Police forces should consider disclosing the ethnicity and migration status of suspects when they are charged in high-profile and sensitive investigations, according to new official guidance.
After a row over claims that police “covered up” the backgrounds of two men charged in connection with the alleged rape of a child, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing have backed plans to release details of nationality when there is a “policing purpose” for doing so.
This could be to reduce the risk to public safety, “where there are high levels of mis- or disinformation about a particular incident”, or in cases of significant public interest, senior police said.
The decision to release new guidance has been praised by a former senior prosecutor, who said it could help counter rumours and disinformation which spread on social media.
But it will also anger some anti-racist campaigners, who have expressed concern that such proposals could risk framing violence against women and girls as an issue of ethnicity instead of misogyny.
The decision comes after Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, urged police to release the details of ethnicity last week.
Forces are already encouraged to publicise charging decisions in serious cases, the NPCC said.
Decisions on whether to release this information will remain with forces, an NPCC statement said, with wider legal and ethical considerations.
The Home Office will decide if it is “appropriate in all the circumstances” to confirm immigration status of a suspect, the guidance said.
Failure to share basic facts about the Southport killer last summer led to “dangerous fictions” which helped spark rioting, an independent watchdog found.
Jonathan Hall KC, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said it would have been “far better” for the authorities to share more accurate detail about the arrest of Axel Rudakubana on 29 July last year. Far-right agitators wrongly claimed that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker.
Deputy chief constable Sam de Reya, the NPCC lead for communications and media, said: “We saw during last summer’s disorder, as well as in several recent high-profile cases, what the major, real-world consequences can be from what information police release into the public domain.
“We have to make sure our processes are fit for purpose in an age of social media speculation and where information can travel incredibly quickly across a wide range of channels.
“Disinformation and incorrect narratives can take hold in a vacuum. It is good police work for us to fill this vacuum with the facts about issues of wider public interest.”
Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor for North West England, cautiously welcomed the decision.
“Trust is so low that more transparency is a good thing, as recent experience has shown. It has to be on a case by case basis though,” he said.
The Warwickshire police and crime commissioner, Philip Seccombe, called for fresh national guidance after police were accused by Reform UK of failing to confirm that two Afghan men being prosecuted for an alleged attack on a 12-year-old girl were asylum seekers.
The alleged rape, said to have happened on 22 July, was at the centre of a political storm after the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, amplified claims of a police cover-up.
Ahmad Mulakhil has been charged with rape and Mohammad Kabir has been charged with kidnap and strangulation.
