Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 73
73
Paragraph: 550
Policing has not adequately fulfilled responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.
Conclusion
The Public Sector Equality Duty and the Equality Act 2010 are a part of the legacy of the Macpherson Report’s important work on institutional racism, as they build on the race equality duty that was introduced in response to the report’s findings. Under the Act the police, as public bodies, must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and advance race equality. They have a responsibility as institutions to tackle indirect as well as direct discrimination including taking steps to prevent inequality not just to respond once it arises. But whilst police forces have set out broad public strategies to do this, progress has been too weak in practice and we do not believe that policing has taken seriously enough its responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 in recent years.
Paragraph Reference:
550
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Macpherson Report left an indelible mark on policing. Over the past two decades, since the report’s publication, significant progress has been made to address Sir William Macpherson’s findings. As a result, the way the police approach racially motivated crimes has changed beyond recognition since the terrible murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Over the past few years, this Government has built on that progress. Police accountability has been strengthened with the reforms introduced to the police discipline and complaints systems in 2020 and significant improvements have been made to Home Office data collections to enable greater scrutiny of police activity broken down by ethnic group. Most significantly, the Government has made attracting more officers from a wide range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds a core ambition of its drive to recruit an extra 20,000 officers.