Written question asked by Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Neville-Jones (Conservative) on Wednesday, 10 November 2010.

Crime: Race and Criminal Justice Statistics

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord McNally on 22 October (WA 205), what the obstacle is to police forces identifying racially and religiously aggravated offences separately; and whether they will ensure that in future those data are of sufficient quality to be published in the annual Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System.

Answer: Police forces record crimes in accordance with the law and the provisions set out in the Home Office Counting Rules for Recorded Crime (HOCR). The relevant legislation (the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 as added to by the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001) created a single offence of racial or religious aggravation. Police recorded crime statistics currently include racially and religiously aggravated offences as set out in law. The Home Office plans to require forces to submit more detailed information on these and other notifiable offences from April 2011 which will provide additional data to show the split between the racial and religious elements. Police data on racially or religiously aggravated offences have been published in the Race and the Criminal Justice System report since 2002 and tables showing the figures for individual police force areas have been published since 2003. Once new proposals by the Home Office are in place, The Ministry of Justice’s chief statistician will be responsible for any decision concerning the inclusion of these new data in subsequent reports dependent on their quality.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 3367; 722 c76-7WA
Session: 2010-12
Related items: Crime: Race and Criminal Justice Statistics
Friday, 22 October 2010
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: Police Racially aggravated offences Statistics Religiously aggravated offences
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk