Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether those who identify as (1) Gypsy, (2) Roma, or (3) Traveller, in custody have any special needs recognised.

Data on people detained in police custody was published for the first time in November 2022, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-other-pace-powers-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2022.

For the year ending March 2023 the Home Office collected ethnicity data from forces using the 2021 Census categories, which includes the ‘Gypsy and Irish traveller’ and ‘Roma’ groups.

In addition, for the year ending March 2022 data, information was published on the ethnicity of people detained in custody and separately on whether a person was considered vulnerable and whether an appropriate adult was called. As this was the first year the data was collected the statistics were still in development and therefore an ethnic breakdown of vulnerable adults in custody was not published. Home Office analysts will assess the quality of the data collected for the year ending March 2023 and depending on the outcome will publish this breakdown as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures: Other PACE bulletin’, which is scheduled for release in November/December 2023, as pre-announced on Gov.uk, here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/police-powers-and-procedures-other-pace-powers-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2023.

Police custody officers should carry out an assessment of the risk and vulnerability of everyone in custody, on an individual basis. This assessment should take into account the person’s behaviour, any signs of illness or injury, their communication, including information from all available sources and the circumstances and environment in which they were found.