Police Anti-Racism Initiative Slammed for ‘Shocking’ Decision to Hold Back £1.8 Million in Funding

A flagship police plan to combat racism within its ranks in England and Wales has failed to spend almost a third of its budget since its inception, in a revelation the National Black Police Association has branded “shocking”, with campaigners labelling the shortfall “beyond bewildering”.

The Police Race Action Plan (PRAP) was announced by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in 2020 amid concerns about community relations in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in May of that year by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin which ignited the Black Lives Matter movement worldwide.

The plan is described as “the biggest coordinated effort ever across every police force in England and Wales to improve trust and confidence in policing among Black communities”.

Black people are disproportionately represented in stop and search, use of force, and strip searches and are more than twice as likely to be arrested as white people. In August, a report by the Children’s Commissioner revealed black children are four times more likely to be strip-searched than white children.

A statement about the anti-racism programme on the NPCC website, says: “Policing is determined to become an anti-racist organisation that actively roots out bias and discrimination from our ranks.”

The plan has received funding top-sliced from police force budgets since 2021, and a central team was set up to lead its actions.

According to figures released to Byline Times under the Official Information Act, the PRAP team was unable to spend almost £1.8 million of the £6 million in funding it was allocated between 2021-2024.

The amount left unspent more than doubled between 2021/22 and 2023/24.

National Black Police Association (NBPA) president Andy George told this newspaper that the figures show the strategy has not been taken seriously by police leaders.

George said it was “shocking so much money has been handed back when there is so much work to be done”. He added: “It shows why there’s been a lack of progress and why our members actually feel that things have gotten worse over the last four years.

“The plan was designed to improve the experiences of policing for Black people, but we just haven’t seen that happen.”

In recent months, the NBPA has suspended its support for the plan, and called for those from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background not to join the Metropolitan Police. It accused the London force of targeting the chair of the Met’s Black Police Association with a vexatious misconduct complaint.

This newspaper has also recently highlighted calls for an independent review into the Met’s North Area Basic Command which has been plagued by incidents of racism, and data showing Black and Minority Ethnic Met employees are four times more likely to quit due to harassment and bullying than their white colleagues. 

George said the returned money could have been used to help the NBPA support its members or fund research into disproportionality in stop and search or the police misconduct system.

The 2023 Casey Review found Black officers were 81% more likely to be disciplined than their white colleagues.

Abimbola Johnson, a barrister who chairs the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board which was set up by the NPCC to monitor the work of the Police Race Action Plan, said the situation is “frustrating”.

“One of the reasons that we were given as for why certain things weren’t being done was that the programme didn’t have the resources, but obviously there was quite a significant underspend.

“There are lots of meaningful things the money could have been diverted to.”

Johnson said the plan has been run under a “cumbersome structure” with those involved finding it difficult to use their initiative because they had to wade through several levels of bureaucracy to get actions approved.

This has resulted in situations like community engagement events being held in remote police training buildings, where attendees were required to be vetted before they were allowed in, she said.

Dawn Butler, Labour MP for Brent East, said she would write to the NPCC about the under-spend revealed by this newspaper.

“It’s a surprise the money hasn’t been spent, because obviously there is a need within the community. I can think off the top of my head of at least half a dozen organisations that would be able to help, and I would more than happily help the police ensure that they have a sustainable and worthwhile race action plan”, she said.

Jodie Bradshaw, policy advocacy lead at campaign group StopWatch, said the latest report from the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board shows that even the money that has been spent is not delivering.

“From ‘tick box’ consultation exercises to failing to record data on racial disproportionality in misconduct processes and suspicionless searches, it is difficult to believe that this time and money has been put to good use.

“If the Children’s Commissioner’s report on the strip searching of children is a litmus test for progress made, then it paints an even more dismal picture of how Black children are four times more likely to be subjected to strip searches by adults in uniform.”

They added: “Setting the lofty goal of tackling disparities affecting Black people at police hands, the persistent overpolicing of Black communities and disproportionate use of force and police powers wielded against them does not bode well for a Police Race Action Plan success story. While these discriminatory outcomes persist, it is beyond bewildering that the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council were unable to work out where best to put the outstanding £1.8 million of their budget.”

An NPCC spokesperson said a significant part of the underspend was due to unfilled staff vacancies on the central team.

Minutes of discussions held by chief constables in the summer and autumn of 2023, seen by this newspaper, show that there were 10 vacant positions on the team in September, a situation described as “concerning”, and that the programme had been “losing people due to annual contracts where there is no stability [or] career progression”.

George said every person from a Black or Asian background that he has spoken to who worked on the programme has had a negative experience.

A lot of the decision makers are white officers who probably want to make things better but see it as a plan that needs metrics, whereas a lot of people from Black and Asian heritages want to make a difference for their families and their friends, they try to explain why certain things will not work, but they get shot down

Andy George, National Black Police Association

Temporary Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alison Heydari took over as programme director of the plan in September 2023, and a recent report by the Independent Oversight and Scrutiny Board said aspects of its work had since improved. She has said she wants to make sure everyone on the team feels supported in their work.

The NPCC spokesperson told Byline Times that the central team now has only two vacancies out of a core team of 19.

The plan has a £1.9 million budget this year, however the future of funding beyond April 2025 is uncertain.

Central money was committed to the work for a five-year period when it was set up, and no agreement has been reached beyond that.

Heydari and her colleagues are currently drawing up a case to present to chief constables for renewed funding.

Johnson has called for the Home Office to take charge of the direction of the plan and to fund its work. The previous Conservative Government did not take any steps to actively support the programme or fund it.

Last week chairs of local NBPA groups voted to continue their suspension of support for the plan.

In a survey, 93% said it had not helped improve the experiences of Black people in policing, and the same proportion did not think it has created a foundation to in the future.

George said overt hostility is rife and policing has “regressed back to the 80s and 90s”.

“We’re not getting the N-word and P-word in the same way, but we are getting a lot of push back [to efforts to improve Black people’s experiences],” he said.

Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chair of the NPCC and senior responsible officer for PRAP, said the plan attempts to address “generational issues” identified in many reports critical of policing and that progress has been made.

“Everyone involved in the plan wants to make quicker and more widespread progress, but there have been positive signs of recent improvement,” he told Byline Times.

Stephens, who in January became the most senior serving leader to say that policing is institutionally racist, said the plan is now nearly as its full quota of staff and is set to spend “practically all its budget this year, one of several areas of improvement in its management and delivery I have seen over the past year under new leadership”.

“Progress has been acknowledged by external partners of the plan too, such as our Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board,” he added.

New documents outlining what the plan stands for, and suggestions for what individual forces can do to meet those aims, are due to be published later this year.

A Home Office spokesperson did not respond directly to questions about potential future involvement or funding of the Police Race Action Plan but said: “Racism has no place in policing and forces must reflect the diverse communities they serve. This new government is committed to working with police and police staff to achieve a diverse workforce.”