The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 places a clear duty to promote race equality on a wide range of public authorities including the Police Service. This duty, referred to within the Act as the general duty is set out within Section 7 (1) of the Act, which states:

Every body or other person specified in Schedule 1A or of a description falling within that schedule shall, in carrying out its functions, have due regard to the need

a) to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; and

b) to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups.

The Act also gives enforcement powers to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), to include a Statutory Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Race Equality, which came into effect on the 31 May 2002, following approval by Parliament.

The general duty aims to make the promotion of race equality central to the way public authorities work, by placing it at the centre of policy making, service delivery, regulation, enforcement and employment practice. Promoting race equality will improve the way public services are delivered for everyone, promoting trust and confidence in those who make use of such services.

In addition to the general duty to promote race equality, the Police Service is bound by specific duties. These specific duties involve making arrangements that will help public authorities to meet the general duty and can be summarised as follows.

• Arrangements for prioritising functions and policies relevant to the general duty
• Arrangements for assessing and consulting on the likely impact of proposed policies relevant to the general duty
• Arrangements for monitoring policies relevant to the general duty for adverse impact.
• Arrangements for publishing assessment, consultation and monitoring reports.
• Arrangements to ensure public access to information and services.
• Arrangements for the training of staff.

The specific duty for all public authority employers places a requirement for ethnic monitoring to be both statistically analysed and published annually. Article 5 of the Race Relations Act 1976 (Statutory Duties) Order 2001 makes this provision clear by requiring every public authority to monitor, by reference to their racial group, the numbers of:

1. staff in post, and
2. applications for employment, training and promotion, from each such group.

Where a public authority has 150 or more full time staff, it is also the duty of that authority to monitor, by racial group, the numbers of staff who:

• receive training;
• benefit or suffer from performance appraisals;
• are involved in grievances;
• are subject to disciplinary action;
• end their service (for whatever reason).

The Police Service, much like other public authorities, is subject to the provisions of appendix II to the CRE codes and therefore has to produce a Race Equality Scheme.

A race equality scheme is both a strategy and a timetabled and realistic action plan, which illustrates how a public authority intends to carry out the individual parts of the specific duty, in other words the arrangements for assessing, consulting, monitoring, informing, publishing and training.

The Avon and Somerset Race Equality Scheme sets out the methods, procedures and protocols currently in operation across the Constabulary to meet both the general and specific duty to promote race equality. The scheme includes an action checklist for internal and external functions, listing key areas of responsibility and ownership, clearly defined throughout every level of service delivery within the organisation.

This latest and most revised version of the document is the fourth edition to be published, which takes into consideration some of the key findings now emanating from the Commission for Racial Equality's formal investigation into the Police Service. Some of the changes and/or additions to the format and content of the document now include:

• The comprehensive list of policies and functions currently in operation within our organisation that bear relevance to the General Duty to promote Race Equality.
• An insight into the methods and processes used to assess and consult on policies and functions for any potential adverse impact on Race Equality.
• Information detailing the systems currently in place to monitor policies and functions for adverse impact on Race Equality.
• Details of our publishing arrangements alongside a comprehensive summary of our network for providing information and services to the public.
• A breakdown of our in-force training programme and employment statistics.

The scheme also contains our Race Equality Scheme Action plan for 2005/06, which can be found as an appendix to the main document.

Further information on our Race Equality Scheme or any other area of Diversity can be obtained from the Headquarters Community Safety Group, who are contactable on 01275 816894.