Reports from equal opportunities and diversity board race hate forum

Report: 14
Date: 6 December 2007
By: the Chief Executive

Summary

The purpose of this briefing is to provide an update of the work of the Race Hate Crime Forum (RHCF) on the completion of its third year. The briefing also reminds members of the uncertainty of what the future will be for the work of the Forum, bearing in mind its role of scrutiny in addressing hate crime across London.

A. Recommendations

That Members note the achievements of the RHCF

2. Members give consideration to the potential of the RHCF as it enters a future phase of work

3. Members note that funding to sustain the work of the RHCF has been agreed.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The RHCF was established in response to recommendations 15 to 17 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report and commenced its formal business in May 2004.

2. The aims of the RHCF are to:

• help reduce and prevent race hate crime, improve the confidence and satisfaction of victims in reporting crime and to promote consistency of service delivered across London.
• improve the co-ordination between the key agencies responsible for supporting victims of race hate crime and the effectiveness with which perpetrators of race hate crime are brought to justice.

3. The work of the RHCF makes a significant contribution to the focus work by the MPS and local authority partnerships in addressing hate crime. In doing so, the RHCF acts not only as a body that scrutinises partnership activity, but also facilitates a consultancy relationship in supporting boroughs to meet the expectations of the Equality Standard for Local Government (ESLG)[1] in respect of hate crime. Whilst the ESLG has been developed primarily as a tool to enable local authorities to mainstream age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation into council policy and practice, it is a voluntary Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI) with councils reporting what standard they have reached.

4. In 2004, the work plan set by the Project Manager was to have received presentations from all boroughs within a three-year time frame. The RHCF has now successfully completed its initial round of scrutiny of all London boroughs, except for the LB Newham. Whilst Newham borough MPS have presented to the RHCF, it has not been possible to re-engage with the local authority. This stems primarily from a press release, in 2004-05 that the local authority were unhappy with. This was despite the fact that the information contained within the press release was taken directly from information provided to the RHCF by the borough.

5. During the remainder of this year, 2007, the RHCF has received presentations from the remaining seven boroughs, to complete the initial round of scrutiny. The final boroughs included:

• Kingston - 29 May
• Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow - 31 July
• Hillingdon  - 25 Sept
• Redbridge - 30 Oct
• Sutton, Kensington & Chelsea - 27 Nov

6. There is now baseline knowledge of strategy and hate crime policy across London from which to progress the work of the RHCF in promoting and advising on the delivery of good practice.

7. The RHCF has continued to encourage representation from community organisations, to ensure a reality check is part of the process as well as to share the victim perspective.

8. The Hate Crime Coordinators Group (HCCG) [2] continues to provide support and bring together local authority Hate Crime Officers (HCO) across London from boroughs where they are in place. The RHCF has been able to influence, through the scrutiny process, those boroughs where there has not previously been a HCO in place, to create such a post. The HCCG has also been attended by and seen as a useful and supportive mechanism for MPS hate crime officers.

Other activities

9. The RHCF continues to advise the Home Office Racist Incidents Group [3], on the development of national hate crime policy and has been identifying issues for hate crime and good practice from across the UK. The Project Manager continues to attend and advise the London Councils/CRE Local Authority Race Equality in Education Good Practice Network, which was established to address issues of hate crime in schools.

10. RHCF members have been involved in Gold Group meetings where concern has been expressed in relation to incidents of hate crime on the London borough of Enfield. These meetings bring together a variety of agencies including housing; police and the local authority, to examine how they have addressed specific cases of hate crime. The output from RHCF engagement at these meetings is to ensure good practice is maintained.

11. The Chair and members of the RHCF have recently returned from an international visit to Atlanta and Washington USA, as part of a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) exchange of good practice. The Project Manager was able to secure funding from the FCO in support of the visit.

12. The visit included meetings with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security, the Anti-defamation league, Georgia’s Public Safety Training Center and the Department of Corrections.

13. Whilst in Atlanta the Chair of the RHCF was able to engage in a debate, with the Atlanta Senate, in relation to hate crime, since Atlanta is one of the five states that do not currently have any hate crime legislation. A full report of the visit will be completed in due course.

Future work

14. Due to the frequency of RHCF business meetings, borough presentations and minimal staffing resources, it has not been possible to maintain the level of follow up work with boroughs after they have presented to the RHCF. This is a necessary area for future work to ensure a comprehensive identification of good practice and consistency of delivery across London. The Project Manager will be drawing up a work plan to address this in the New Year, dependant on the outcome of the report being submitted to members at full Authority in December 2007.

15. During the last three years, the RHCF has been focused on race and faith hate crime, although boroughs have been asked to include data on LGBT hate crime. In line with the MPA Generic Equality Scheme (GES) and its Disability Equality Scheme, the RHCF recognises that more work will need to be done to ensure other diversity areas are also considered as part of its work. Therefore the RHCF and the MPA will need to give consideration to how these areas can be included as part of its programme of scrutiny.

16. It is not yet know what the outcome will be following the submission of the report being compiled for members by the Deputy Chief Executive in December 2007, which will make proposals for the future of the RHCF. Both the GLA and GOL have expressed a clear desire for the RHCF to maintain its specific focus on race and faith hate crime but there is a need for discussion to take place as to proposals to ensure victims of other hate crimes are not excluded.

17. RHCF officers will be following up on initial discussions with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) with regard to preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games.

C. Race and equality impact

1. Hate Crime and Equality Standards for Local Government (ESLG) is a best value tool for local authorities, which helps them ensure council policy and practice at all levels mainstream across all diversity strands: age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief/non-belief and sexual orientation. Therefore, borough performance is also measured in relation to its effectiveness in dealing with hate crime. Borough partnerships are expected to work within the equality planning process, participate in scrutiny and extend knowledge of the Equality Standard within the community.

2. The work of the Forum makes an essential contribution to this process, as it holds borough partnerships to account, makes recommendations for the development of local action plans and engages feedback from voluntary groups and the views of the wider community.

3. The work of the RHCF has had a positive impact on borough partnerships in terms of being the catalyst for the focus on hate crime issues and for driving action in relation to boroughs reassessing their community safety action plans. Prior to RHCF involvement, some boroughs reported that they had not conducted research and data analysis of hate crime. For many boroughs the impetus for doing so was their preparation for presenting to the RHCF.

D. Financial implications

Members may wish to know that the recent uncertain future of the RHCF has had a negative effect on the progress of any future work planning. In the past funding had been granted from the GOL Home Office Directors Fund (HODA), with match funding from the MPA. The current budget position is that the MPA has agreed to continue funding the work of the RHCF. A full report will be submitted to SMT in due course to outline the proposal in more detail.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Bennett Obong, Race Hate Crime Forum, Equality & Diversity Unit, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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