Sixth annual report of the Lawrence Steering Group

ps/05/06
22 February 2006
MPA briefing paper

Author: Alan Johnson, Head of Human Resources, MPA

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

Background

In March 1999, the then Home Secretary published his Action Plan in response to the Recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report. During the debate in the House of Commons at the time of the publication, he gave a commitment to publish each year, an Annual Report on progress against his Action Plan.

The Steering Group report acknowledges that the police service has been subject to recent scrutiny by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the Taylor review of police disciplinary procedures on behalf of the Home Secretary and the Morris Inquiry into professional standards and employment matters. The Group felt these reports were evidence that action within the police service has not been swift enough or sufficiently deep-rooted to radically change the police service and its relationship with the public.

Of particular interest is the London School of Economics (LSE) research that found homophobic and sexist behaviour and language remained widespread in the police service.

Key messages

London School of Economics (LSE) research

The LSE were asked to evaluate the overall impact of Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. It examined changes in police policy, operational practice and the confidence of minority communities both nationally and at force level. The study was conducted in three phases:

• An initial phase of work was carried out to understand officers’ perceptions of the Inquiry as well as stakeholder interviews
• Three national surveys with police officers up to Superintending ranks
• a postal survey of ACPO officers and of police authority members and staff.

The research suggested there have been considerable changes in policing which the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry had influenced. As a result, there were marked changes in the ways the service responded to hate crime, in awareness of the definition of a racist incident and in improvements in the police’s general response to, recording and monitoring, of racist incidents.

The research suggested that it had also had an important role in the virtual disappearance of explicit racist language. However, other forms of discriminatory language and behaviour, including homophobia and sexism, remained widespread. Furthermore, women, black and minority ethnic officers and Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) officers often felt excluded, uncomfortable and discriminated against, and this appeared to go largely unrecognised and unaddressed.

Having said that, the research did not find these developments were uniformly evident in all forces, but felt some forces focused their attention on those changes which were most obviously identifiable and, possibly, achievable. Surprisingly, the term ‘institutional racism’ was often wrongly associated with individual racism, rather than organisational or systematic discrimination. The researchers suggested more efforts should be put into tackling racism and discriminatory practices at an individual level.

CRE, Taylor and Morris reports

The issue of police behaviour had been a continuing concern for the Group who had similarly drawn attention to the competence of managers in dealing with problems involving race and the need for training in order to avoid escalation of problems. The Group had also felt that formal discipline procedures were too formal and this meant there was a failure of the police service to focus on the underlying behaviour.

Police discipline

Recommendations 55-58 relate to police discipline and complaints by members of the public. The Steering Group acknowledged that there is now clear agreement with their approach between Government, police bodies and other stakeholders that police disciplinary arrangements need to move away from being lengthy, costly, adversarial and punitive. An effective and accountable police service that commands public confidence demanded a more professional approach that which involved learning from mistakes.

The main thrust of the Taylor Review recommendations was that disciplinary arrangements should remain within Police Regulations to ensure consistency and citizen focus, but should follow the good practice laid down by the Arbitration, Conciliation and Advisory Service (ACAS) code of practice. Members may be aware that the Police Advisory Board (PAB) is currently consulting on a revised Code of Conduct for police officers.

Stop and search

Recommendation 60 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report said that stop and search powers were required for the prevention and detection of crime and should remain unchanged. Recommendations 61-63 said that the police service should make a record of all ‘stops’ as well as ‘stops and searches’, which should include the reason for the stop, the outcome, and self defined ethnicity of the person stopped. In addition it suggested these records should be monitored and analysed by the police service and police authorities, and police authorities should undertake publicity campaigns to ensure the public are aware of stop and search provisions and their rights when stopped.

The Lawrence Steering Group had worked with the National Centre for Policing Excellence to develop Stop and Search Practice Advice for police forces to be published in April 2006. Members and officers will already be aware of the significant amount of work being undertaken by the Authority in terms of its response to these recommendations.

Racist incidents

Recommendations 12 to 17 referred to the definition of and recording and reporting of racist incidents. The report recommended that the police service, local Government and relevant agencies universally adopt this definition. The Steering Group’s research found that this had helped to improve and increase reporting and recording of racist incidents; where the availability of third party reporting centres and multi-agency panels had been introduced they had helped improve the handling of racist incidents.

Training

Recommendations 48 to 54 referred to the provision of race and diversity training in the police service. The subsequent ‘Strategy for Improving Performance in Race and Diversity Learning’ is the product of extensive consultation and sets out a five-year strategy for the Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme.

The strategy is different from the previous approach to Community and Race Relations training and reflects much of the good work by the Authority with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). While race necessarily remains the primary focus, the strategy expands the area of work to include gender, sexual orientation, disability, age and religion and belief/non belief. The strategy is also linked to other police learning and development programmes, including the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (IPLDP), the Core Leadership Development Programme and the Senior Leadership Development Programme.

The new police training programmes are tailored to an individual’s role, needs and the area in which he or she works rather than ‘one size fits all’. By 2009, all police officers, police staff and special constables will be assessed for competency against National Occupational Standards and recorded in their annual appraisals. The impact of the strategy will be monitored by the numbers assessed as competent in these standards.

Additional information

The Home Secretary has now stood down the Stephen Lawrence Steering Group but has established a number of projects to take the work forward that will include members of the Steering Group. The first projects include:

1. Building relations between services, including the police service and prisons, and ethnic minority communities.
2. Reaching out to young people who are disengaged and disadvantaged from black and minority ethnic groups.
3. How to increase the number of black and minority ethnic staff at senior levels in public services—in particular police chief constables.

Background document

Lawrence Steering Group Sixth Annual Report.

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