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INSPECTORATE OF PROSECUTION IN SCOTLAND
Thematic Report on Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal
Service's Response on Race Issues
CHAPTER 6
RACE EQUALITY SCHEME
Dr Jandoo's report was published in
October 2001 and the Scottish Parliament debated it on 7
November 2001.
As stated Dr Jandoo's main findings were
that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service had
failed to liaise appropriately with the bereaved relatives
and partner of Surjit Singh Chhokar. He found evidence of
institutional racism in the handling of liaison
arrangements with the bereaved relatives and partner in
particular the failure to translate correspondence to the
parents together with a failure to have adequate cultural
awareness material available to Fiscals. There was also a
failure to recognise the need for interpreting services for
the parents at the first trial in 1998.
Following publication of Dr Jandoo's
report, the Lord Advocate and Minister for Justice accepted
all recommendations in the report and a commitment
was made to learn from the mistakes. This report has as one
of its principal aims an analysis of how far the Department
has moved in the past 6 years and learned from the mistakes
made. Public confidence in the prosecution system was at
stake.
"People feel that in the Chhokar case that people did
not feel the death of an Asian was important enough and
there was not the commitment to take cases like this."
(Minority ethnic focus group member, Glasgow, 9
September 2004)
Dr Jandoo in his report made 40
recommendations, some aimed at the Crown Office singly,
some at the Crown Office and Police jointly, some at the
Police singly, one at the Scottish Executive Justice
Department and one at the Law Society of Scotland (on the
guidance on the selection, vetting and training of
Precognition Agents and a code of practice for them).
Having accepted all of Dr Jandoo's
recommendations the Department lost no time in devising an
implementation strategy. A 'Jandoo' Action Plan was devised
dealing with his recommendations, which were specific to
the Department or joint with the police.
The Plan detailed the relevant 'Jandoo'
recommendations and outlined what the Department would do
and by when. In our view this was a sensible and logical
approach to the recommendations and provided an immediate
template against which progress could be measured. It
enabled the then recently formed Race Strategy Group to
have a means to measure and monitor progress. The
Department has continued to review the plan (as recently as
June 2004) and itself highlights the following as key
milestones:-
- Lord Advocate's Guidelines to Chief Constables in
June 2001 (revised February 2002) in which the language
and cultural needs of bereaved relatives are required
to be addressed in police reports;
- Systems to facilitate translation of correspondence
established;
- Race Strategy Group and Area Teams established to
lead on development of Race Strategy (now
Diversity);
- A joint working group on race issues established
with Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland
(ACPOS);
- The creation of the departmental Race (now
Diversity) Team to deliver implementation of the Jandoo
recommendations and requirements of the Race Relations
(Amendment) Act 2000;
- Departmental membership of the Scottish Executive
Race Equality Scheme Implementation Group (RESIG);
- Establishment of the Victim Information and Advice
office to cover inter alia victims in all cases of
racist crime;
- The rollout of a 2-day Diversity Awareness course
for every member of the Department;
- The creation of a working group on the provision of
interpreting and translation services involving the
Department, ACPOS, the Scottish Court Service and the
Law Society of Scotland;
- The creation of an Equality Advisory Group to
provide guidance and assistance on the development of
policy within the Department and in particular to help
assess the impact of departmental policies on race
equality.
The Jandoo Plan was published in 2001
with a commitment to deliver on its terms.
Many of the recommendations have been
reviewed elsewhere in this report particularly those
relating to interpreters (Jandoo recommendation 10), the
Race Strategy Group (Jandoo recommendation 12), the
establishment of Area Race Teams (Jandoo recommendation
14), the gathering of information of the ethnic origin of
service users (Jandoo recommendation 15), the creation of a
Cultural Awareness Guide (Jandoo recommendation 16), the
translation of documents (Jandoo recommendation 17), the
requirements of the Standard Police Report in relation to
the language needs of witnesses/next of kin (Jandoo
recommendation 24), the respecting of funeral arrangements
(Jandoo recommendation 36).
Some of the other recommendations will
be considered in our next report on victims and witnesses
generally.
The approach to the implementation of Dr
Jandoo's recommendations has been thorough and largely
achieved. Our comments elsewhere relate to detail, overall
the commitment to deliver on its terms has been extensively
met.
The Chhokar case started in 1998. For
comparison purposes we have looked at the way a more recent
murder involving a Kurdish Asylum Seeker was handled.
Firsat Dag was fatally stabbed in Sighthill, Glasgow on 5
August 2001. On 18 August 2001 the police arrested Scott
Burrell and charged him with the murder. On 7 December 2001
his trial and that of a co-accused started in Glasgow. On
13 December 2001 the jury were told that Mr Dag's murder
was no longer being treated as a racial killing. The
indictment (ie the charge) had initially alleged that there
was a racial aspect to the killing. The jury then convicted
Burrell of the murder and on 14 December 2001 he was
sentenced to life imprisonment.
As part of the lead up to the case two
uncles of the deceased came across from Turkey and with the
aid of an interpreter were seen by a member of the Fiscal's
staff and the process explained to them. The family back in
Turkey were also kept up-to-date using a local
interpreter.
Prior to the trial it was decided to
cite the two uncles and also arrange for the deceased's
father to travel from Turkey. The Glasgow Fiscal's Office
arranged this.
The two uncles and the father were met
by police at the airport, taken to a hotel and a member of
the Fiscal's staff preparing the case kept in contact with
them. He met with them and through an interpreter the
procedure was explained to them.
During the trial they sat in the public
gallery with the aid of an interpreter and at the lunch
break and at the end of each court day they were seen by a
member of the Fiscal's staff and any questions answered.
Arrangements were always at hand to have them escorted to
and from the court by Police Family Liaison Officers.
The main witness was also a young Asylum
Seeker friend of the deceased and arrangements were made
for him to meet with the interpreter to be used in court
prior to him giving evidence. The indictment was also
translated into Turkish and a copy provided for the
family.
At the conclusion of the trial the
Advocate Depute (the prosecutor) spoke to the family who
thanked him and the Fiscal's staff for their efforts.
This in our opinion shows that the
lessons of the Chhokar case had been learned and put into
practice and hopefully will be closer to the norm from now
on.
The Race Equality Scheme and Race Equality
Action Plan
The 2000 Race Relations (Amendment) Act
required public authorities to prepare and publish a Race
Equality Scheme by 30 November 2002 setting out how they
intended to meet the obligations under the general duty and
any other proposed specific duties to promote race equality
which were relevant to their work. This included the
requirement to assess which of their functions and policies
were relevant to the general duty with regular subsequent
reviews (3 years was proposed). It also required
authorities to set out their arrangements for assessing and
consulting on the impact on the promotion of race equality
of policies proposed to be adopted. It also required that
arrangements for monitoring for any adverse impact on the
promotion of race equality or policies adopted or proposed
be set out. Arrangements for publishing the results of
assessments, consultation and monitoring were also to be
set out as also arrangements for ensuring minorities had
access to information and to services provided and that
arrangements for training staff on issues relevant to the
duty to promote race equality be also set out.
As previously stated, in Scotland the
requirement to publish the Race Equality Scheme rested on
Scottish Ministers collectively and the Scottish Executive
published an overarching Race Equality Scheme. The Crown
Office and Procurator Fiscal Service published a detailed
Race Equality Action Plan (REAP) to guide the work of the
Department on race equality matters during the life of the
Executive's Race Equality Scheme (this was November 2002 -
November 2005). The REAP was published on the Departmental
website on 30 November 2002 (
www.crownoffice.gov.uk).
The Jandoo Action Plan was the immediate
action taken after the Chhokar case but has been itself to
a large extent superseded by the REAP.
The 'in house' monitoring of the REAP is
a core function of the Race (now Diversity) Strategy Group.
The creation of the 11 Area Resource Teams with the aim of
implementing strategy at local and Area levels with their
obligation originally to report to the Race Strategy Group
and now as discussed elsewhere the Legal and Policy Forum
and Management Board were the main vehicles for delivery of
the overall strategy.
The REAP analyses the work of the Crown
Office and Procurator Fiscal Service by dividing it into
various columns headed 'Function', 'Relevance to the
General Duty', a column headed 'What we have done already',
a column headed 'What we will do' and a final column headed
'By when'.
Each facet of the work of the Department
is looked at under each of these headings.
Not surprisingly given its central role
in the criminal justice system the Crown Office and
Procurator Fiscal Service in relation to analysing its
functions has decided that most if not all of these have a
high relevance to the general duty. Indeed only the work in
relation to the supervision of charities (now going
elsewhere) and the collection of property falling to the
Crown are described as either medium or low.
The REAP was carefully prepared to meet
the obligations imposed by the Race Relations (Amendment)
Act 2000. Again this has provided a very useful template
(similar to the Jandoo Action Plan) to set out what is to
be done and allow for monitoring of performance.
The Department as part of the work of
the Diversity Strategy Group reviewed the REAP after the
first year. A number of milestones in the first year were
achieved including:-
- The prosecution of racist crime;
- Interpreting/translation;
- Diversity awareness. The rollout of these courses
commenced in November 2003;
- The Equality Advisory Group.
Slippage had occurred in the monitoring
exercise for death and related criminal cases and it was
decided to extend this for 4 months. At the time of writing
this has still not taken place but is due to commence
shortly.
It was also recognised that more work
had to be done on monitoring and impact assessment of
policy.
A slight softening on the policy of
prosecution of race crime was highlighted to allow warning
letters in exceptional circumstances.
The findings of the CRE survey in
December 2003 referred to previously were discussed at a
meeting of RESIG and members of COPFS Diversity Team were
in attendance. COPFS had not been one of the bodies looked
at. Strengths were found to be in the area of publishing
and training but the main problem area was seen to be the
thinking behind impact assessment.
We have commented elsewhere on the
race-proofing tool devised by COPFS and the CRE website.
The worst feature in terms of compliance was monitoring of
the employment duty (only 7% of schemes looked at had made
arrangements for this). We have commented on COPFS
monitoring in our Chapter on Employment.
The CRE had 3 generic recommendations
for public authorities:-
- Keeping the legislation under review;
- Providing practical guidelines;
- Supporting strategic partners.
In particular in relation to the
Scottish Executive the CRE called for it to ensure that all
Departments take responsibility for the promotion of
equality and that responsibility for the implementation of
the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 rested at a senior
level within each Department. The Crown Office and
Procurator Fiscal Service score highly here in having both
top management and ministerial input as discussed
elsewhere. In addition the CRE recommended that the
Scottish Executive both at ministerial and administrative
levels took a strategic approach to promoting and
implementing the 2000 Act and that Departments should
include racial equality objectives in their programmes for
managing change and modernisation and that the Race
Equality Schemes should be linked with the business
planning and budget process.
From the Crown Office and Procurator
Fiscal Service perspective the issues of impact assessment
and what would constitute good practice were seen as
especially relevant and also the issue of "mainstreaming".
The Department continued to look at ways to build on the
numerous publications, guidance tools and diversity
awareness programme to ensure this mainstreaming took
place.
Continuing review includes:-
- Policy on racist crime;
- Diversity awareness courses;
- The performance of the police in relation to race
cases;
- The REAP being amended by adding additional
objectives for year 4 including the review of the role
and responsibilities of the Area Resource Teams (as
discussed elsewhere) and the Diversity Team;
- A Diversity Action Plan being published as an
Annexe to the REAP and the Area Resource Teams are seen
as the main vehicle for implementation of this;
- The Race (now Diversity) Proofing Tool being
updated to include practical examples;
- The Cultural Awareness Guide (available on the
Departmental Intranet) being re-packaged and sent out
as part of pre-course reading material to participants
in the Diversity Awareness Programme;
"The Diversity Awareness Programme is really good. I
really enjoyed it."
(Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
staff member, October 2004)
- The translation of material and sensibly through
the working of WGIT a criminal justice wide policy is
being attempted on the translation of documents and the
categories of languages required;
- The performance of the Equality Advisory Group
(discussed elsewhere);
- A review of recruitment policy, practice and
outreach work. This will review diversity generally
including disability, gender and age;
- The development and piloting of a Diversity Action
Plan (now published).
Individual units of Crown Office were
not reviewed and this has been carried forward.
The Department commissioned a study to
look at the monitoring of ethnicity of accused, victims and
witnesses (the Reid Howie Report) which is being considered
by RESIG to enable a system-wide approach to be taken which
will make for more meaningful cross agency monitoring.
These examples show a Department willing
to adapt and build on experience both internally and
externally. The COPFS membership of RESIG is particularly
useful. The REAP is seen as a possible model for others
although sensibly the Department itself advises caution in
that regard. One example of the benefit of COPFS membership
of RESIG is the commissioning of the Reid Howie Report
referred to above and its likely use across the criminal
justice system. The COPFS structure of the Diversity
Strategy Group at the centre with its ministerial input and
Area Resource Teams "in the field" is seen at RESIG as a
particularly useful way of translating policy into practice
together with the existence of the Diversity Team itself to
act as a catalyst and driver.
COPFS has been able to share with other
RESIG members the benefit of its experience in assessing
the likely impact of proposed policies on the minority
communities and for reviewing the actual impact once policy
becomes practice.
Overall we found no signs of complacency
in developing policies and practices in this field and the
approach to the overall strategy appears to be well founded
and in tune with the published strategic aim of COPFS -
"We aim to play a pivotal role in the achievement
of the purpose of the Criminal Justice System of
maintaining the security and confidence of the people
of Scotland by providing just and effective means by
which crimes may be investigated and offenders brought
to justice."
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