We provide an advocacy service for victims of race hate crime. Some of this work is part of the CATCH project, a London-wide partnership with other groups. We have over four decades of experience in helping people who suffer racism and discrimination in the UK and are a leading organisation in this field. We have provided answers to common questions about the nature of our advocacy service, below.

The CATCH (Community Against Hate Partnership) consists of the following groups with their area of expertise:

Galop: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender hate crime 

The Monitoring Group: Race hate crime

The Community Security Trust (CST): Antisemitic hate crime

TellMAMA: Anti-Muslim (Islamophobic) hate crime

Choice in Hackney: Anti-Disability hate crime

Stay Safe East: Anti-Disability hate crime

Real: Anti-Disability hate crime

You can read about the CATCH project at https://www.catch-hatecrime.org.uk

1: What are the current challenges faced by The Monitoring Group’s advocacy service?

From the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic in March 2020 and in the last two years, our race advocacy service has been inundated with new case referrals. We have dealt with a staggering 2000 race related incidents of which over 1,700 have been referrals from the CATCH project. Most of these cases have also been reported to the Metropolitan Police.

Other cases involve policing and domestic violence issues, especially discriminatory stop & search incidents and state misconduct during the pandemic lockdown.

With regards to race hate crimes, we witnessed the targeting of new communities – most notably people of Chinese and East Asian origin because they were wrongly blamed for causing the Covid 19 epidemic; and the people working in front line positions. They include emergency and care workers and those working in the night gig economy.

According to the latest official data, the capital presents the following “race” landscape. Some of it is very worrying. London is the most diverse city in Europe. According to the 2011 census data the population of London was 8,173,941. Broken down by ethnicity and religion the population of London is 59.8% white, 19.7% Asian or mixed Asian descent and 15.6% are Black or Mixed Black descent. With reference to religion, 48.4% of the population identify as Christian, 12.4% as Muslim, 5% as Hindu, 1.8% as Jewish and 1.5% as Sikh.

Race Hate Incidents and Crimes (Please note - some of the wording used in this section is the language used in official sources, it is not the language we would normally use).

• The current drivers of the increase in race hate crime include statements and comments made by politicians and other public figures regarding minority groups. This includes the language and narrative around Brexit, migrants, reaction to Black Lives Matter protests in the UK following Black deaths at the hands of the police in America, Covid 19 and the targeting of people of South East Asian origin

• Race related hate crime is the most prominent type of hate crime accounting for 80% (17240) of all hate crime offences.

• Men, at 54% are more likely to be victims of hate crime than Women (41%)

• Victims are mostly in the age group 30 to 39 (31%) followed by age group 20 to 29 (22%) and 40 to 49 (19%).

• Locations: Areas with higher populations of Jewish, Asian or African Caribbean heritage communities tend to be disproportionately targeted when compared to areas with higher density of white communities

Stop and Search

• During lockdown, crime rates fell but stop and search increased in London. For instance, from March 2020 to May 2020, 21,950 stop and search incidents took place and over 80% resulted in “no further action”. In May 2020 alone, one in eight young Black males in London were stopped and searched.

For us, the current period is one of the most troubling in our entire history. At an operational level our services are overstretched and at a breaking point unless we can galvanise new resources. We also want to ensure that we don’t lose the quality of our assistance despite the increase in the volume of referrals. At a strategic level, the challenges are enormous given the exposure and prevalence of racial inequality in every domain of our society. We seek to build effective partnerships with other organisations that share our ethos and values so that we achieve positive outcomes.

2: What areas of advice does The Monitoring Group’s advocacy service cover?

We provide advice and assistance in the following areas:

• Racially and religiously motivated hate crimes regardless of where the incident takes place – in or outside your home, in your neighbourhood or estate, at a station; in school, college or university, in a city or leisure centre or at an institution – for example a police station, prison, detention centre..

• Racial discrimination

• Domestic and sexual violence

• Policing: Stop & Search. Arrest: Charging and Trial. Use of Tasers, misconduct and use of violence. Unexplained or suspicious deaths or murder investigations if they have a race or/and misogynistic element. Police Complaints: Criminal Injuries Compensation Awards and your rights on emergency powers and protests.

• Inquests and Public Inquires

3: What are the opening hours for The Monitoring Group’s advocacy Service?

Our opening hours are from 10am to 6pm from Monday to Friday. Our office is closed for Lunch daily from 12.30pm to 2pm

Our telephone system allows people to leave a message.

4: How long has The Monitoring Group provided an advice service?

We have been providing assistance since we were established in the early 1980s. Please look at the “History of The Monitoring Group” section on our website, which details some of the cases we have dealt with and our campaigns for justice.

5: What happens when I contact The Monitoring Group’s advocacy service?

When a person contacts us or is referred to us, we will contact them by email within 4 days and endeavour to speak with them within 7 days.

Our initial call will involve gathering important information on a case. Once that happens, we make an assessment. We may decide to:

• Offer you advice only or/and

• Assist you or/and

• Refer you to a more suitable organisation

The assessment may take some time depending on our capacity, but we promise to complete the process as speedily as possible and inform you of our decision.

Urgent cases: If your case is urgent for example, where someone has suffered a fatality, we will contact you within 24 hours if not immediately.

Strict confidentiality: Throughout the whole process, from the initial contact to closure of the case, we promise strict privacy and confidentiality. We do not share information with any third party unless we have the client’s consent to do so.

6: What support does The Monitoring Group’s advocacy service provide?

Our Advocacy Service tries to ensure that we:

• Work with our clients so they are fully informed on the steps we take.

• Provide clients with updated information.

• Organise case conferences with agencies to move the case forward.

• Prepare and make oral and written representations.

• Contact a Member of Parliament for support.

• Get advice from specialist lawyers if necessary.

• Work with our network of partners if the case is complex.

7: What are public interest campaigns?

There may be cases that require a more public profile to achieve any form of accountability. In these cases, we explore all options including the use of mainstream, independent and social media platforms to develop a public interest campaign. The decision on the use of media and the building of campaigns are always taken together with clients. Unless clients consent, we do not contact the media or launch a campaign. Our campaigns are always self-funded and where those directly affected are at the centre of the decision-making process. In public interest cases, we try to create a partnership between lawyers, clients and ourselves so that all of us are working in the client’s interests and to ensure that campaigning activity always helps with legal challenges. Our work with the media is also based on the same principles.

One of our current public interest campaigns for justice involves the case of young Black 13-year-old Christopher Kapessa, who was pushed into a river in South Wales on 1st July 2019.

Our definition of a public interest campaign is where a case or an issue involves:

• A Loss of life.

• Holding State agencies to account for their failures, negligence, misconduct, institutional racism and corruption.

• A positive change in legislation, policy or practice.

• The potential presence of best practice or where key lessons can be learnt.

• The continuing legacy of historical racism including slavery, colonialism, genocide or crimes against humanity.

8: Do clients have to pay for The Monitoring Group’s advocacy service?

Our services are free of charge. Clients do not pay for our services.

However, if at any stage we use lawyers, you may need to pay for their services if legal aid is not granted. If legal aid is partially granted, you may need to make a contribution to the legal aid services.

If cases are not funded through the legal aid system, clients will need to pay for any court/tribunal administration fees.

All these steps will be discussed with you in advance.

9: Is The Monitoring Group’s advocacy service for Londoners or is it National?

We are happy to provide advice to anyone in the UK.

However, our advocacy work nationally is only partially funded so we normally provide advocacy in a small number public interest cases.

Currently we are collating data for national organisations so that we make referrals.

We are also applying for funding for national advocacy workers. If we are successful, we will update this section.

In London our hate crime (racially motivated) advocacy service is funded through the CATCH project. This is a partnership of some of the key groups providing assistance on all the different strands of hate crimes. The CATCH project is coordinated by a group called GALOP that receives funding from the Mayor’s Office in London for this initiative.

Unfortunately, all of our other work is not funded but we continue to provide advice and assistance due to need and based on our ethos. We try our best not to turn people away. If we turn people away it is not necessarily because their case does not deserve attention. Sometimes it is simply to do with our lack of resources or expertise as we are a small organisation.

Volunteers: We would not be able to provide help without the commitment and generosity of our volunteers, who are real stars of this service. They are all trained to take initial statements and to respect confidentiality.

10: Do you provide advice in other languages in addition to English?

Yes, we can provide general advice in some other languages, please contact us for more information.

11: How does one contact The Monitoring Group’s advocacy service?

We can be contacted by calling our office on telephone number: 020 7582 7438 or office email: office@tmg-uk.org.

If you contact us please leave a clear message with your name, telephone number and your reason for getting in touch.

It would be helpful if you could fill in a form on our website or send it to us via our office email.

The form can also be filled in by any group or agency that wishes to refer clients to us.

Alternatively, you can post a letter and send it our office address:: The Monitoring Group, Ground Floor, 2 Langley Lane, London SW8 1GB