Race Hate Crime Forum update

Report: 10
Date: 4 November 2004
By: Clerk

Summary

This report provides an update on the progress and work of the Race Hate Crime Forum. It also includes an example of the partnership work, which can be achieved by the intervention of the Forum.

A. Recommendations

That members note the progress on the accompanying guidance and proformas and provide comments if necessary.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The London-wide Race Hate Crimes Forum aims to improve the co-ordination between the key agencies responsible for dealing with victims of race hate crime and to improve the effectiveness with which perpetrators of race hate crimes are brought to justice. Its overall purpose is to help reduce and prevent race hate crimes, improve the confidence and satisfaction of victims in reporting crimes, and to promote consistent service across London.

2. The following appendices are attached:

• Appendix 1 lists the future schedule of Forum meetings
• Appendix 2 describes the current works of the Forum sub-groups
• Appendix 3 states the Terms of Reference for the London-Wide Race Hate Crime Forum and its sub groups
• Appendix 4 is the Action Plan set in place with the Hounslow borough, post the Forum involvement.
• Appendix 5 is, what the Forum considers, an example of a good practice piece of work in partnership with local MPS and Hounslow borough.

3. Two years ago, the Metropolitan Police Authority set up a working group to consider the Lawrence Report’s recommendation. Representatives from over thirty agencies encompassing the statutory and voluntary sectors, local and London-wide, attended working group meetings to discuss London’s multi-agency response. It also carried out some initial analysis of arrangements, strategies and practice in London, which confirmed the need for closer co-operation, information sharing protocols, and the spreading of best practice between agencies. From this, the working group has recommended a membership structure and terms of reference for a permanent forum. Most importantly, the working group, in establishing a new forum, wants to ensure London has a publicised, mutually agreed, jointly-run forum to provide leadership and guidance on race hate crimes. To disseminate its work, the Forum aims to establish a close working relationship with London’s Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships.

4. The chair of the working group and member of the MPA, Peter Herbert, states, ‘the legacy of Stephen Lawrence will remain with many of us for years to come in many positive ways. I’m confident the London-wide Race Hate Crimes Forum will positively contribute to ridding London’s streets of acts and attitudes of racism, by making sure responsible agencies no longer ignore, isolate and only involuntarily deal with cases of race hate crime’.

Structure

5. The Forum currently has a varied membership including the Metropolitan Police Service and Metropolitan Police Authority, the Greater London Authority, the Crown Prosecution Service, as well as local authority and central government representatives. This is in addition to organisations involved with victims, the criminal justice system, housing services, relevant research, and black and minority ethnic communities. The Forum is open to new members and welcomes the participation of all interested parties.

6. The Management Group oversees the progress and delivery of the Forum’s work and gives closer guidance to the recently appointed Forum Project Manager, to ensure that the work programme is progressed to timescale. The main contributing organisations, the Metropolitan Police Authority, Crown Prosecution Service, and the Government Office for London provide the project steerage.

7. Regular project management meetings have been planned for the remainder of the year and the Forum Project Manager is responsible to the Management Group for the delivery of the project’s objectives and work programme.

8. Link members and members of EODB are welcome to attend and observe the work of the Forum.

Forum major works

Priority boroughs

9. The Forum is in the process of investigating eight ‘priority’ boroughs - those with the highest levels of reported racial incidents - to see what programmes are in place for tackling race hate crime. The priority boroughs are Hounslow, Greenwich, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Westminster, Barnet, Southwark and Croydon

10. Initial work progressed 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 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 well as the implementation of ASBOS and ABCs.

11. Boroughs with a low rate of Antisocial Behaviour Orders and Antisocial Behaviour Contracts have the highest number of race hate crimes.

12. 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 use and implementation of 3rd party reporting centres and how to improve their effectiveness has been an issue of debate at the latest Forum meetings. It is hoped that the broad partnership represented in the membership of the Forum will be able to provide solutions and spread good practice on the best use of 3rd party reporting sites.

13. Meetings are in the process of being arranged between Council Chief Executives, Borough Commanders and the Forum Project Manager to discuss the issues at hand before they are presented to the Forum.

14. Although the Forum’s work is concentrating on these priority boroughs, the establishment of relationships and liaison is also taking place with other boroughs. The Forum has contacts in each borough and minutes, reports, presentations and updates on the Forum are circulated to these contacts via email. Several meetings have also taken place between members of local hate crime forums and the Project Manager.

Work examples in boroughs

15. The London Boroughs of Hounslow and Newham have been consistently high in the numbers and rates of Racist Incidents and Crimes. The following indicates the current position:

Hounslow:

• Incidents: 450
• Crimes: 446

Newham:

• Incidents: 358
• Crimes: 306

(Current figures from MPS, October 2004).

16. The information presented to the RHCF on the breakdown of local borough statistics in relation to race hate nuisance and general antisocial behaviour, reveal the following:

Hounslow, figures from Jan 2002 – Dec 2003

• Injunctions: 8
• Evictions: 13
• Possession Orders: 11
• On-going legal action: 26
• Antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) issued where race was explicitly stated as a prohibition or part of a condition: 55
• Antisocial behaviour contracts where race was explicitly stated as a prohibition or part of a condition: 39

Newham, figures from 2001 - 2004:

• ASBOs: 2
• Injunctions: 2
• ABCs: 7
• Possession Orders: 3
• Residents provided with alarms/CCTV: 6 (2 were directly related to race hate crime)
• Emergency Transfers agreed: 8 (28 requests made).

When a comparison is made of how boroughs are dealing with race hate crime perpetrators, there is a significant discrepancy in the figures of recorded crimes. Information provided by LB Newham gives clear indication as to where difficulties exist. (See Appendix 4).

London protocols document

17. The London Protocols document is being finalised and this will set out clear guidelines on how the Forum will function and carry its work forward. 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.

Library and database

18. The Forum Administrator is in the process of establishing a library of information on race hate crime – a process that has been considerably contributed to by the Forums recent membership to the Race Action Net – an action network of hundreds of organisations, including local government and housing associations, police services and criminal justice agencies, community and voluntary organisations.

19. In addition to this library, a database is being constructed listing organisations and their contacts that may be able to provide information or data on race hate crime, the scope for this database is potentially enormous and work on it is being forwarded by collaboration with colleagues of the Race & Diversity Unit. It is also hoped that databases and contacts from other MPA units (Community Engagement / CDRP) will be incorporated into this database forming a user friendly, up-to-date contacts list for all involved.

Contact with other hate crime groups

20. The Project Manager is in the process of identifying what other Hate crime forums may exist in the London area. To date, contact has been made and is on-going; with local hate crime steering groups. Links are being made with LBGT but no other Pan London Groups have yet been contacted. The Project Manger has chaired meetings with Newham Race Action in Newham (RAIN) and attended meetings of similar fora, e.g. Harrow, Hillingdon and Hackney.

Other support

21. The Project manager is seeking support from research analysts from MPS to assist in the identification of compound discrimination and targeting. At this time, it is too early to identify specific issues as the information is being compiled at the time of writing this report.

22. The Project Manager is also in the process of contacting Victim Support London, to gather further information on the use of its services and the take up from identified minority groups.

Conclusion

23. This is the first citywide RHCF to be established, not only in the UK but also in Europe. It seeks to provide and develop a close working relationship between all civil and criminal agencies, as well as highlighting the necessity for a proactive legal and strategic approach across London. The development of ‘good practice’ is essential if London is to become a safer city for all its communities.

24. The vision of the RHCF in the short-term is to provide for effective legal remedies for perpetrators, using all statutory and voluntary powers available. The main purpose is to ensure that the lessons learned from the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry are not lost, with all institutions being encouraged to take a proactive approach to combat racial harassment and violence in schools, colleges, places of employment and in the wider community.

C. Race and equality impact

The Forum Project Manager has completed a stage 2 Full Impact Assessment. A full copy of this assessment proforma is available from the Forum Administrator.

D. Financial implications

Arrangements have been made in the MPA Equalities budget for continued funding of the Forum in 2004/05 and a contribution from the Government Office for London to ensure that the work of the Forum can be progressed. The job descriptions of the Project Manager and the Administrator have been rewritten and are due for re evaluation. The initial funding bid to GOL was to account for the evaluation of the posts. The total funding application was for £55,000.00 to support on-going development on the work. Unfortunately due to a late submission, the allocation from GOL was only £14,000.00. Therefore, if the roles are successfully re-evaluated, there may be financial implications to the EODB.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Bennett Obong, MPA – for and on behalf of Peter Herbert, Chair of RHCF

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1: Future schedule of Forum meetings

Appendix 2: Forum Subgroups

The Forum currently has three subgroups working under it; these are responsible for progressing much of the Forums work with each focussing on a specific aspect of the Forum’s work. The Terms of Reference for each of the Subgroups is attached at Appendix 2.

A summary of their current work is provided below.

Good Practice Subgroup

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

The subgroup is also formulating a scoping paper on the state of race hate crime projects across London. Initial Internet research has been completed and a list of race projects funded by GOL is due to be submitted imminently. The assistance of the Black Londoners Forum, which has a representative on the Subgroup, has also been invaluable in providing example projects and contacts for the Forum to seek additional information for the content of this Scoping paper.

Information: Civil Side Subgroup

The Information: Civil Side Subgroup, concerned with gathering information before cases enter the criminal justice system, has been 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.

The subgroup is reviewing figures collected from the Audit Commission specifically Performance indicators 174 & 175 (The number of racial incidents recorded by the authority per 100,000 population & The percentage of racial incidents that resulted in further action, respectively). It has been suggested by the Subgroup that such definitions provide insufficient data and could be improved. In addition, performance indicators on victim satisfaction would be very useful. The Subgroup is looking into these suggestions.

Information: Criminal Side Subgroup

This Subgroup is concerned with the gathering of information in the criminal justice system, MPS, CPS and Criminal Courts. The Subgroup have 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. Initial research indicates a good level of responses

The Chair of the Subgroup, is at present conducting a review of local CPS branches in the ‘top 5’ boroughs (those with highest levels of reported racial incidents). The review aims to evaluate whether systems are in place to accurately identify racist elements in crimes and to see if the CPS is dealing with such crimes in an appropriate way.

Preliminary results have been mostly encouraging, however, the review has highlighted some areas of concern around the reduction of charges without reason and the accepting of non-aggravated offences without challenge.

The MPS representative from the Subgroup, is also conducting a review of MPS procedures within the boroughs and will inform the subgroup, and the wider forum, of the findings when the work is completed.

A reoccurring theme in this Subgroup is a desire to record an individual’s background and character, and improve communication between agencies to ensure that background information and knowledge of previous incidents are recorded and submitted with case files, rather than each case being investigated in isolation and important information being lost.

The idea of recording peoples ‘history’ rather than just their criminal record is currently being discussed. An isolated incident may make a weak case in court, but evidence of a series of ‘single’ incidents could be used to support a course of conduct in respect of a harassment prosecution. Such records would be immensely useful in many fields and the Subgroup will investigate this further.

Appendix 3: Terms of reference

Terms of reference for the London-Wide Race Hate Crime Forum

1. Effect policies, protocols and processes that will contribute to the effective and efficient implementation and monitoring of performance of the Race Hate Crimes “aspect” of the Crime and Disorder Audits and strategies by the local partnerships at a pan-London level.
2. Engage with key central government departments and pan-London agencies to secure agreement to a pan-London Protocol for responding to and dealing with Race (and other) Hate Crimes at local partnerships.
3. Secure the agreement among key agencies, pan-London and locally, for the sharing of personalised and depersonalised information in order to satisfy agency responsibility under section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1988.
4. Co-ordinate and disseminate good practice examples in dealing with Race (and other) Hate Crimes across the key statutory and voluntary agencies in London.
5. Provide Policy and guidance to local Crime and Disorder partnerships in their dealings with Race (and other) Hate Crimes.
6. Continuously monitor and review the learning gained from developments on Race Hate, to inform the development of policies, protocols and practices on other Hate crime areas.
7. Proactively establish relationships with other stakeholders, central government departments and pan-London agencies.
8. In consultation with ministers, central government departments, the Association for London Government (ALG), Government Office for London (GOL) and other key agencies, develop protocols and agreements that would hold the partnerships accountable for the delivery.
9. In addition to the above, it is proposed that, due to the range of key organisations that will be members of the Forum, that it could act ‘as a one-stop-shop’ to local authorities, the police and other partner organisations, that require the provision of expertise and coordination in the event of critical race hate incidents.

Terms of reference for subgroups

Good Practice Subgroup

• 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
• 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.
• 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

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

1. To establish the nature of the information currently collated by Criminal Justice Agencies (CJS)
2. 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.
3. To consider any trends within the data collected with a view to identifying common problems and establishing best practice.

Appendix 4: Hounslow Community Safety Partnership: Supplementary race hate crime action plan

(Hounslow Police, Hounslow Homes, LB Hounslow)

Figure 1: Rate of racial harassment cases Newham Housing Enforcement Team, financial years 2001-2004

View a large version of figure 1

The harassment database only holds harassment cases that have been worked on by the enforcement team. 145 cases of racial harassment were on the housing enforcement caseload during the financial years 2001 – 2004.

Figure 2: Count of racial  incidents by Community Forum, financial years 2001-2004

View a large version of figure 2

Appendix 5: An example of a good practice joint operation with the local authority and local Police in Hounslow borough.

A Racial and Violent Crime Task Force was deployed to assist the Borough in dealing with its race hate crime problem.

A Chief Inspector was appointed to lead the enquiry team. The aims and purposes of this assistance were to:

• Ascertain whether the appropriate investigation strategies and possible resolution opportunities have been explored.
• Demonstrate the MPS commitment to the affected parties.
• Where applicable, identify and address potential remedial opportunities towards crime reduction and enhancing victim’s confidence in the MPS

Brief analysis of work carried out

Any allegations made from the community were reviewed to establish that the investigation was comprehensive and that all avenues had been explored and completed.

There was complete partnership working between the statutory agency and the Police with daily consultations and weekly meetings, resulting in the successful acquisition of Interim ASBOs, an Anti Social Behaviour Injunction, the appointing of a firm of solicitors independent to Hounslow Council to oversee all court proceedings and support to criminal proceedings.

The MPS are assisting Hounslow Homes with disclosure of material regarding civil proceedings.

A Gold Group was initiated which affording senior officers to directly oversee and be advised from a strategic ACPO perspective.

Named offenders were put forward to the Brentford Anti Social Behaviour Group. There a decision was made that Hounslow Council be the lead agency with the support of the Metropolitan Police Service in any action taken against named perpetrators.

Results

• 4 Anti Social Behaviour Contracts.
• 3 Interim Anti Social Behaviour Orders granted.
• Full Orders are now being applied for.
• Deployment of Officers for further enquiries.
• Identification of other victims in the local area
• Community involvement in supporting police with ASBO applications.
• Information shared with the borough.

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