Race Relations (Amendment) Act – work in progress by the MPA

Report: 14
Date: 14 March 2002
By: Clerk

Summary

This report updates the Committee on the work in progress towards preparing the MPA's Race Equality Scheme.

A. Recommendation

1. Note and comment upon the progress towards preparing the MPA's Race Equality Scheme; and
2. Consider the proposed MPA's structure for dealing with equal opportunities.

B. Supporting information

1. The draft MPA outline Race Equality Scheme and MPS Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 Action Plan has been circulated to Members. These documents are still in the process of development, and are presented in draft for Members' information and comments. The Scheme is probably the most significant piece of race relations legislative requirement that impacts directly on the activities and performance of public bodies such as the MPA and MPS. Members of this Committee as well as the full Authority will need to be fully appraised of and engaged in influencing the content of the MPA Scheme which will include monitoring and performance indicators that it will be used to hold the MPS to account for its race relations performance. The MPS, under the Act, is required to produce its own separate scheme

2. Several actions have taken place since the last meeting of this Committee to progress the drafting of the MPA's Scheme:

1. A further meeting of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act Working Group (the Working Group) has taken place. The membership of the Group has extended to include a representative from the Association of Police Authorities who unfortunately was unable to attend the last meeting.
2. The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) is in regular attendance at the meetings and have been valuable in providing guidance and comments on the work undertaken by both the MPA and MPS.
3. The Working Group was able to consider in some detail the action plan.
4. Internally, the MPA senior managers and policy leads have been fully engaged in contributing to the development of the MPA scheme by contributing to meetings and providing information to meet specific requirements for the draft Action Plan.
5. Staff at all levels in the Secretariat have contributed to an equalities questionnaire which received a high rate of response. Copies of these will be made available to the Members of the Working Group.
6. Along with the close consultation between the MPA and the MPS in the drafting of their respective schemes there will be an initial joint consultation event with representatives from Race Equality Councils, on the draft Schemes, on 13 March. Feedback from the consultation event will enable further revisions to be made for consideration by the Working Group at its meeting in March. Details of the draft Scheme that will be presented to the meeting will be made available to all Members prior to that date.

Reporting and decision-making – timescale

4. This Committee does not have another formal meeting until 9 May 2002. This will be approximately three weeks before the finalised scheme is due to be published on 31 May 2002. The Scheme will need to be signed off by the full Authority at its meeting of 23 May.

5. In view of the fact that the Chairs of the Human Resources and Professional Standards and Performance Monitoring Committees are members of the Working Group, this Committee is asked to endorse the proposal that separate formal Committee reports about the draft Scheme do not need to be presented to these Committees prior to going to the full Authority on 23 May.

6. A programme of five meetings has been planned for the Working Group to give detailed consideration to the emerging outputs as officers work towards finalising the Scheme to meet the CRE's deadline of 31 May, 2002. This proposed Work Programme will be presented to the Working Group for its consideration on 22 March.

Outstanding issues

7. Two critical issues arising from the work progressed to date are: how the MPA will effectively mainstream its equal opportunities responsibilities into the review of the Committee structure; and, the corporate governance for monitoring the Authority's performance and practice on the requirements of the scheme as well as the broader equal opportunities responsibilities.

Mainstreaming equalities

a. It is planned that this will be addressed in a paper to be discussed by all Members at the Members' Awayday in April. It is therefore proposed that the decision arising from that meeting inform the information which will need to be included in the Scheme.

Corporate governance for Authority's equality performance

b(i). The current MPA Committee structure clearly identifies this Committee as having the lead responsibility for shaping, directing and influencing the Authority's corporate performance on equal opportunities.

(ii) There are, of course, specific responsibilities given to the Human Resources Committee for dealing with staffing, recruitment, retention and disciplinary matters among others these are core areas in the Scheme against which performance will need to be monitored. Performance issues such as the MPS performance on Stop and Search may also need to feature in the Scheme, these are currently the prime responsibility of the Professional Standards and Performance Monitoring Committee.

(iii) The Scheme document requires the Authority to submit an equalities organisational chart, indicating clear lines of responsibility and accountabilities. Members' guidance is sought on the structure proposed at Appendix 1 which is the current structure in place.

(iv) Whilst this CDO Committee is shown as having an oversight of the equal opportunities work of all other Committees, as well as the MPA Secretariat, members of this Committee may wish to either propose changes to this, or propose ways in which that role could be more effectively carried out, bearing in mind the requirements of the current legislation. Subject to the views of this Committee, the views of the Chairs of other Committees will be sought as part of the consultation on the development of the Scheme.

APA Training event

8. The APA is holding a training seminar on the new duties for police authority staff and members on 7 May in London. Members are asked to express their interest in attending.

C. Financial implications

The MPA does not currently have a dedicated resource with responsibility for equal opportunities and progressing the Authority's diversity agenda. The MPA's equalities budget has not yet been determined and discussions are underway to identify this. The preparation of the Scheme and a 3 year action plan within this should be able to be met through existing staffing resources. However, the action plans of other organisations are indicating that the implementation of these plans require considerable support in terms of officer time to carry out reviews. The legislation hopes that organisations will be able to build upon what already exists rather than requiring new inputs. It is important though to note that, unless some other arrangements are made concerning resources, the MPA may not be able to meet its objectives set out in the Scheme nor fulfil the Action Plan.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

Report author:  Jude Sequeira and Julia Smith, MPA.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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