UK equality watchdog to launch inquiry into entrenched racism

The UK’s equality watchdog is launching an inquiry into “long-standing, structural race inequality”, which has been thrown into stark relief by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said it would carry out in-depth analysis and develop evidence-based recommendations for urgent action to tackle entrenched racial inequalities in specific areas.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to tackle long-standing entrenched racial inequalities,” said David Isaac, the chairman of the EHRC. “We intend to use our statutory powers to address the loss of lives and livelihoods of people from different ethnic minorities. Only by taking focused action to tackle race inequality across Britain will we become a fair country.”

The move came as the Government Equalities Office announced a review into the government’s response to inequalities in Covid-19 infection and death rates, including the impact of age, sex, occupation, obesity, comorbidities, geography, and ethnicity.

The equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, said it was clear “that much more needs to be done to understand the key drivers of the disparities identified and the relationships between the different risk factors”.

Isaac told the Guardian that before Thursday, the prime minister and several secretaries of state had repeatedly ignored requests for meetings. It was “disappointing” that the EHRC had received no response from the minister for women and equalities, Liz Truss, he said.

Isaac said he had had no reply to a letter sent to Boris Johnson on 19 March urging the government to “consider carefully the specific impacts [lockdown restrictions] may have on groups who are already disadvantaged in other ways”.

The letter warned about potential increases in domestic violence, the risks to gig workers, who tended to “be younger, from an ethnic minority, or have caring commitments”, and stated that the burden of caring would be more likely to be shouldered by women, whose careers would be more likely to be damaged – which has been borne out by the evidence.

Asked if he thought the UK had become more unequal during the pandemic, Isaac said that good progress had been made in bringing equality up the agenda, but that the pandemic should act as a “call to arms”.

“It doesn’t feel like equality is a top-table issue at the moment, and it has to be,” he said. “The focus on equality has not been escalated in way that the severity of the situation requires.”

Isaac said the pandemic had shone a light on long-standing, structural race inequality in Britain, and raised serious issues that remained unanswered. Black and minority ethnic people have been disproportionately affected and have been two to three times more likely to die from Covid-19, according to a UCL study.

A government-commissioned Public Health England (PHE) investigation found that people of Bangladeshi background in England were twice as likely as white Britons to die if they contracted Covid-19, and other BAME groups faced an increased risk of up to 50%.

But the report was criticised for simply restating facts already  highlighted by other research, rather than explaining the reasons for the stark disparity, or making recommendations to tackle it. The British Medical Association, which represents Britain’s doctors, described it as “a missed opportunity” to instigate urgent action.

Under the Equality Act, public bodies must show they have taken the needs of protected groups into account before policies are implemented and the EHRC has asked government for evidence of this, and is now considering using legal powers to force the government to act.

“Our frustration is the framework, under the Equality Act, already exists,” said Isaac. “Considering the equality impact of policy decisions is not an optional extra – it’s integral to getting us out of this crisis, but sadly it’s being ignored.”