A/70/335 underreporting of racially motivated crimes strengthens widespread impunity and deprives victims of access to effective remedies. 72. In its general recommendation No. 31 (2005) on the prevention of racial discrimination in the administration and functioning of the criminal justice system, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommended that States pay attention to indicators on discrimination, such as figures on racially motivated offences, especially those committed by police officers or other State agents. The absence, or low level, of complaints, prosecutions and convictions relating to acts of racial discrimination could be explained by the fact that victims might not be aware of their rights, might fear social censure or reprisals, might have limited trust in the police or judicial authorities or be deterred by the perceived or actual complexity and cost of the judicial process. 73. In order to assess discrimination by law enforcement agents, the Committee also recommended that attention be paid to whether there was a proportionately higher crime rate attributed to persons belonging to vulnerable groups, particularly as regards petty crimes and offences related to drugs and prostitution, as well as assessing harsh or inappropriate sentencing and the proportion of the pr ison population composed of persons from marginalized groups. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that the collection of such data would also allow for the detection of practices of racial profiling and increase transparency, as addressed in his report t o the Human Rights Council in June 2015 (A/HRC/29/46). 74. In its general recommendation No. 31, the Committee also recommended that States collect on a regular basis, and in compliance with human rights safegu ards, data from police, judicial and prison authorities and migration services on complaints, prosecutions and convictions relating to acts of racism and xenophobia and on the compensation awarded to the victims of such acts. Security and judicial institutions should therefore play an important role in collecting equality data, with a view to assessing whether the conduct of their respective mandates is free of discriminatory practices. Such data collection activities should be coordinated in cooperation with the specialized data collection institutions and strictly observe the legal framework regulating the gathering of personal data. 75. The United Kingdom has established good practice by systematically gathering data on law enforcement, disaggregated by ethnicity. The Equality Act of 2010 established a legal framework applicable to all public service entities, including the police, customs and excise officers, tax officers, trading standards and health and safety officers, licensing bodies, the immigration authorities and the prisons and probation administration. The act mandates the publication of equality objectives and information and the monitoring of progress towards meeting those objectives. Furthermore, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984), wh ich provides the police with the powers to stop and search individuals, also require that such stops and searches be recorded, inter alia, to enable the production of data through which supervisors, police authorities and local communities can identify any incorrect use of powers by police officers, including racial profiling. 16 76. In Bulgaria, Hungary and Spain, a pilot project funded by the European Union called “Strategies for effective police stop and search”, introduced stop forms to __________________ 16 20/24 See Open Society Foundations, Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union: a Handbook of Good Practices (New York, 2012). 15-14106