The National Black Crown Prosecution Association (NBCPA) held its 11th Annual Conference on Saturday 18 February 2012 at the TUC Congress Centre (near Tottenham Court Road) in Central London. The title of the conference was: “Justice at What Cost: Is Justice Possible in Austere Times?” The keynote speakers were Kier Starmer QC (Director for Public Prosecutions), David Lammy MP and Dr Richard Stone OBE.
Matthew Critchlow from Thrive were invited to deliver a session on Staff Recruitment, Retention and Progression.
It was a fascinating and very poignant day. Just a few weeks before the conference the third Stephen Lawrence murder trial had reached its conclusion (3rd January 2012). This resulted in two suspects from the original trial being convicted and sentenced.
The first Stephen Lawrence trial had failed to convict any of the original suspects. Fall out from this trial resulted in a public inquiry, headed by Sir William Macpherson, which concluded that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) was “institutionally racist”. It was this conclusion that provided key motivation for the formation of the NBCPA.
Dr Richard Stone OBE was one of the advisers to Sir William Macpherson. During the conference he talked about his experiences of the enquiry and his reaction to the convictions at the start of 2012.
BACKGROUND
The National Black Crown Prosecution Association (NBCPA) exists to bring together BAME staff in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), who are recognised as an under-represented group. The NBCPA educates the wider CPS on issues of racism and works collaboratively with external and internal partners to affect change for the benefit of the diverse communities served by the CPS. NBCPA works strategically with the CPS to influence the development, implementation and evaluation of employment and prosecution practice. It supports and engages its members working in the policy making process by gathering best practice and lessons learnt to provide valuable feedback for policy development and implementation.