§ Lord Ouseleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What measures have been taken over the past two years to tackle racism in the Prison Service in England and Wales; and whether they consider that these have been sufficient [HL5988]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Falconer of Thoroton):During the past two years the Prison Service has been taking forward a significant programme of work to tackle racism. The programme, known as RESPOND, was launched in late September 1999 by the director general and the Prison Service's first race equality adviser. It aims to deliver improved race relations through the implementation of five objectives: developing and supporting minority ethnic staff; confronting harassment and discrimination; ensuring fairness in appraisal and selection; ensuring equal opportunities for minority ethnic prisoners; recruiting minority ethnic staff.
Among the measures introduced are new instructions to raise the standard of investigations into complaints by both staff and prisoners; the introduction into selection procedures for recruitment and promotion of an assessment of candidates' abilities to recognise and challenge inappropriate remarks; the launch of the RESPECT support network for minority ethnic staff in 2001 attended by 1,500 delegates; the allocation of £400,000 to RESPECT to enable it to establish a countrywide network of branches, a confidential telephone helpline and other support structures; the introduction of four new racially aggravated offences into the prisoner discipline manual; keeping regime interventions and activities under continuing review from the standpoint of diversity; the development and delivery of a new package of diversity training for all staff; and sponsorship and attendance at a wide range of minority ethnic community and recruitment events which have supported the Prison Service's success in increasing minority ethnic recruitment. The proportion of minority ethnic staff employed by the Prison Service has risen from 3.2 per cent in 1999–2000 to 4.9 per cent in 2001–02. The service has also introduced a ban on membership by staff of racist organisations.
While the Prison Service can point to a number of tangible successes over the past two years, it recognises that more needs to be done and will continue developing the programme of work that is already in place. To this end, the director general continues to seek the assistance of outside experts and communities to provide constructive criticism of Prison Service policy and practice.
§ Lord Ouseleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Prison Service in England and Wales's race equality scheme has been sufficient to meet its obligations in accordance with the new duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000; and [HL5989] 108WA Whether there are any actions which the Prison Service in England and Wales has failed to pursue over the past two years to meet its obligations under the Race Relations Act; if so, what those actions were and why they were not pursued. [HL5990]
§ Lord Falconer of Thoroton:The Prison Service's race equality scheme involves an initial assessment of all those activities relevant to the Act. Policy leads and managers have been reminded of their duty to consider the impact of policy development on people from different racial groups and of the circumstances when consultation may be necessary to avoid adverse disproportionate impact on those from minority ethnic groups.
Managers are required to monitor the impact of their policies to ensure that local race relations management teams develop strategies, monitor performance and ensure the implementation of the national race relations policy.
Results of assessments under the scheme will be published in the Prison Service annual reports and accounts; the Home Secretary's Race Equality Employment Targets Annual Progress Report; Home Office Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System; and on the Prison Service website.
To meet its specific employment duties, the Prison Service will continue to publish information on the ethnicity of staff, staff promotions and staff leavers and will publish the results of its monitoring of the performance management system. Procedures will be developed to monitor the ethnicity data relating to applicants for employment and promotion, staff training, grievance and disciplinary procedures.
Her Majesty's Prison Service seeks to fulfil all its obligations under the Race Relations Act. In recognising the service's previous shortcomings in the effective practice and management of race equality, the director general has publicly acknowledged that the service is institutionally racist. A programme of action is in hand to address problems identified at Brixton prison and elsewhere across the service by the service's race equality adviser. For example, the complaints procedures for prisoners and staff have been modified to reduce the time delay to respond to grievances; £750,000 has been invested to modernise equality training of all governing governors, policy leaders, the Prison Service management board, area managers and all race relations and equal opportunity officers in prisons.
The director general has introduced a ban on recruiting members of racist organisations, and staff whose behaviour has been unacceptable have been dismissed.
Two years ago the director general invited the Commission for Racial Equality to assist the Prison Service in its efforts to fight racism. The CRE is approaching the end of a formal investigation. The director general awaits its findings, which he hopes will, among other matters, assist him to identify any areas which require further action.