Question reference: S5W-09714
- Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 16 June 2017
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Current status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 28 June 2017
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07442 by Annabelle Ewing on 13 March 2017, for what reason (a) it and (b) the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service does not hold information on the faith group, gender, race, or country of origin of victims of racist or religious hate crime, and what its position is on collecting such information when implementing the recommendations of the Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion.
Answer
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and Scottish Government’s statistics on court proceedings are derived from IT systems designed to facilitate operational needs of reporting crime and prosecuting individuals. These systems were not primarily designed for the reporting of the characteristics of victims of hate crime.
Dr Morrow’s independent advisory group on Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion reported in September 2016 and recommended that the SG works with partners to improve the monitoring and data collection in relation to hate crime, and to develop methods to include qualitative indices of improvement in community cohesion for minorities.
We are currently working with Police Scotland as they develop the data they hold on their Vulnerable Persons Database with a view to producing new analysis on police recorded Hate Incidents (which would include incidents with a race or religious element). We anticipate a further update for users on the development of this work later in the year.