Row sparked over audit on race equality in Britain
Government under fire for refusing to co-operate
Ministers north of the Border have been criticised for refusing to co-operate with a Uk-wide race equality audit that shows Scotland has the least diverse civil service anywhere in Britain.
Figures collected by the Race Disparity Audit suggest ethnic minorities are less than half as likely as whites to work for the UK or Scottish governments. Publication of the audit sparked a row after the government in Edinburgh said it was “not in the best interests of the people of Scotland” to take part. A senior Whitehall source said the move was evidence of a “grievance agenda”.
The Scottish Government has been criticised for refusing to co-operate with a Ukwide race equality audit that shows Scotland has the least diverse civil service anywhere in Britain.
Figures collected by the race Disparity Audit suggest ethnic minorities are less than half as likely as whites to work for the UK or Scottish Government.
Publication of the audit, which Theresa May has put at the heart of her bid to end the “burning injustice” of inequality, sparked a row after the government in Edinburgh said it was “not in the best interests of the people of Scotland” to take part.
Scottish data is in devolved areas including health, education and criminal justice is missing from the audit, which has laid bare the gap in outcomes between communities.
However, employment and benefits data collected by the Department for Work and Pensions does cover the whole of the UK. As well as raising concerns over the diversity of the civil service in Scotland, the data also reveals Scotland has the widest gap in economic inactivity between white and non-white communities anywhere in the UK.
In Scotland, 23 per cent of whites were classed as economically inactive, compared to 35 per cent of non-whites. Experts in racial inequality said the Scottish Government should deliver a parallel proc- ess that “plugs into” the Ukwide audit to help public services drive down inequality.
Scotland’s minority community doubled in the ten years to the last census in 2011, rising to 4 per cent of the population.
Mrs May is understood to have written to Nicola Sturgeon asking the Scottish Government to take part in the audit last year.
However, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said it was developing its own approach to publishing inequality data that will “better reflect Scotland’s circumstances and needs”.
“After discussing concerns with stakeholders, the Scottish Government chose not to be involved in the UK Government’s Race Disparity Audit agreeing that participation was not in the best interests of the people of Scotland,” the spokeswoman said.
A senior Whitehall source criticised the refusal to engage with the exercise, claiming it was evidence of a “grievance agenda” and the Scottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Annie Wells said the decision was “unacceptable”.
Nearly four decades have passed since the scathing political sitcom, Yes Minister, depicted the civil service as the preserve of pale, plotting white men.
As with all sharply focused satire, the series succeeded by exploring an uncomfortable truth, but what is even more discomfiting is the knowledge that, in 2017, precious little appears to have changed when it comes to racial equality.
The world of Sir Humphrey Appleby may have focused on Whitehall’s ranks, but it is a veritable melting point when it comes to workforce diversity, at least when compared to Scotland.
Figures collected by the UK government’s Race Disparity Audit show that the nation has the whitest civil service anywhere in the UK.
The audit, which spans a spectrum of policy areas, has already sparked a lively debate. Few issues, however, are as important or far-reaching as the paltry representation of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds among our public servants.
We are nowhere close to achieving racial equality in Scotland. Recent research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that those from ethnic minorities are four times more likely than the general population to live in overcrowded accommodation, and twice as likely to be poor and out of work.
The Scottish Government has been proactive when it comes to promoting gender equality, perhaps most famously through First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to put in place a cabinet with a 50/50 gender balance. Such a step was symbolic, sending out a message to employers the nation over.
However, the latest audit makes it abundantly clear that some people are, well, more equal than others. Along with the dispiriting statistic which shows 97.9% of people in the civil service in Scotland are white, the data also reveals Scotland has the widest gap in economic inactivity between white and nonwhite communities anywhere in the UK. This, quite simply, is an appalling disparity.
It is also disappointing that the Scottish Government refused to co-operate with the audit, insisting it is developing its own approach to publishing racial inequality data that will “better reflect Scotland’s circumstances and needs”.
The issue of racial equality is not a playground for political spats and such a stance is regrettable.