STATISTICS FROM THE MONITORING EXERCISE CONDUCTED BY THE CROWN OFFICE AND PROCURATOR FISCAL SERVICE OF THE POLICE COMPLIANCE WITH THE LORD ADVOCATE'S GUIDELINES FOR THE REPORTING OF RACIST CRIME
These statistics were compiled from copies of police reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal throughout Scotland in the periods 1st October 2002 to 31 March 2003 and 1st to 31st October 2003. There were 439 reports examined.
· Racist Incident Monitoring Forms (RIMFs) were submitted to the PF along with the Standard Prosecution Report (SPR) crime report in 59% of cases.
· 93% of cases were correctly identified by the police as having a racist element.
· 57% of reports were submitted to the PF by the required methods - custody/undertaking/prompt report for warrant or other reason.
· 64% of reports set out the perception of the victim or witnesses as to the motive for the crime.
· 34% of reports set out the impact of the crime on the victim.
· 48% of cases reports set out the impact of the crime on the victim's family and community - 43% of those reports that did not contain this information should have done so.
· 31% of reports involved a victim, witness or accused whose first language was not English - 94% of those reports dealt properly with their interpretation needs and 98% of those reports dealt properly with the need for translation of documentation.
· Where the need for an interpreter was identified, 19% of those reports specified both language and dialect.
· 8% of reports recommended an interpreter for court purposes and of them 21% specified the ethnic and religious background of the person requiring the interpreter.
· 20% of reports indicated that the police had required to use an interpreter during their investigation of the case to date, and of those reports 70% specified the identity of that interpreter.
· Procurators Fiscal required to alter the type of charge in 25% of cases.
· Procurators Fiscal complied with prosecution policy in 97% of cases.