UK government to look into whether grime event risk assessment form is racist

The UK's Culture Minister is to open an investigation into whether the controversial Form 696, a risk assessment for grime events, is racist.

Although the Metropolitan Police dismisses claims - from MC P Money (pictured) among others - that it is used in a racist way, Matt Hancock is due to hold talks with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, according to the BBC.

Promoters of grime and garage events featuring DJs and MCs may have to fill in Form 696, giving information such as artist birth names, stage names, addresses and phone numbers, and P Money says he's been removed from line-ups in the past because of it.

In an interview for the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC Two, he described Form 696 as a "race thing", also saying that grime parties are unfairly targeted by certain police forces, said to total at 16 around the UK.

"It's been happening for so many years that now we kind of know, it's just our scene. They [police] target grime a lot, they just blame a lot of things on grime. We know they're just trying to shut down grime, because if it was anything else they wouldn't have this issue.

"If, for example, Ed Sheeran had a show and a fight broke out, he's not going to do a 696 on his next arena tour. A fight still might have broken out though, but they don't look at it like that. They just think, 'Oh it's different for them.'"

However, the Met Police counters P Money's claims: "The form does not target any particular group nor does it ask for the genre of music, event type, age range or demographic of the customers who attend."

The Mayor of London's office commented: "Our priority is to keep Londoners safe and support a vibrant night-time economy, and this means ensuring that all performances have the most appropriate security and safety plans in place.

"We have supported a number of events that bring together the Met, music venues, and promoters to try to improve the understanding of when and how Risk Assessment Form 696 should be used."

Watch P Money and grime MC Jammz be interviewed below.

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter