EHRC attacks authorities for failure to recognise role in preventing hate crime

Some local authorities, police forces and social landlords are failing to recognise their role in preventing hate crime, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has claimed.

The comments came after the publication of research showing a slight decrease in the number of hate crimes, with 47,229 recorded by the police service in England and Wales in 2010 – down from 50,868 in 2009.

However, the EHRC argued that far too many people were still being targeted for crime and violence because of who they are.

It said the data should service as “a stark reminder to all public authorities of their duty to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful harassment, advance equality and foster good relations”.

The Commission also maintained that there was still significant under reporting of certain types of hate crime, such as disability related harassment.

An EHRC research project also looked at what more than 200 public authorities were doing to address this problem. The study – Public authority commitment and action to eliminate targeted harassment and violence – found that:

• More than 90% of respondents said their policies included something in them about harassment targeted at people on the grounds of either age, disability, race, gender, transgender status, religion or belief, or sexual orientation
• Around 4 in 10 said they had action plans on targeted harassment. These were most likely to be on race and least likely to be for age. Police authorities were more likely and RSLs less likely than other authorities to have action plans
• More than half of the sample did not use data on the prevalence of harassment across any of the different forms
• Almost half of the authorities reported that they had not conducted equality impact assessments for any of the different groups. Local authorities were most likely to have conducted EIAs, especially for race/ethnicity
• Some 95% of respondent authorities worked in partnership with other organisations to tackle the issue. Nearly two thirds (64%) said they worked with third sector organisations
• Just over half had developed multi-agency information sharing. Local authorities were more likely than other bodies to have put this in place
• Nearly a fifth (19%) of those who recognised that they have a role reported taking no form of action to prevent targeted harassment. The proportion was higher among local authorities (22%) than RSLs (15%) and the police (12%)
• Only 5% of respondents did not recognise that they had a role in helping people to report targeted harassment. Just 11% did not recognise they have a role in recording incidents of targeted harassment
• Only 78% of local authorities considered they had a role in helping victims of targeted harassment compared to all police forces and the vast majority of RSLs
• Over 4 in 10 (44%) respondents did not recognise they had a role to play in working with perpetrators. Four in five RSLs said they had such a role, compared to 52% of local authorities and 50% of police forces
• Many respondents were concerned about the impact of public sector spending cuts upon their ability to deliver ongoing staff training and awareness-raising.

The researchers said that translating good intentions expressed in policy into action that made a positive difference to people experiencing targeted harassment remained a key challenge. They also called on public authorities to develop more preventative measures.

Mark Hammond, Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Based on this evidence, we have made a number of recommendations to public authorities so that they can improve the way they tackle targeted violence. We’ve also highlighted the successful approaches have been shown to help turn good intentions into positive outcomes for the victims of targeted violence.”

The Commission has made three recommendations on the basis of the research:

1. Public authorities should identify how they can tackle targeted harassment through delivery of the public sector equality duty
2. Community safety partnerships should identify how they can play their part in ending targeted harassment
3. Future guidance on targeted harassment needs to support public authorities to turn good intentions into action that delivers positive outcomes.

To find out the EHRC believes these recommendations can be achieved, click here.