May’s racial inequality pledge ‘has no hope of being realised’
THERESA MAY has been warned her pledge to tackle racial inequality has little hope of being achieved without leadership to drive it through.
MPs said it was “disappointing” calls for a Whitehall-wide race equality strategy to be adopted have been rejected.
The Prime Minister admitted last year there is a “way to go” to create an equal society but insisted tackling ethnic injustice was a “personal priority”. Key recommendations made by the Women and Equalities Committee, however, have been rejected by the government.
Mrs May launched a Race Disparity Audit in 2016 and its findings were laid bare on a new Ethnicity Facts and Figures website last year.
It showed that Asian, black and other ethnic groups were disproportionately likely to be on a low income, white people were among the least likely to become a victim of crime and black defendants in crown court cases were the most likely to be remanded in custody.
The equalities committee has since secured a commitment from the government to improve the website and set out a timetable for publication of further data. But its calls for a new cross-government race equality strategy that would put the Cabinet Office in the “driving seat” of pushing through changes were rejected. Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington told the committee there is “no magic to putting the label of ‘cross-Government strategy’ on something”.
“Updating of measures on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website will generate time series data about those measures and transparency about whether key indicators are improving or deteriorating over time, allowing the Government to be held to account for progress addressing the issues highlighted by the audit,” he added.
Maria Miller, who chairs the equalities committee, said the response was “disappointing”.
“Improving the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website together with the quality improvement plan will go a long way to addressing our serious concerns about the consistency, robustness and presentation of the data,” she said.
“However, it is disappointing that there is outright rejection of our call to develop a cross-departmental race equality strategy. The Cabinet Office should get in the driving seat and ensure that each department delivers on this.”