Under the Equality Act 2010, the city runs Equality Impact Assessments. These ensure that they give due regard to equality, diversity, cohesion and integration when making key decisions on strategy, policy, service and function improvement. This requires either screening documents or impact assessments to be completed and included in the decision-making processes and looks at how the changes will impact on different characteristics. The process then looks at what can be implemented to mitigate the impact on protected characteristics and prevents any decision being made that discriminates against residents with migrant backgrounds or any other characteristic. It is also applied when working with partners, such as the NHS and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Leeds has a Hate Crime Strategy that encompasses all hate crime strands and aims to prevent and reduce levels of hate incidents by ensuring victims, witnesses and third parties of hate incidents are supported and offenders are brought to justice. This is supported by a partnership Strategic Board and Operational hate crime groups. Leeds Migration Partnership also attends Hate Crime Strategy meetings and supports Community Safety by encouraging individuals to report incidents of hate crime. Leeds is a welcoming and compassionate city that follows the Equality and Diversity Policy. The Strategic Hate Crime Board receives a quarterly accountability tracker report and can commission specific analysis around areas of concern. West Yorkshire Police also produce a monthly report relating to hate crime monitoring. The city has also recently developed a new method to provide a strategic, citywide approach to understanding and addressing community tensions through improved intelligence sharing in Leeds. This has been supported by a working group which includes West Yorkshire Police and other key stakeholders to create a portal for reporting suspected community tensions in Leeds. This aims to tackle community tensions before they escalate and includes discrimination against migrant communities. Additionally, the city has established a Modern Slavery Steering Group which is being developed across sectors to act upon and prevent modern slavery and human trafficking taking place in Leeds.
Leeds has a dedicated service that advises and supports victims of discrimination and provides funding for organisations working to support victims of discrimination[1]. The primary service relating to Hate Crime support is the Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team (LASBT), this service commissions a Victim Support Officer within each of its three operational teams. There are strong links to the West Yorkshire Police Hate Crime Coordinators, and a Community Cohesion Sargent. Safer Leeds also commissions local support work from Stop Hate UK.
[1] https://www.westyorkshire-pcc.gov.uk/safer-communities-fund
