Reports from Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board Sub-groups

Report: 12
Date: 8 March 2007
By: Chief Executive and Clerk

Summary

The purpose of this report is to provide members with an update on the work of the sub-groups to EODB, in particular the Stops and Searches Review Board, the Community Monitoring Network and the Domestic Violence Board.

A. Recommendations

1. That Members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Stops and Searches Review Board

1. The MPA Stops and Searches Review (SSRB) met on the 25 January 2006 to formally sign-off the first set of recommendations from the MPA’s scrutiny of MPS stop and search practice. The MPS had proposed 10 recommendations for sign-off; of the 10 only eight were agreed.

2. Two recommendations were referred back to the MPS as incomplete due to concerns raised by Board members and community representatives. These recommendations (R) were (R28) the MPS Monitoring Mechanism data report that provides an analysis stops and searches data and (R53) the setting up of Monitoring Groups in all boroughs to monitor stops and searches.

3. The MPA will continue to sign-off recommendations during 2007 and hopes to complete the process in January 2008. It is envisaged that the Board’s work will come to an end in June 2008 after which outstanding work around recommendations will be assigned to other MPA Sub-Committees.

Stops and Searches Borough Visits

4. John Roberts, MPA Independent Member and chair of the SSRB conducted two stops and searches boroughs visits in February 2007 to both Kensington & Chelsea and Greenwich.

MPA Stops and Searches Community Monitoring Network

5. The MPA Community Monitoring Network (CMN) Forum will next meet on the 13 March 2007. The focus item will be around ‘Challenges for Police Officers’. All borough police officer leads and community representatives conducting work around stops and searches are encouraged to attend these meeting to raise concerns and share good practice around local monitoring.

MPA Domestic Violence Board

6. The MPA Domestic Violence Board is responsible for effective monitoring, scrutiny and support of the MPS in its response to domestic violence on behalf of Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board (EODB).

7. The Board has met three times and has to date looked at the response by four boroughs – Havering, Croydon, Tower Hamlets and Brent. The Board met most recently on 6 February 2007 when its focus was corporate concentrating on domestic violence-specific training and crime investigation policy.

8. The Board meets next on 12 June 2007 when Hammersmith and Fulham and Sutton will be invited to attend.

9. A review of the Board’s work during 2006-07 is scheduled to be considered at full Authority on 26 July 2007 where its Annual Report will be published reviewing work to date and making recommendations to government.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The MPA’s work in relation to stop and search and domestic violence contributes to the organisation’s legislative duties to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and to promote good relations between people of different racial groups and genders.

2. The issue of unexplained disproportionality on the basis of ethnicity, age and gender continues to characterise work on stops and searches. The Authority is seeking to support and challenge the MPS to improve its use of the practice together with communities in order to build public confidence in relation to its use.

3. Domestic violence constitutes a quarter of all violent crime and disproportionately affects women. While MPS performance, specifically in terms of sanction detections, is higher than it has been before, the MPA Domestic Violence Board supports and challenges the organisation at both borough and corporate support levels to continuously improve its response in relation to safety, victim care, risk assessment and management, and contributing to successful criminal justice outcomes.

D. Financial implications

1. Resources to service all sub-groups to EODB are met from the MPA’s Race and Diversity Unit budget.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Cynthia Coleman, Hamida Ali

For more information contact:

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

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