Police cleared of race discrimination

Police officers were not guilty of race discrimination despite giving a local council misleading and inaccurate information, as a result of which the council discriminated on race grounds.

Ms Hallam and her mother, who are travellers and covered as such under the Race Relations Act 1976, booked a council hall for her wedding, expecting about 150 guests. However, the local police, hearing of their plans, decided to tell the council that it was likely that at least 1,500 guests would turn up, that the family was "well known" to the police and that there was likely to be trouble.

The council acted on the information by imposing stringent conditions on Hallam's booking. Entry to the wedding would be on a ticket-only basis, with the council issuing the tickets a fortnight in advance. Hallam and her mother believed the restrictions were imposed purely because they were travellers and that the council's actions amounted to race discrimination. They sued the council and won. But they also tried to sue the police and here they did not succeed. Quite remarkably the court held that, even though the police knew that the information that they had passed onto the council was incorrect, they had not themselves discriminated.