Council blames computer glitch for 'paki' blunder

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Conservative-run Redbridge council initially tried to blame a technical error, saying Pakistani had been automatically abbreviated by computer software.

But investigations found there was plenty of space on the spreadsheet for Pakistani to appear in full, and Asian pupils were elsewhere referred to on the document as "Pankistani", "Pak" and on three occasions "Pakis".

Anti-racism campaigners said it was "almost impossible to believe" that anyone could fail to understand the offensive nature of the term, while official watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission said the document has been passed to its legal enforcement team.

Kevin Blowe, of anti-racism organisation Newham Monitoring Project, told the Guardian: "The council must know that a generation of Asians in east London grew up in the Seventies with the threat of violence from 'Paki-bashing' and with its association with skinhead gang culture." He said the monitoring project had been set up in 1980 in response to the racist murder of Asian teenager Akhtar Ali Baig in East Ham. Mr Blowe added: "It is almost impossible to believe that, nearly 30 years on, anyone would fail to understand how racially charged the word Paki is, or that it would ever be appropriate to use in council records, internal or not."

The term appears in a council document providing the ethnic breakdown of children at Redbridge schools. The council, which has one BNP councillor, later admitted it was not an automatic abbreviation by the computer, but human error was to blame and said an investigation had been launched. It said in a statement: "Redbridge council fully accepts the use of this abbreviated term is wholly unacceptable and inappropriate and would never condone the use of such language.

"The document also contains a variety of abbreviations and spelling mistakes and was circulated in error. When this was realised, those present were asked to hand in the document so it could be destroyed. The author of the spreadsheet apologised."

Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said: "It is important that councils are careful to avoid the use of offensive terms."