The Scottish Government

OFFICE INSPECTION - INVERNESS

28 SEPTEMBER 2005

Background

We are committed to regular audits of District and Area Offices to ensure compliance with race relations, policies and strategies.

This is our report of the Procurator Fiscal's Office at Inverness. The Inverness office is part of the Highlands and Islands Area.

Methodology

Our approach to the office inspections involved consideration of the following areas:

• Adherence to policy guidelines in relation to prosecution of racist crime
• Use of interpreters and translation issues
• Employment issues
• Consultation with communities
• Deaths involving racial and/or cultural awareness issues.

The following measures were taken to inform the inspection process.

Sampling of Race Charges

COPFS has a single corporate database (herein referred to as the National Database) that connects all Procurator Fiscal Offices and Crown Office units, and facilitates the transfer of legal casework. An extract of data from the National Database was obtained from Management Information Division in Crown Office, containing details of all charges with a racial element reported to Fiscal Offices over the course of financial years 2003-04 and 2004-05. It is worth noting that the database is an operational one, not statistical, and hence is 'live', being constantly updated as cases progress. As such the extract was a 'snapshot' as at June 2005.

A sample of Section 50 racial charges and charges with Section 96 racial aggravations recorded against them was drawn from the data for 2004-05 and the related case papers were requested from the office and examined by the team. The charges in the sample drawn were charges that appeared, as recorded on the database, to have been dealt with in accordance with the guidelines - this part of the sampling exercise was designed simply to be an independent check on compliance with policy.

The charges were drawn using a stratified random sampling method. For details on the sampling methodology employed, please contact Kirsty MacLean (e-mail Kirsty.maclean@scotland.gsi.gov.uk) or telephone 0141 229 6203).

Additionally all case papers containing any charges which appeared, as recorded on the database, to have been dealt with in contravention to the guidelines, were specifically requested for examination. Since these charges were of particular interest to us, we requested the relevant case papers in relation any such charges from both 2003-04 and 2004-05.

The contraventions of policy that can be identified from examination of the data extract from the database are charges in respect of which a fiscal fine had been issued, or a warning letter. (Note however that revised guidance from Crown Office was issued to staff on 23 June 2004, which thereafter made it possible to issue a warning letter in exceptional circumstances, with the agreement of the Area Fiscal).

Case papers were also automatically requested which contained any charges that wee recorded on the database as being unmarked, or any charges where no proceedings had been taken due to a delay by any agency.

Similarly, charges reported to the Fiscal Office in 2004-05 that were recorded as being marked for no proceedings were specifically requested for examination, because the way in which the coding system employed by the National Database operates does not allow for recording of reason for a marking of 'no proceedings' at charge level.

Case papers were also requested to be made available on the day of inspection, regarding any deaths which were reported and investigated over a 12 month period where:

• special consideration was required, as defined in Annexe 3 in Chapter 12 of the Book of Regulations (racial and cultural awareness)
• the ethnicity of the deceased was in some way related to the cause of death (eg the murder of someone from a minority ethnic background).

A questionnaire covering a number of issues related to the areas for consideration (as outlined above) was sent to the office in advance of the inspection and returns were analysed to allow exploration of any issues raised in the returns, on the day of the inspection.

The composition of staff in post (numbers, grades and ethnicity) in the office was considered prior to the inspection visit. Similarly considered was the proportion of staff that had attended the Diversity Awareness Programme.

2001 Census data was obtained from the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) showing Sheriff Court Districts (which equate to Fiscal Office area) by ethnic group, to allow us to consider the staff ethnicity information in the context of local population ethnic mix.

Race Crime

Crown Office policy on the prosecution of racist crime is a robust one and the execution of the policy is closely monitored by the Department. A member of legal staff decides what course of action to take in each case, this is then checked by the District Fiscal for compliance with the Departmental policy and a copy of the case is then sent to the Area Fiscal. Responsibility for the monitoring of compliance in such cases lies with the Area Fiscal. Three-monthly reports from the Areas are considered at the Legal and Policy Forum.

Table 1 - Racial Charges and Racial Aggravations reported to the Inverness Fiscal Office, 2003-04 and 2004-05

The data extracted from the National Database revealed that in respect of the Inverness office, in financial year (FY) 2003-04:

• 3 Section 50A(1) (a) charges were reported

• 27 Section 50A(1) (b) charges were reported

• 29 charges with Section 96 aggravations recorded against them were reported

And in FY 2004-05:

• 1 Section 50A(1) (a) charge was reported

• 31 Section 50A(1) (b) charges were reported

• 29 charges with Section 96 aggravations recorded against them were reported

A total of 10 charges (9 case papers) were automatically requested for inspection. These consisted of:

• 6 charges recorded as being marked for 'no proceedings', reported in FY 2004-05

• 1 charge with a section 96 aggravation recorded against it, marked to receive a warning letter, reported in FY 2004-05

• 1 charge with a section 96 aggravation recorded against it, marked to receive a fiscal fine, reported in FY 2004-05

• 2 charges with a section 96 aggravation recorded against them, marked for 'no proceedings', reported in FY 2004-05

A sample of 16 Section 50A charges and 13 charges with Section 96 aggravations recorded against them was drawn, in addition to the charges which were automatically selected. Resulting from the sampling exercise therefore, a total of 30 case papers (39 charges) were subsequently requested for inspection.

Note that the number of case papers requested is not the same as number of charges drawn for sampling because a case can (and frequently does) contain more than one charge. Since the sampling was conducted at charge level, in some instances, more than one charge from a single case was selected into the sample. This meant that the number of case papers requested was lower than the number of individual charges selected.

In respect of the 10 charges that were automatically selected (as detailed above) we found that:

Of the 6 charges recorded as being marked for 'no proceedings':

• Two of these racial charges were changed to other charges with Section 96 aggravations recorded against them hence the racial element of the incidents was still pursued

• In respect of another two charges the decision to take no proceedings was correct

• In respect of another charge, the case in which it was contained was still active and had not yet reached the stage of disposal (the racial element of the incident(s) was still being pursued via Section 96 aggravations in another 2 charges

• The charge in the remaining case appeared to have been mistakenly identified by the police as having a racial element when it actually did not

Of the charge

it, which was marked to receive a warning letter, reported in FY 2004-05:

• Examination of the case papers revealed that the charge had been mistakenly identified by the police as having a racial element when in fact it did not

Of the charge with a Section 96 aggravation recorded against it, which was marked to receive a fiscal fine, reported in FY 2004-05:

• Examination of the case papers revealed that this case actually did not have a racial element -
  the code (describing type of aggravation) on the database that was used in this instance covers 3 types of aggravations - racial, bail and sexual offender order aggravations
  . It appears that in this instance the aggravation was not racial

Of the 2 charges with Section 96 aggravations recorded against them, recorded as being marked for 'no proceedings':

• The decision to take no proceedings was correct

Of the remaining 29 charges (21 cases), we found that two further cases that had in fact no racial element - in one case, it was again the code describing type of aggravation on the database that was used (also covering bail and sexual offender order aggravations) which led to the charge being selected for inspection. In the other case, there was no evidence to support the racial element of the charge that the police had made.

The office was unable to find two of the cases (containing 3 charges) that we had requested, but had looked out two additional (replacement) cases for inspection on the day of our visit. In respect therefore of the remaining 26 charges (19 cases), the office complied with Departmental policy on marking and conduct of court proceedings in all but one case (one charge). In this case a Section 50A(1) (b) charge should have been libelled instead of a breach of the peace.

With regard to 25 relevant cases, 13 had been referred to Victim Information and Advice Division (VIA) appropriately, whilst in the remaining 12 cases, it could not be ascertained if the referral to VIA had taken place. It can, however, be reasonably assumed.

Monitoring of race crime

The monitoring of race cases in Inverness (and for the Highlands and Islands Area) rests with the District Fiscal at Inverness. The system there is slightly different from other places in that rather than use the monitoring forms in use elsewhere the Fiscal gets information from the Police on all race cases and interrogates the computerised system to check on what happened to them. In particular the District Fiscal keeps all the Racial Incident Monitoring Forms completed by the Police.

However there is no real monitoring of what takes place in court except in so far as the information can be gleaned by the method described above.

This system has been evolved in Inverness because of the far flung nature of the District Offices. The office is now reviewing the position.

If issues arise regarding the Police reporting of race cases these issues can be raised at the Northern's Equality and Diversity Advisory Group on which the Highlands and Islands Fiscal Business Manager sits. They would be raised at Force executive level and the Police Head of Operations would issue instructions down the line to remedy any problem.

Where the District Fiscal has come across non-compliance or potential non-compliance in any of the offices covered in the Area a note is provided to the Area Fiscal highlighting the apparent non compliance and the case would be discussed with the District Fiscal by the Area Fiscal.

Interpreters

None of the cases evaluated required any sort of interpretation or translation for victims and witnesses. The complainers in many of the cases were Police Officers with English or Irish accents.

We did note from discussion with the Procurator Fiscal that, given the geographic location of the Inverness Office, it was understood that the Police encountered difficulties in getting interpreters for accused in custody.

Deaths

During the relevant time the Inverness Office had two deaths reported where there were cultural issues to be considered. The deaths concerned two Jewish men and occurred as a result of a road traffic accident. The Procurator Fiscal at Inverness arranged for early post mortems to allow their bodies to be released as soon as possible for Jewish burials. The Rabbi telephoned the Inverness office to convey his thanks for the way matters had been dealt with and expressed much appreciation for this.

Employment

Latest data [1] shows that 99 per cent of the population in the Inverness Sheriff Court District area is from a white background. Other ethnic groups make up the remaining one per cent of the population in the area.

As at 1st May 2005, the Inverness office had a staff of 28, consisting of:

Legal staff

• 1 member of the Senior Civil Service

• 1 Procurator Fiscal

• 2 Principal Deputes

• 5 Procurator Fiscal Deputes

• 1 Trainee Solicitor

• 2 Precognition Officers

Administrative staff

• 1 Band E Manager

• 1 Band D Manager

• 1 Band C

• 2 Personal Assistants

• 11 Band B staff

Small numbers (less than 5) prevent disclosure of the exact number of staff who are from a minority ethnic background (as self-reported to Human Resources Division in COPFS via survey) in the Inverness office. However, we concluded that minority ethnic representation in the office was in line with minority ethnic representation in the local population.

As at 1 June 2005, 63 per cent of staff in the Inverness office had attended the Departmental Diversity Awareness Programme; all relevant staff have re-scheduled.

Consultation

The Area Business Manager for Highlands and Islands is the Chair of HARE (the Highland Alliance for Racial Equality). This is the main vehicle for keeping in touch with the local ethnic minority community.

The Area has a number of immigrant workers particularly Polish and Kurdish Iraqis. They tend to work locally in the fish processing industry and the race offences which occur tend to involve them and one particular Police Officer.

Conclusions

The Inverness Office has a high level of compliance with Departmental policy relating to case marking and court proceedings regarding race crime. Of the cases reviewed there were none that had been dealt with by way of warning letter or a no-proceedings marking. Cases that should have been referred to VIA were done so in accordance with Departmental guidelines thus allowing victims and witnesses to obtain additional support and information. Our only concern was the monitoring of court procedure although compliance was high on the cases examined and the office is reviewing the position.

Departmental policy on deaths was complied with as narrated above.

The chairmanship of HARE being held by the Area Business Manager sends a good signal of the commitment to consultation.

[1] General register Office for Scotland 2001 Census of Population