Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Not Addressed
Paragraph: 73
Require police forces to establish local plans to improve BME confidence, monitored by HMICFRS
Recommendation
Police forces in England and Wales should set out clear local plans to improve confidence informed by local confidence data. They should state what measurable actions they are taking a) to increase the confidence of BME communities and b) to narrow the gap between these communities and the White population; they should be inspected on how they address confidence and trust in their forces among Black and The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on 177 minority ethnic communities. We recommend that as part of its regular legitimacy inspections HMICFRS monitors how police forces are recording and measuring BME confidence in their forces.
Government Response Summary
The government details improved stop and search data collection and a commitment to use data to challenge disparities. It also highlights the importance of internal and external body-worn video reviews to build confidence, but does not commit to police forces setting out local plans to improve BME community confidence or to HMICFRS monitoring these efforts.
Paragraph Reference:
73
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
As outlined, there are immediate benefits of stop and search in tackling crime and keep people safe. The Office for National Statistics has also pointed to increased use of stop and search as a potential driver in the increase in recorded possession of weapons offences. In order to increase our understanding of stop and search we have improved our data collection and now collect and publish more data on this than ever before. We are continually looking to better understand the effectiveness of stop and search and share this publicly in the interests of transparency. On 18 November 2021, we published our regular annual statistical bulletin, Police Powers and Procedures: Stop and search and arrests, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2021. For the first time, we collected record-level information on stop and search, meaning a single stop and search can be followed through to the outcome. This publication included new data on both age and gender of those stopped alongside ethnicity, and we were able to display specifically where and when crimes take place. Using this new data, we can create a clearer picture on how stop and search is used and how best to build on the existing trust and confidence held between the police and the community they serve. We will continue to monitor and analyse these statistics at a national level. We expect forces to be able to explain their use of stop and search, including any disparities, to HMICFRS and the wider public, and we expect Police and Crime Commissioners to hold forces to account for their use of police powers and their wider response to HMICFRS recommendations. Inclusive Britain sets out our commitment to give greater clarity and context to stop and search data to reassure the public about its use moving forward. We will improve the way this data is reported and enable more accurate comparisons to be made between different police force areas. Given our enhanced data collection and actions outlined in Inclusive Britain, we believe that it is now important to focus on utilising data to drive action, encourage transparency and consider a range of metrics for stop and search rates in order to identify and where necessary, challenge disparities at a police force area level. It is therefore important that we allow these actions outlined in Inclusive Britain to be implemented before we consider further commissioning research which would risk being outdated and ultimately not significantly increasing our understanding of how powers are used. All forces must also put a proper system in place for conducting internal reviews of body worn video to ensure stop and searches are being carried out in line with College of Policing stop and search guidance. All forces should ensure that in addition to their internal reviews of body worn video, they also put arrangements in place for external reviews of body worn video involving community representatives both to build confidence and ensure improvements are made.