Inquiry into CPS racism is dropped

The commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has called off its investigation into the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) a year after the Director of Public Prosecutions admitted that his organisation was institutionally racist.

Investigators said yesterday they were satisfied with progress the CPS had made. In July last year an independent report commissioned by the director, Sir David Calvert-Smith QC, found the service to be institutional racist and recommended far-reaching changes.

Mr Calvert-Smith QC said at the time: "Albeit without intending to, our behaviour can, does and has discriminated. I unreservedly accept the finding that as an organisation the CPS has been, within the Lawrence report definition, institutionally racist."

The report's author, Sylvia Denman, said her inquiry, which was chiefly concerned with the impact of racial discrimination on CPS staff, also raised questions about whether racism was filtering into prosecutors' work in the courts. She accused managers of "unwarranted complacency over the possibility of race discrimination in the prosecution process", and of giving a misleading summary of a research project on the issue.

She said the research, which the CPS suggested had "cleared" the service, actually suggested it was discriminating against ethnic minority defendants by failing to correct the bias in police charging decisions and allowing a disproportionate number of weak cases against ethnic minority defendants to go to trial.

Since then, the CPS has begun reviewing thousands of criminal cases for racist and sexist practice in the service. It has also sent all its prosecutors on racial awareness training courses.

Yesterday the CRE said it would be working with the CPS "to assist in its continued progress towards the elimination of racial discrimination". Under the agreement, the organisations will work to ensure complaints of racial discrimination, harassment or bullying are handled fairly; that progress is made on grievance and employment tribunal cases and representation of ethnic minority groups improves.