On 24 February 1999, the report of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry
was published, following an apology the previous year by the
Metropolitan Police for failures in the response to (and
investigation of) Stephen’s murder in 1993. Sir William
Macpherson, who chaired the inquiry, made 70 recommendations for
the Government, police service and other stakeholders, and
accused the Metropolitan Police Service of institutional racism.
The Home Affairs Committee is launching an
inquiry to examine progress in the twenty years since
the Macpherson report was published. The Committee is
particularly interested in how the Government and the police
service have performed against the following recommendations:
- • “That the Home Secretary
and Police Authorities should seek to ensure that the membership
of police authorities reflects so far as possible the cultural
and ethnic mix of the communities which those authorities serve”
[this would now apply more appropriately to Police and Crime
Commissioners and their offices];
- • “That all possible steps
should be taken by Police Services at local level in consultation
with local Government and other agencies and local communities to
encourage the reporting of racist incidents and crimes”;
- • “That Police Services
and Victim Support Services ensure that their systems provide for
the pro-active use of local contacts within minority ethnic
communities to assist with family liaison where appropriate”;
- • “That police training
and practical experience in the field of racism awareness and
valuing cultural diversity should regularly be conducted at local
level”; and “that it should be recognised that local minority
ethnic communities should be involved in such training and
experience”; and
- • “That the Home Office
and Police Services should facilitate the development of
initiatives to increase the number of qualified minority ethnic
recruits”.
Sir William Macpherson also recommended that progress be
monitored against a number of performance indicators, including
the number of recorded racist incidents and related detection
levels; achieving equal satisfaction levels across all ethnic
groups in public satisfaction surveys; the nature, extent and
achievement of racism awareness training; the policy directives
governing stop and search procedures and their outcomes; levels
of recruitment, retention and progression of minority ethnic
recruits; and levels of complaint of racist behaviour or attitude
and their outcomes. The Committee will seek to collect data on
these indicators, where they cannot be provided by the Home
Office, NPCC or other stakeholders.
Terms of Reference
The Committee would welcome written evidence on the following
topics:
- • Progress made to date
against any of the 70 recommendations made by Sir William
Macpherson in 1999 within the report of the Stephen Lawrence
inquiry;
- • The extent to which the
43 police forces in England and Wales have made sufficient
progress in the last twenty years towards ensuring that the
ethnic diversity of their officers, PCSOs and staff reflects the
diversity of the communities that they serve;
- • Progress in ensuring
that black, Asian and other minority ethnic (‘BAME’) officers and
staff are properly represented at all ranks of policing, and that
the senior leadership (chief officers and police and crime
commissioners) includes a representative number of BAME officers
and officials;
- • The extent to which the
police service has become a diverse and inclusive culture, free
from the institutional racism identified by Sir William
Macpherson, including the impact of training courses and other
initiatives;
- • The quality of the
service provided by police forces to BAME individuals and
communities;
- • The current state of
police relations with BAME individuals and communities, including
the impact of police tactics used disproportionately on BAME
people, such as stop and search; and
- • The quality and
effectiveness of the support and leadership provided by the Home
Office
Submitting written evidence
The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 16 January
2019. Written evidence should be submitted online via
the dedicated evidence
portal on the Committee’s website.
