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; 2005 - News Release
6th June 2006
Police Improve Reporting of Racist Cases
The attached findings are from the second survey, commissioned jointly by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, into the content of police reports about racist incidents submitted to Procurators Fiscal. The survey also looks at how Procurators Fiscal are processing these reports. The survey was carried out between January and June 2005. It is the second such survey to have taken place since the Lord Advocate issued guidelines to the police on what type of information that should be included in reports to the Procurator Fiscal.
The review, which examined over 600 police reports from across Scotland over a six month period, found an increase of just under 60% in the number of reports where police recorded the impact of the crime on the victim's family and community. There's also an increase of more than 40% of reports where the impact of the crime on the victim has been set out.
Police have also increasingly identified the need for an interpreter, and specified both the language and dialect, as well as noting the ethnic and religious background of people requiring interpreting services.
The police electronically submit crime reports to Procurators Fiscal in a format called the Standard Prosecution Report. These surveys are intended to show what information is being included in SPRs about racist crimes.
The first survey was published in January 2004 and was carried out before an automatic system was introduced which prompts reporting officers to answer specific questions in all cases which are identified as racist incidents before the SPR can be completed and submitted to the Procurator Fiscal. These prompts act as a reminder to officers to include the information required by the Lord Advocate's Guidelines.
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; 2005
These statistics were compiled from copies of police reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal throughout Scotland and reflect information gathered in a six-month period from the 1st of January 2005 to 30th June 2005.
There were 634 reports examined during this period.
· Racist Incident Monitoring Forms (RIMFs) or their equivalent were provided to the PF in 76.5% of instances.
· 79% of reports advised of perception of the victim and witnesses as to whether an incident was racist or not were correctly identified by the police.
· 31.5%. of reports were submitted to the PF as ordinary reports in ordinary time not, by the required methods - custody/undertaking/prompt report for warrant or other reason.
· 74.5% of reports set out the impact of the crime on the victim.
· 69%.of case reports set out the impact of the crime on the victim's family and community.
· 13.25% of reports demonstrated that the interpreting needs of an accused and/or witness were not addressed.
· Where the need for an interpreter was identified, 57% of those reports specified both language and dialect.
· 56.5%. of reports in which assessment of interpreting needs provided included information on the ethnic and religious background of the individuals requiring interpreting services.
· 14.75% of reports demonstrated that the translation needs of an accused and/or witnesses were not addressed.
· Procurators Fiscal required to alter the type of charge in 39.5% of cases.
· Procurators Fiscals failed to comply with prosecution policy in 1.25% of reports.
· In 2% of cases, prosecution policy was not complied with by the Prosecutor at court stage (after consideration by Area Procurator fiscal).
· 8% of reports were marked for "No Proceedings."
· There were 29% of cases/reports in which convictions were obtained after pleas of guilty.
· There were 4% of reports in which pleas of guilty were accepted after whole or partial deletion of the racial element.
· There were 91% of reports in which proceedings taken by a Procurator fiscal included either the Section 50A offences of racially aggravated harassment and behaviour or the Section 96 racial aggravation.
· 3% of reports included Section 50A(1)(a) offences.
· 81% of reports included Section 50A(1)(b) offences.
· 18% of reports included Section 96 aggravation.
· 2% of reports were marked for "Warning Letters."
· 317 police reports received contained racially aggravated charges or the statutory racial aggravation.
· 12 police reports included a racist incident but no racially aggravated charges or the statutory racial aggravation.