminal justice system.
251WThe Association of Chief Police Officers issued a good practice guide on the police response to racial incidents in April 1998. The guide sets out clear policy and procedures for dealing with racist incidents. The guide has been reviewed and a new manual will be issued by December 1999.
The Association of Chief Police Officers has recently produced a report on the Reporting and Recording of Racist Incidents which identified the minimum data content that the police should collect on racist incidents, sets out a method for tracking them throughout the criminal justice system, and makes recommendations for future data collection and monitoring systems. This has been adopted by police forces in principle, subject to the Information Technology implications being looked at in further detail.
§ Lorna FitzsimonsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has take to ensure that the data gathered by local race relations councils under the Commission for Racial Equality on racial harassment are comparable and gathered in the same way. [88912]
§ Mr. BoatengLocal race equality councils are not required to record racist incidents and practice may vary.
The Government have accepted recommendations 15–17 of the Lawrence Inquiry which deal with the reporting of racist incidents by the police, local authorities and other relevant organisations. The Government are taking forward these recommendations through the Racist Incidents Standing Committee (RISC), on which the Commission for Racial Equality is represented.
RISC will develop a code of practice for use by all relevant agencies, including standard reporting and recording arrangements, by April 2000. It will be used to record race equality comments.