Cross Justice Working Group on Race Data and Evidence minutes: November 2020

Attendees and apologies

Organisation:

• SG – Justice Analytical Services (JAS)
• SG – Police Division
• SG – CAD – (Communities Analytical Division)
• SCTS (Scottish Courts and Tribunal Services)
• SLAB (Scottish Legal Aid Board)
• CRER (Coalition for Racial and Equality Rights)
• Glasgow University; SCCJR (Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research)
• SPS (Scottish Prison Service)
• COPFS (Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service)
• PS (Police Scotland)
• Dundee University SIPR (Scottish Institute for Policing Research)
• Parole Board
• CEMVO Scotland (The Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations)

Items and actions

Introductions and apologies

JAS welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for attending. 

JAS asked the group to think about the minutes for these meetings and our plan to publish these. Colleagues were in favour of this.

Hate crime update 

JAS gave a brief update on the  Hate Crime research project.

The team will soon  share and discuss  provisional findings with colleagues, starting with Police Scotland. The aim is to produce the final report in February 2021. 

JAS highlighted that once the final report is published, the group can reflect on and discuss ways to improve hate crime data going forward.

Existing evidence overview – presentations given on Quantitative and Qualitative evidence, based on an audit research on ethnicity and justice looking at possible gaps, key questions we want answered and areas to focus on going forward.

There was a brief discussion following the presentations

It has been advised that as we progress, we may discover better ways to link data from different sources e.g. recorded crime, criminal proceeding and prison data, however gaps at the policing end of the spectrum may prove to be more challenging.
 A question was raised as to whether the work completed so far had made any attempt to distinguish between hate crime on those of visible minority ethnicities and those not (e.g. Gypsy or Roma Travellers etc.).

Workshop discussions 

The Group was divided into two teams looking specifically at which questions are our priorities going forward and what changes need to be made.

Setting priorities 

Map out next steps and work on a plan to improve the data going forward  

AOB

It was mentioned that PIRC may be a welcome addition to the group.

Date of next meeting

Next neeting to be arranged for January 2021 .