Inclusive Britain: The Government Response to the Report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities

In the summer of 2020, a Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED), was appointed, to examine ‘why so many disparities persist’ and ‘what can be done to eliminate or mitigate them’.

The Commission was specifically tasked to look at ‘race and ethnic disparities in education, employment, crime and policing and health.’ The Commission’s findings were published on 31 March 2021 with headlines saying that the UK should be seen as an ‘international exemplar of racial equality’.

The CRED Report, which included 24 recommendations for the Government, was met with a chorus of criticism from reputable sources, and was denounced by human rights specialists at the United Nations, who encouraged the UK government to reject its findings.

The Government Response

Inclusive Britain: The Government Response to the Report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities was published on 17 March 2022, and sets out 74 actions in response to these recommendations.

The Government suggests that we stop using “aggregated and unhelpful terms such as BAME, to better focus on understanding disparities and outcomes for specific ethnic groups”. Whilst we recognise the importance of language, we equally recognise is fluidity. Word meanings and interpretations are constantly changing. This must not serve as a distraction from the many racial and socio-economic disparities that continue to plague our society.

Although the Response acknowledges that racism exists in Britain, it does not challenge the CRED’s findings that there is “no evidence of institutional racism”. In fact, the Government “fully” endorsed its conclusions.

A new office will be established to target health disparities in Britain, focusing on research, communications and expertise to reduce health inequalities across all groups. We await further details of how this office will operate.

The Response fails to mention the Windrush scandal, or the highly ineffective compensation scheme associated with it.

Although the Response recommends “establishing a diverse panel of historians to develop a new knowledge-rich model history curriculum by 2024 to support high-quality teaching of our complex past”, no information about who would comprise the membership of such a panel has yet been shared by the Government.

We welcome the recommendation that the Department for Education will, in collaboration with the Government’s Equality Hub, create an inclusive school hair and uniform policy to “avoid unfair treatment of ethnic minority children whose hair type may not be like the majority.”

We await with interest the new guidance for ‘positive action’ which is intended to improve representation and provide opportunities for disadvantaged groups in the workplace, and which is due to be published by December 2022.

Finally, we welcome the Government’s plans to strengthen the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s ability to tackle discrimination and disadvantage. We await the details of how investigations and individual cases will be supported.

The Government has given an assurance that it will report back to Parliament in 12 months’ time “on the progress we have made in delivering these actions.” We await their findings with interest.

This Briefing is a summary of the discussion at a CARJ Public Policy Workshop on 30 June 2022. The Workshop and the Briefing are selective summaries. Those interest in a full understanding of the issues should go to the source documents. A recording of the Workshop is available from CARJ Youtube link

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