Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Third Report - The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on
Home Affairs Committee
HC 139
Published 30 July 2021
Recommendations
45
Accepted in Part
Para 269
Progress addressing ethnic disparity in police misconduct requires consistent monitoring and a future audit.
Recommendation
We take some encouragement from the NPCC’s national review into ethnic disparity in police misconduct and the work done by some individual forces to attempt to close the gap. The follow-up work from this review which has been reported to …
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Government Response Summary
The government welcomes the new Race Action Plan (May 2022), which will ensure consistent publication of misconduct data broken down by ethnicity. The Home Office will also review the police misconduct system with NPCC and IOPC, with terms set in summer 2022, to ensure fairness and effectiveness.
Home Office
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46
Accepted in Part
Professional Standards Departments lack BME representation and face institutional racism perceptions.
Recommendation
Police forces must act swiftly to address perceptions that Professional Standards Departments are marked by institutionally racist practices. In addition, forces must address unacceptable racial disproportionality in their composition: it is totally unacceptable that 63% of all Professional Standards Departments …
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Government Response Summary
The government welcomes the NPCC and College of Policing's new Race Action Plan, to be published in May 2022, which will address disproportionality in misconduct cases and ensure consistent data publication. The Home Office also commits to reviewing the police misconduct system with the NPCC and IOPC, setting out terms and timelines in summer 2022.
Home Office
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70
Accepted in Part
Para 517
Include explicit anti-racism focus in police officer training, examining racial disparities and outcomes.
Recommendation
Training for officers in addressing racism and valuing cultural diversity remains as important now as it was when the Macpherson report recommended it twenty-two years ago. But we are concerned by the disproportionate reliance on unconscious bias training that was …
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Government Response Summary
The government commits to supporting the College and NPCC by autumn 2024 to review and improve police officer training in de-escalation and conflict management, and refers to the 'Race Action Plan' which includes measures to improve policing.
Home Office
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71
Accepted in Part
Para 518
Mandate comprehensive review and overhaul of police anti-racism training by College of Policing.
Recommendation
We would like to see consistency in the quality and content of training delivered at a local and service wide level. To this end we recommend a comprehensive review and overhaul of training on racism, diversity and equality, led by …
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Government Response Summary
The government commits to supporting the College and NPCC by autumn 2024 to review and improve police officer training in de-escalation and conflict management, and references the new 'Race Action Plan', but does not explicitly commit to a comprehensive overhaul for national anti-racist training standards involving local communities.
Home Office
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Conclusions (5)
57
Conclusion
Accepted in Part
Para 424
We have heard about a number of important initiatives designed to improve the experience of stops, and particularly welcome those referred to in this report that have been introduced by both BME community leaders and police forces to foster more honest and transparent discussion about stop and search. However, there …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees on the importance of training and states that existing training and guidelines, including new conflict management guidelines, are already in place and part of the new curriculum. It further commits to supporting a review and delivery of any necessary improvements to de-escalation and conflict management training by autumn 2024 as part of the Inclusive Britain report.
58
Conclusion
Accepted in Part
We believe that the confidence of local communities will only be earned if there is proper, independent oversight of stop and search, by the community at a local level and, at a national level, by HMICFRS and the Home Office. All forces should ensure 186 The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years …
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges that external reviews of body worn video with community panels are already happening in 'a number of forces' and commits to exploring how best to facilitate wider sharing of BWV footage with local scrutiny panels and sharing best practice to improve scrutiny.
60
Conclusion
Accepted in Part
Para 466
The Metropolitan Police developed the Gangs Violence Matrix as a new way to provide intelligence to tackle serious gang related violence and crime in London, but without robust systems in place to consider racial disproportionality on the database, ensure proper oversight or sustain community confidence. As a result, considerable community …
Government Response Summary
The government commits to developing a national ethics framework for policing which will apply to new technologies and data processing, addressing the 'wider efforts' part of the recommendation. However, it does not explicitly refer to MOPAC's commitment regarding the Gangs Violence Matrix.
63
Conclusion
Accepted in Part
Para 469
New technologies have the potential either to re-build community confidence and/ or to badly damage it, depending on the technology, on the way it is introduced and the nature of the oversight. The introduction of police body-worn cameras, if done properly, is a new technology that could help to rebuild …
Government Response Summary
The government highlights that updated guidance for BWV use, supervisory review, and sharing footage with scrutiny panels was issued in July 2020 and adopted by most forces. It also commits to exploring how best to facilitate sharing BWV footage with local scrutiny panels and to share best practice to improve scrutiny and consistency.
89
Conclusion
Accepted in Part
Para 592
The College of Policing has an important role to play in providing training, guidance and standards for police forces to follow. Although it has developed training and guidance on stop and search, it has not played a strong enough role in ensuring that officer training is focused specifically on anti-racism …
Government Response Summary
The government supports the College of Policing's role in training and commits to supporting the College and NPCC by autumn 2024 to review and improve police officer training in areas like de-escalation skills and conflict management.