Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Thursday 30th July 2020

The Prime Minister has announced a new Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that will seek to understand what disparities exist and why, and present recommendations based on robust evidence.

The Government is committed to tackling prejudice, racism and discrimination - and to improve the quality of data and evidence about the types of barriers faced by people from different backgrounds to help drive effective and lasting change.

On 16 July 2020 the Prime Minister announced a new Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, chaired by Dr Tony Sewell (CBE). This is a cross-government Commission that will review inequality in the UK, across the whole population. The Commission’s work will touch upon many areas of public policy. It will make recommendations for action across Government, public bodies and the private sector, and will inform a national conversation about race, led by the evidence. The aim of the Commission is to set out a new, positive agenda for change - balancing the needs of individuals, communities and society, maximising opportunities and ensuring fairness for all.

In addition, the Government’s Race Disparity Unit (RDU) is already working across departments and their agencies to identify and address variances in outcomes across education, healthcare, criminal justice and the economy. The RDU works across Whitehall and with local authorities to coproduce interventions to address these disparities.

This includes work to build trust between communities and the police forces that serve them, and working with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, the National Police Chiefs Council, Home Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to improve recording and monitoring of Hate Crimes.

On 30 October 2017, the Government also published the Independent Review of Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody carried out by Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC, and its response to the report. Every death in police custody is a tragedy and this is a priority area for the Government. Good progress has been made in addressing Dame Elish’s recommendations, although there is more to be done. The Government is committed to delivering meaningful and lasting change in response. The Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody will continue to oversee and drive progress on this work programme. Preventing deaths in custody and families’ experiences will remain at the centre of the changes we plan to deliver.

In April, the Government commissioned Public Health England to review how different factors - including ethnicity, gender and obesity can impact on people’s health outcomes from COVID-19. The review was published on 2 June, and the Minister for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, is carrying forward work to build on the PHE review. This includes reviewing the effectiveness and impact of current actions being undertaken by relevant government departments and their agencies to directly lessen disparities in infection and death rates of COVID-19.

It is the view of the Government that the combined work outlined to tackle racial disparities, will satisfy the request of this e-petition.

Cabinet Office

This is a revised response. The Petitions Committee requested a response which more directly addressed the request of the petition. You can find the original response towards the bottom of the petition page (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323867)