Race Equality (Hansard, 17 November 2003)

§ Fiona Mactaggart

The Government work closely with the Commission for Racial Equality, (CRE) which has statutory responsibility for enforcing the duty to promote race equality under the Race Relations Act 1976 (as amended by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000).

The CRE commissioned Schneider-Ross, a firm of diversity consultants to evaluate the response of public authorities to the statutory duty to promote race equality. The research had two main elements, quantitative and qualitative, covering two core stages. The first of these was a questionnaire based survey of 3,338 public authorities and educational institutions, using two questionnaires designed to address the different elements of the general and specific duties that apply to the two broad categories. The second was an analysis of a random sample of 143 race equality schemes and policies from the main sectors covered by the duty, assessed against the recommendations of CRE Code of Practice and CRE guidance materials.

The Schneider-Ross report found that overall local government was the highest achieving sector. Around a third of local authorities were on track; a third had good foundations to respond well to the duty to promote, and, a third needed to carry out more work in order to comply. The criminal justice service was strong, especially in the police and probation services. The weakest sector was schools.

The Home Office has initiated a Race Relations (Amendment) Act Strategic Sectoral Audit.

The audit is a sector by sector analysis of whether the key ingredients for success are present or not in each sector. The work on mapping the landscape of current sector activity builds on the findings of the Schneider-Ross survey. We are working closely with the CRE to take this forward quickly so that necessary support and attention can be made available to those public bodies who need it.