15 Government departments have failed on race
[CREs's last report (20Sep07) before it is dissolved and taken over by CEHR]

 
The CRE in its last report  said it was “shocked” by the assessment of Whitehall’s performance on race and called on Brown should ensure departments draws up urgent action plans. The CRE plans to begin legal action against the 15 departments forcing government to raise their game. Its’ final report expresses “deep concerns about the widespread non-compliance” around Whitehall, althought they have had more than 5 years to meet standards laid down in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

Failed government departments include the Home Office and the Foreign Office, Cabinet Office, departments of education & health, the Crown Prosecution Service, and Communities & Local Government . Also included are NHS trusts and further education colleges are also fingered. The few departments to escape censure are the Treasury, International Development, the Justice department and the police.

The Department of Health was much criticised over its poor race consultation over the new Mental Health Act.
The Department of Communities and Local Government, which will oversee the CEHR, is itself failing to collect ethnic monitoring for 58% of its staff. This department, headed by Hazel Blears, has also failed to produce a “toolkit” helping the public sector comply with the race equality positive duty, despite earlier promises. 

The CRE report said: “The biggest spending Whitehall departments are failing to achieve even basic compliance. Ministers have failed to deliver and address inadequate policy making across Whitehall, despite repeated warnings in recent years at the highest level.”

The fact that so many Whitehall depts. have failed to comply with race equality laws proves the government does not take race issues seriously and never has. The government has consistently resisted calls for a statutory race committee and guaranteed black representation on the CEHR board, despite sustained lobbying from black organisations and MPs.

The CRE will end 30 years of life in October 2007, to be replaced by the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. The 1990 Trust said the final CRE report, published 20Sep07, underlines why it was wrong to abolish the CRE in the first place. The black voluntary sector has little confidence in the ability of the new single equalities body in taking forward the CRE’s work.

Karen Chouhan, a trustee of the 1990 Trust, called on government departments to publish a full response of how they are going to tackle the issues.
"15 government departments failing to meet the minimum requirement of our race laws sets the worst example possible to the rest of Britain. The focus on Cohesion and Integration are airbrushing out race equality. Gordon Brown must get to grips with this crisis and instruct each department to draw up an urgent action plan backed up by necessary resources. The need to monitor progress and ensure the public sector are complying with race relations laws is precisely why we needed a stronger CRE."

Lord Herman Ouseley and Keith Vaz MP have previously warned that without race equality being explicitly recognised, the CEHR risks descending into a “hierarchy of equalities.” The CEHR is meant to deal with disability, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, human rights and race. But so far the government has only agreed to a committee for disabilities, Scotland and Wales.

The 1990 Trust believes that without a structure that looks specifically at race, the task of ensuring government departments are comply with race laws will fall off the CEHR’s agenda. The CRE expected the CEHR to continue pursing the legal action it plans to begin before winding down in a fortnight. The race watchdog has already taken legal action against seven departments and agencies over non-compliance of race equality and the failure to systematically carry out race equality impact assessments of new and proposed policies.

The CRE report sets out a “race manifesto” calling on the CEHR, chaired by Trevor Phillips, to deliver. It says that the previous CRE "softly, softly" approach had not worked and that "a robust approach" was now needed.