The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities was set up by the Prime Minister to examine inequality in the UK, in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the USA and as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK. The Commission has published the results of its work in a 258 page report covering health, education, criminal justice and employment. The Commission acknowledges that outright racism still exists in the UK, but found that most of the ethnic disparities they examined often do not have their origins in racism, and that it did not see “a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities” and “found no evidence of systemic or institutional racism”.
Nevertheless, the report contains 24 recommendations grouped into four main themes:
- to build trust between different communities and the institutions that serve them
- to promote greater fairness to improve opportunities and outcomes for individuals and communities
- to create agency so individuals can take greater control of the decisions that impact their lives and
- to achieve genuine inclusivity to ensure all groups feel a part of UK society.
The Commission’s report has not been received with universal positivity, with Jabeer Butt, chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation, claiming that the report “seems to go out of its way to deny that there’s anything that’s been the result of policies we’ve put in place and instead puts the blame at individuals’ decisions or at family’s doors”.