HC Deb 21 December 1999 vol 341 cc491-2W
Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he is taking to promote racial equality. [103246]

Mr. Boateng

We have introduced a Bill to extend further the Race Relations Act 1976 in relation to public authorities and to make chief officers of police vicariously liable for acts of racial discrimination by their police officers; we have responded positively to proposals made by the Commission for Racial Equality and the Better Regulation Task Force to amend the Race Relations Act 1976 and other anti-discrimination legislation; we are implementing an Action Plan published in response to the 70 recommendations made in the report on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry; targets have been set for the recruitment, retention and career progression of ethnic minority staff in the Home Office and the fire, prison, police, probation and immigration services; and we are currently developing a basket of performance indicators which will be designed to measure improvements in race equality across a range of key public services.

We have also published an equality statement that sets race equality within a wider strategy to ensure that the public sector promotes equality and leads by example.

Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to introduce measures to enable group complaints to be made to courts in racial discrimination cases. [103247]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD), which has responsibility for the courts, is currently reviewing the position of group and representative actions to the courts in England and Wales. The Commission for Racial Equality proposed, in its Third Review of the Race Relations Act 1976, published in April 1998, that the Act be amended to enable a court (or tribunal) to consider a complaint where racial discrimination affects a number of people who wish to bring a group complaint, without the need for each person separately to bring proceedings. The Commission's recommendation is being taken into account as part of the LCD's review. The LCD will be undertaking a public consultation on the Government's proposals early in 2000.