AGENCIES involved in providing criminal justice services in Lancashire have launched a major auditing exercise in a bid to improve services to ethnic minorities.

Police and prison service workers have been joined by lawyers, magistrates, probation officers, court officials and voluntary workers in the exercise.

A sub-group of the strategy committee deals specifically with race issues.

This group includes the courts, CPS, Police, Race Equality Councils, Lancashire County Council, National Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders, Victim Support and HM Prisons.

The group has carried out an audit of the internal race policies and practices of the agencies.

The information will provide the foundation for public consultation and the development of an action plan to improve the quality of services.

The key messages to come from the audit are:

Each agency needs to closely monitor its service provision especially in respect of how racist incidents and crimes are dealt with.

Recruitment, retention and progression of minority ethnic staff are critically important issues for all criminal justice agencies.

Training involving members of local minority communities and which raises awareness of staff to culture, language, religion and the use of appropriate terminology is vital for all of the organisations.

It is hoped work on this audit, consultation and the subsequent action plan will help agencies improve services to minority ethnic communities and meet obligations under the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, the provisions of which take effect this year.

Judge Peter Oppenshaw, who is chairing the committee said: "All of the people involved agree it is important that we do more for our local communities.

"This audit has highlighted areas for improvement and we will be tackling these in our efforts to improve the criminal justice services in Lancashire."