Tackling Race Hate Crime - Publication of Taskforce Report
21 Jun 2006
The report of the Race for Justice Taskforce was commissioned by the Attorney General to look into how the Criminal Justice System deals with racist and religious crime. The Taskforce members were drawn from across the criminal justice agencies, including the judiciary, the courts, the police, prosecutors and the criminal justice inspectorates.
The Government will be establishing a Delivery Board to drive forward the recommendations made by the Taskforce, including:
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improved and better co-ordinated training on hate crime issues for staff across the Criminal Justice System
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greater involvement of local communities and victims in hate crime training
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better and more consistent monitoring of hate crime throughout the
criminal justice process -
a national protocol to be adopted by all police forces for the investigation of hate crime offences
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raising of awareness amongst the judiciary of the impact of hate crime on communities.
The Race for Justice Taskforce was set up in response to recommendation eight of the 2003 Gus John Partnership report, which examined CPS decision making for possible racial bias at each stage of the prosecution process.
The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said:
"It is a fundamental duty of Government to protect the rights of minority groups in society. Hate crime is an assault on these rights. It creates fear and disengagement in entire communities and if not tackled effectively, undermines their confidence in the justice system which is there to protect them.
"In recent years much progress has been made - incidents of hate crime are down while the reporting of them has increased. It is important to emphasise that Gus John's original report found no significant evidence of racial discrimination in prosecution decision making.
"However it is clear that more can be done. In particular we must take practical steps to ensure that aggravating factors of race and hate crime are recorded and taken into account throughout the whole criminal justice process. Criminal justice agencies must work closer together and fully understand the impact of hate crime on communities. The recommendations in the Taskforce give us a clear framework to take things forward."
Professor Gus John welcomed the publication of the Taskforce's report:
"I am most encouraged by the Taskforce's report and recommendations. It represents a far more coherent approach to the recording and prosecution of hate crimes and of race aggravated crimes in particular.
"The new measures should result in a much more just and credible set of practices used by criminal justice agencies to deal with this menace in civil society."
The work of the Taskforce has also been supported by the Home Office, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Judiciary.