Instead of tangible action against racism, we see the 'blame the victim' culture back on the agenda

Lee Jasper

"Yet we have not seen the evidence of change when it comes to tackling institutional racism.

"Instead of tangible action against racism, we see the 'blame the victim' culture back on the agenda."

Mr Jasper's comments follow the publication of Mr Blunkett's White Paper on immigration and citizenship earlier this month.

It said immigrants should have to take compulsory tests on language and British society.

The home secretary courted further controversy when he said Asian families should make arranged marriages within "the settled community here" rather than looking abroad.

Hate mail

Mrs Lawrence arrived at the conference with a police bodyguard after the NAAR received racist hate mail about her.

Stephen's mother Doreen has received hate mail

She said: "There is added pressure thinking about myself and how safe I feel. Most of the time I don't feel safe."

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We can confirm the organisers of today's conference, the NAAR, sent out leaflets advertising the conference, some of which was returned to them with racist comments written on them.

"Those comments were generalised and did not refer to named individuals."

Mrs Lawrence criticised those police officers who said the Lawrence report had made it difficult for them to do their jobs.

She said the report had lost its importance for many people and added: "Three years on... people still want to know what has happened and which of the recommendations are in place."

Racist offences

A Home Office spokeswoman said a third annual report on progress made since the Lawrence Report would soon be published.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police, which was harshly criticised in the Lawrence report, said the number of racist offences reported and cleared up has since increased dramatically.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Grieve said: "The sheer volume of racist incidents being reported to us show that people are reporting crimes to us that they weren't reporting three years ago, and we're arresting more than 200 people a month for hate crime, which benefits all of us."