Advising the Attorney General

One of the things I do in life is to advise the Attorney General.

I could try to persuade you that I’m not saying this as a boast - but I know you wouldn’t believe me. So just accept this as a name-drop. And, more importantly, as an illustration of how the UK government (or part of it, at least) takes great care to hear what civil society has to say about its policies and proposals.

Needless to say, I do not presume to give Baroness Scotland legal hints on affairs of state - I have no legal qualifications and precious little knowledge of the legal system - but I do give my two-pennyworth on matters of equality and diversity insofar as they affect the various prosecuting agencies in the criminal justice system in England and Wales (such as the Crown Prosecution Service, the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office, the Serious Fraud Office).

Of course, it’s not just me. I’m only one member of the Attorney General’s Equality and Diversity Advisory Group (AGEDAG), which comprises representatives of voluntary organizations that work in the six equality strands of the Equality Act 2006 (race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief, age). I sit on the advisory group in my role as Chair of the Religion and Belief Consultative Group on Equality, Diversity and Human Rights (on which I represent the UK Baha’i community).

The group, chaired by the Attorney General, meets quarterly and consults about the latest draft equality and diversity policies that affect the criminal justice system.

Today, for example, Dru Sharpling, who is the Chief Crown Prosecutor for London, spoke about the Crown Prosecution Service’s draft policy statement on prosecuting crimes against the older person. Dru leads the team that has drafted the policy and will revise it in light of comments made by the AGEDAG and other bodies that are being consulted. She was congratulated by AGEDAG members on an excellent and thoughtful draft policy that will do much to raise awareness amongst prosecutors, the police and older people themselves of what the criminal justice system can and should be doing to support older people who are victims of a wide range of crimes.

We also had updates from a couple of other prosecuting agencies whose draft equality schemes had been quite heavily criticized at a previous meeting of the AGEDAG. Both agencies had been taking steps, based on comments at that meeting, to improve their equality schemes. Patricia Scotland commented that the group clearly had power, since it had been able to influence these two agencies into working to improve their schemes.

Actually, I was impressed by the positive way in which the representatives of the agencies concerned had accepted the criticisms and clearly found them helpful, even though the criticisms had been quite strongly expressed.

These kinds of interactions with the agencies of state, government departments and so on give some very interesting insights into how government works. Or doesn’t work. On Monday I had a meeting with the head of one of the government units that relates to the faith communities and it became clear that there is a certain fogginess about who is responsible for which bits of government deal with which elements of faith-related policy.

It’s an object-lesson for all those whosuppose, wrongly, that government is all-powerful and that officialdom conspires to fix things to suit themselves.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Baroness Scotland, Attorney General, Crown Prosecution Service, equalities, criminal justice system, faith, religion and belief

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