§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many racially motivated crimes were committed in the North Wales police area in(a) 1999, (b) 1994 and (c) 1997. [145392]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeInformation recorded centrally shows that the number of racially motivated incidents recorded by the police in North Wales for 1994–95 was three, for 1997–98 was 12 and for 1998–99 was 36. Information for 1999–2000 will be published on 18 January 2001 in "Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System", a copy of which will be placed in the Library. These are incidents recorded either 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.which applied until February 1999 or under the new simplified definition of a racist incident proposed by the Lawrence Inquiry which was adopted at that time:any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.Incidents included here are therefore wider than the normal definition of a crime in the crime statistics and include low level harassment.