Minutes

Minutes of the Equal Opportunity & Diversity Board held on 9 January 2003 at 10 Dean Farrar Street, SW1H 0NY.

Present

Members

• Cecile Wright (Chair)
• Cindy Butts
• Toby Harris (for agenda items 14 and 15 only)
• Kirsten Hearn
• Peter Herbert
• Graham Tope
• Rachel Whittaker

MPA Officers

• Catherine Crawford (Clerk)
• Ken Hunt (Deputy Treasurer)
• Julia Smith (Policy Officer, CDO)
• Claire Lambert (Analyst)
• Jude Sequeira (Policy Development Officer)
• John Crompton (Committee Services)

MPS Officers

• Ian Blair (Deputy Commissioner), (for agenda items 13,14 and 15)
• Cressida Dick (Diversity Director)
• Denise Milani (Director, DOIT)
• Jenny Deere (Director, HR Selection)
• Chief Superintendent Mark Simmons

Co-opted members - Lee Jasper (Policy Director on Equalities and Policing – Mayor’s Office)

Part 1

26. Introduction and apologies for absence

(Agenda item 1)

Apologies for absence were received from Nancy Kelly, Martin Meredith, Bharti Patel, Rev. Stephen Penrose and Martin Meredith and R. David Muir.

The Chair asked for a letter to be sent to those co-opted members who had not yet been able to attend a meeting to remind them of the need to attend the March meeting.

27. Declarations of interests

(Agenda item 2)

Peter Herbert declared an interest as a trustee of the Community Advice Project (agenda item 5)

28. Minutes of the meeting held on 28 November 2002

(Agenda item 3)

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 28 November 2002 be agreed and signed as a correct record.

29. Chair and Members’ Update

(Agenda item 4)

Members reported on their recent MPA activities.

30. Old Street Magistrates Court and Police Station Community Advice Project

(Agenda item 5)

A briefing note from the Community Advice Project was submitted on their proposals for these premises should their bid to purchase them from the MPA and the Greater London Magistrates Court Authority be successful.

Peter Herbert declared an interest as a trustee of the Community Advice Project and took no part in the discussion on this item.

The Chair stressed that the Board was not considering the financial aspects, which were properly the concern of the Finance Committee which was due to consider the disposal of the property at its meeting on 16 January.

Rosemary Emodi made a presentation on the Community Courthouse Initiative in her capacity as Chair of the Community Advice Project and answered member’s questions.

In the ensuing discussion members indicated that many of the proposed uses which had been outlined fitted in very well with existing MPA and MPS policies and strategies on areas such as youth diversion and considered that the courthouse project could play a useful part in the local delivery of these policies.

Resolved - That the Finance Committee be advised that the Board unanimously supported the proposed use for the premises and in particular welcomed the provision of projects for local youth and the proposed recruitment centre, and would also recommend that the Authority supports the proposals.

31. Implementation of the MPS diversity strategy

(Agenda item 6)

The Board received a report which detailed the progress of the MPS diversity strategy and its implementation by Borough Command Units.

In connection with this report Kirsten Hearn said that there was an overlap in some of the content of the report with others on the agenda. She would ask for more sharply focused agendas with less overlap. Rachel Whittaker said she had suggested that the Board should receive a brief summary/overview of relevant reports which had been considered by other MPA committees. The Chair asked that the officers bear these comments in mind when planning the agenda for future meetings.

Lee Jasper reported that the GLA had been considering the equalities aspects of the budget submission. The outcomes would be of relevance to the EODB and he would suggest that relevant sections of the final report be submitted to a future meeting.

Resolved – That-

1. the report be noted; and
2. the conclusions of the GLA report on equalities be submitted to a future meeting of the Board.

32. Positive Action Central Team

(Agenda item 7)

The Board received a report which detailed the progress of the work being undertaken by the Positive Action Central Team.

The Policy Officer Consultation and Diversity reported that Martin Meredith, the CRE representative on the Board, had advised her that he considered that retention should be included in the work of the Team. Commander Dick confirmed that whilst retention was not part of the remit of the Team she would be happy to commission a report if the Board so requested.

Resolved – that the report be noted.

33. Gender Agenda

(Agenda item 8)

This report updated the Board on the progression of the Gender Agenda within the MPS.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

34. Development and organisation team progress

(Agenda item 9)

A report was submitted which provided an update on the work of the Development and Organisation Team.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

35. Report on MPS/MPA visit to New York

(Agenda item 10)

A report was submitted which advised members of a study visit to the New York Police Department (NYPD) which took place between 28 October and 1 November 2002. The visit involved three MPS borough commanders, the Chair of the EODB and a consultant from the Centre for Excellence in the Governance of London. The purpose of the visit was to examine issues in policing diverse global cities.

Chief Superintendent Mark Simmons, one of the borough commanders who participated in the visit, attended for consideration of this report.

In reply to a question the Chief Superintendent advised that the New York precincts were considerably smaller than London boroughs with each one having up to 200 officers.

The Chair said she had found the visit very useful and she hoped that it would be possible to arrange a visit for representatives from the NYPD to London.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

36. Equal Opportunities and Diversity Management Information report

(Agenda item 11)

Equal opportunities and diversity management information was submitted.

Resolved – That the management information and emerging trends be noted.

37. Race and the Criminal Justice System

(Agenda item 12)

A report was submitted following reports from recent report which highlighted the differences in treatment of white and minority ethnic communities in the criminal justice system.

Resolved – That

1. the actions already being progressed to address the key issues raised by the Government reports be noted;
2. the March meeting of the Board be a themed meeting which will look in detail at the MPS progress and action on the eight key findings of the Government reports; and
3. a report be submitted with an overview of the MPS progress to meet the 2009 Dismantling Barriers targets on recruitment, retention and progression of minority ethnic staff.

38. Race Equality Schemes Reference Group

(Agenda item 13)

A report was submitted which presented a revised proposal on the arrangements to advise upon and monitor implementation of the MPA and MPS race equality schemes.

Resolved – That the Board agrees in principle to the setting of an MPA/MPS Race Equality Scheme External Reference Group with a further report to be submitted to the next meeting.

39. Implementation of Recommendation 61

(Agenda item 14)

A report was considered concerning the progress in the MPS on the Home Secretary’s announcement on the phased introduction of Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report in London.

Further to paragraph 10 of the report , the Deputy Commissioner reported that after detailed consideration of the options it had been determined that Hackney would be the best borough in which to base the paper based pilot.

Members questioned the need for the long time scales which were envisaged in the phased implementation of the paper based pilot and raised the possibility of different aspects being carried out simultaneously. The Board also asked for information as to how the pilot would compare with the earlier pilot which had taken place in Tottenham.

In view of the timescale it was agreed that members be consulted about the consultation strategy ahead of the next meeting of the Board.

Resolved – That

1. the progress in introducing the phased implementation in London be noted; and
2. a report on the practical issues involved in introducing an IT based pilot be submitted to the next meeting.

40. Stop and Search Ethnicity Data

(Agenda item 15)

A report was submitted which provided borough stop and search data broken down by ethnicity and provided trend information. The report also provided an overview of the work being carried out by the MPS Fair Practice Monitoring Group to look at exception reporting at borough level.

Further to the suggested indicator based on stop and search per 1000 resident population Kirsten Hearn pointed out that the street population for some boroughs (e.g. Westminster) was much higher than others due to them containing tourist and entertainment attractions and this should be taken into account.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

41. Scrutiny of the Metropolitan Police Service performance and practice in Stop and Search Race Hate Crime Forum

(Agenda item 16)

At the November meeting of the Board it was agreed that a report be submitted for proposals for a scrutiny into the MPS performance and practice in stop and search. A report was submitted which set out proposals on how the review might be carried out.

In reply to concerns about the potentially wide scope for the scrutiny the Policy Officer CDO said that this point had been taken into consideration when determining the draft terms of reference for the scrutiny, as has had the fact that there was much existing information on the subject. As a result it was intended that the scrutiny would concentrate on the four aspects identified in paragraph 7 of the appendix.

With regard to the membership of the scrutiny the Board felt it would be appropriate to have a small membership of no more than six to eight members with the majority of the members to be drawn from the MPA. The Board felt it would be useful for one of the panel members to be a police officer from the MPS. The Deputy Commissioner advised it might be more appropriate if this was a retired officer.

Resolved - That

1. the draft areas proposed for the scrutiny of stop and search in the MPS set out in at appendix 1 paragraph 7 be agreed;
2. a report be submitted to the next meeting of the Coordination and Policing Committee to inform the Committee of the proposed scrutiny;
3. the process outlined in paragraphs 10 to 14 to take forward the work on the scrutiny be approved; and
4. the membership for the Scrutiny Panel be limited to six and that these includes a serving or retired MPS police officer appendix 1 paragraph 8 (paragraph 16).

The meeting finished at 12.55.

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