Despite showing ongoing commitment to the Race Disparity Audit, the Government have rejected calls from the Women and Equalities Committee to develop a cross-government race equality strategy to act on the disparities which the data reveal.
This is from the September 2018 response from the Government, published by the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC).
In the response, the Government has committed to:
- Improving the availability and presentation of different data sets
- Producing a publication schedule for further data sets, which is now available on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website
- Producing a Quality Improvement Plan, to improve the quality and usability of existing data sets as they are added to the website.
Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, Maria Miller MP, states:
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.
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. Without such leadership there remains little hope of achieving the Prime Minister’s ambition of achieving racial equality in our society.
Read the full response.
