Race Hate Crime Forum Progress Report

Report: 10
Date: 20 May 2004
By: Clerk

Summary

This report provides an update on the work that has been progressed by the Race Hate Crimes Forum (RHCF) and the schedule of meetings that are planned to meet with Borough Commanders and local authority Chief Executives of the five boroughs with the highest recorded hate crime.

A. Recommendations

Members are asked to:

1. Note the Appointment of the Coordinator for the RHCF
2. Note the work which the Forum is currently progressing

B. Supporting information

Overview

1. The Hate Crimes Forum has steadily progressed a number of the objectives outlined in its work plan. A Coordinator was appointed and commenced work on 27 April 2004. This is a significant achievement and sets the Forum well on its way in progressing the very challenging work programme that has been developed by the three sub groups, which has been the main deliverers of the Forum’s work whilst it was without a Coordinator.

2. The project has been based at the office of Victim Support London, as part of the early agreement reached with the key partners in the Forum. Following the establishment of a management Group to oversee the progress and delivery of the Forum’s work, the Government Office for London (GOL) who is the main funding body of the Forum, has recommended that the project should have greater management and that it should be relocated in the office of the MPA. The Forum Chair, Peter Herbert, has discussed this with the MPA Clerk Catherine Crawford and it has been agreed that this will be looked into so that this can take place at the earliest possible opportunity.

Project Funding

3. An application has been submitted to the Government Office for London for funding for the project for the next 12 months. Meetings have been held with GOL representatives to discuss the continued funding of the project and the Authority has been assured that the application will be looked upon favourably. The GOL has acknowledged that the work of the Forum is meeting one of its key objectives. It was instrumental in influencing the setting up of a management group and has been reassured about the progress of the work now that a coordinator has been appointed.

4. Regular project management meetings have been planned for the remainder of the year and the Coordinator will be responsible to the management group for the deliverable of the project’s objectives and work programme.

Membership

5. The project has been reviewing its membership for some time and will be making recommendations to the next Forum meeting for the addition of three new members, two representing the community and one from a faith organisation. This would meet an identified gap in the current membership.

6. The Commission for Racial Equality recently took the decision to withdraw its membership from a number of groups and committees, while it is carrying out its investigation into Police Service, Training Centres and others (England and Wales). As a consequence the organisation has decided to withdraw its membership from the Forum. Due to the serious issues that are emerging from Forum’s work, it is regrettable that the CRE has reached this decision. The Chair, Peter Herbert, will be meeting with the Chair of the CRE to discuss this matter in order to see whether the commission would reconsider its decision.

Focus of boroughs with highest levels of racially motivated crimes

7. The London Race Hate Forum has started a programme to look at how the five London Boroughs with the highest levels of Race Hate Crime (Hounslow, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Greenwich and Westminster) are dealing with this crime.

8. Meetings are being arranged with Borough Commanders, Local Authority Housing Chief Executives and Borough Solicitors over the next few months so that a detailed picture can be developed to access the extent to which the key statutory and criminal justice organisations are addressing racially motivated crimes.

9. The initial work done by the Forum appears to indicate that the statutory agencies may not be using the full range of legal powers at their disposal to vigorously combat this racially motivated crime, which they are required to do under the current legislation. In particular, the Forum will examine the number of evictions and injunction proceedings taken against council tenants, as against the numbers of victims moved.

10. Patterns are emerging which suggest a correlation between those Boroughs with an ineffectual legal response to racist tenants and with a low rate of Antisocial Behaviour Orders and Antisocial Behaviour Contracts as having the highest number of race hate crimes.

11. The Forum is at present monitoring the performance of a race hate crime hotspot in Brentford in the borough of Hounslow, which has seen a catalogue of racist attacks and harassment targeting a number of Asian, Somali, and African-Caribbean families over the last three years. The Forum has met already with the Borough Commander of Hounslow and plans to meet with the Chief Executive of Hounslow in early April to address concerns.

12. The Forum will also be addressing emerging concerns that racially motivated crimes do not appear to be addressed consistently by local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, which at present do not seem to have taken up the issue as a central target although the number of race hate crimes reported in the Capital currently runs at 15,000 per year.

13. The Home Office estimate of under reporting is that this represents only 10% of the total, which could mean that there is a huge problem with this crime in London. The broad partnership represented in the membership of the Forum Local Authorities has made a significant start in addressing this problem. Further reports will be brought to this Board so that members will be updated of the progress being made in this aspect of the Forum’s work.

Sub-Groups

14. Much of the work of the Forum is being progressed by the three sub groups. Each is focussing on a specific aspect of the Forum’s work. Their terms of reference are attached at Appendix 1.

15. A summary of their work is outlined below so that members are given a flavour of the range of matters that are being progressed.

London Protocols Sub Group

16. The protocols document has been reworked and revised with typographical errors corrected and has now been passed to the Forums Consultant David Michael who will work with the London Protocols sub group, particularly Khurram Shaikh (newly seconded Forum Coordinator), to carry out additional consultation on the document with other Forums and Agencies across London who are involved with race hate crime. A target for the completion of this consultation has been set for mid-May.

Good Practice Sub Group

17. The Good Practice sub group is researching projects in London which have been set up to tackle race hate crime with a view to hearing presentations from individuals on these projects.

18. At the last sub group meeting, Carwyn Gravell (Lemos & Crane) presented the work of the Race Action Net and at a future meeting it is hoped the sub group will receive a presentation from Kushminder Chahal on his research projects funded by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation "We can't all be white! - racist victimisation in the UK" (1999) and "Racial Harassment Support Projects - their role, impact and potential" (2003).

19. The sub group is also in the process of formulating a scoping paper to ascertain the state of race hate crime projects across London. Work on this document is being progressed by Sub group members with the assistance of a recently appointed consultant who will be progressing the work of this sub group.

Information Civil Side Sub Group

20. Information Civil Side sub group, concerned with gathering information before cases enter the criminal justice system, is in the process of contacting local authority Chief Executives, through the ALG, to find out what processes are in place to record race hate crime, what data is available from such processes (particularly on perpetrators) and what the numbers are of unreported incidents over the last 12 months.

21. Responses have so far been received from Croydon, Tower Hamlets, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea. The sub group is currently reviewing the data received and looking at ways to encourage quicker responses from the other local authorities. The representative from the Association for London Government, Cllr Sanje Dinge is assisting with this are of work.

22. There are also plans to construct a database of all agencies and bodies that may collect data relating to race crime (local Authorities, religious groups, housing associations). This work is underdeveloped and it is hoped that the information received from the wide range of agencies will inform the development of the planned database, which could assist other agencies in their access to such date and information.

Information: Criminal Side Sub Group

23. This sub group is concerned with the gathering of information in the criminal justice system, MPS, CPS and Criminal Courts. Recently Judge Roberts of the Old Bailey, and Yvette Williams of the CPS who jointly chair the sub group, developed a questionnaire for use by Crown Court Judges to gather information about the way in which they monitor and deal with racially motivated cases that come before them. The correspondence to the judges was sent out in the name of Judge Roberts and this has generated a good level of responses.

24. To date, five Judges have now agreed to help with the Proforma and two completed Proforma have been received within the first week of circulating.

Project Management and Funding

25. A project management group have been set up to give closer guidance to the recently appointed Forum coordinator and to ensure that the work programme is progressed to timescale. The main funding organisations, the Metropolitan Police Authority, Crown Prosecution Service, Victim Support London, and the Government Office for London will provide the project steerage. This arrangement was agreed by the Forum at its meeting of Monday 22 March.

26. Following meetings with the Government Office for London concerning the future funding of the Forum, approval has been given, in principle for the continuation of funding for 2004/05. Officers are in the process of developing a proposal that will be submitted to GOL

C. Race and equality impact

1. The recent focus on working with those boroughs with the highest levels of Hate Crime will have a significant impact of meeting the General Duty of the Race Relations Amendment Act. The MPS data on hate crimes indicate that a number of boroughs are not meeting the borough clear up targets. Of the 12064 racially motivated offences for which an arrest was made in April 2003 – February 2004, only 2099 resulted in a judicial disposal. This represents an average clear up rate of 17.4%, which is below the MPS target of 18%.

2. It is also emerging that the Public Authority partners in the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships are not taking their responsibilities under the relevant legislation sufficiently seriously. It isn’t clear whether any have carried out Race Equality Impact Assessments of the policies and it is not immediately apparent from the work carried out by the Forum to date, how or who is influencing the race and equal opportunities agenda of the CDRPs. The Forum will be playing close attention to this aspect of the performance of CDRPs in the coming months and will bring a further report to this Board once this work has been completed.

D. Financial implications

There are no financial implications to this report. All costs are contained in the project budget. Arrangements have been made in the MPA Equalities budget for continued funding of the Forum in 2004/05 and the indication of further funding from the Government Office for London will ensure that the work of the Forum can be progressed.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Julia Smith, MPA.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

London Race Hate Forum Sub Group on Good Practice.

Terms of Reference

Aim: To strengthen London’s ability to provide a safe, secure and consistent response to victims of race hate crime by providing best practise information.

Timescale: Currently being revised.

Chair: Claudia Webbe, Mayor’s Adviser – Race Equality

Purpose

Gathering

• To ensure that the work of the group reflects the diverse communities of London.
• To gather existing current activity across London and further a-field on how race hate crime is being tackled.
• Represent best practise initiatives of the diverse interests of various community groups and agencies relevant to tackling race hate crime across London

Identifying

• To consider the findings, identify best practise and share this information to all interested partners across London.
• Draw on new and emerging tools and frameworks for dealing with race hate crime.
• Identify gaps in provision and address issues and problems of common interest relating to tackling race hate crime across the London region and nationally.

Disseminating

• To enable a broad range of presentations of best practise through a combination of specialised meetings, training, workshops, seminars, conferences and guest speakers.
• Enhance service delivery of agencies by sharing best practice between statutory, voluntary and local community stakeholders to contribute to safety, community confidence and diversity across the Capital.
• Increase the stature and influence of the London Race Hate Forum through promoting best practise and excellence across London and the UK.

Information: Civil Side Sub Group

29/09/03

Chaired by Henry Velleman (VSL)

Terms of reference

1. To establish the nature of the information currently collated by bodies outside the criminal justice system such as Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, Housing Association, faith groups, local authority, BME groups.
2. To consider the processes through which information on racial incidents is gathered across London and the structures in place to promote and disseminate information.
3. To consider any trends within the data collected with a view to identifying common problems and establishing best practice.

Information: Criminal Side Subgroup

29.09.03

Terms of Reference

It was thought that the terms of reference should encompass three main aims:

• To establish the nature of the information currently collated by Criminal Justice Agencies (CJS)
• To consider the processes through which information on racial incidents is gathered across London and the structures in place to promote the information internally and across local CJS agencies. In order to establish whether the processes have any impact on performance.
• To consider any trends within the data collected with a view to identifying common problems and establishing best practice.

Protocols Sub Group

29th September 2003

Chair George Mills – Commission for Racial Equality Council

Terms of Reference

This report details the work undertaken by members of the sub group on protocols and makes proposals for taking forward the work on developing protocol for the forum.

• To recruit an expert or consultant within the field to undertake some detailed work on development of a protocol for the Forum which will include pan London minimum standards.
• To research, analyse and develop a draft set of protocols with minimum standards would take a minimum of thirty (30) days.

Membership

Peter Herbert, Leroy Richards, Khurram Shaikh, Ssamar Mashadi. The group meet twice.

This work will contribute significantly to the efforts of the forum in ensuring that approaches to tackling race hate crime are consistent, measurable and are inclusive of London’s diverse communities.

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