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Race and The Law
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Race
Relations Act 1976
The Race Relations Act 1976, as amended by the Race
Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, makes it unlawful to
discriminate against anyone on grounds of race, colour,
nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or national
origin. The amended Act also imposes general duties on
many public authorities to promote racial equality.
It applies to:
It is also
unlawful for public bodies to discriminate while carrying
out any of their functions.
The amended Act imposes a general duty on all major public
bodies to promote equality of opportunity and good race
relations. This section provides a summary of some of the
main provisions of the amended Act. It is not a definitive
guide to the law.
Racist
incidents ranging from harassment and abuse to physical
violence are offences under the criminal law. Inciting
racial hatred is also a criminal offence. Publishing and
disseminating materials such as leaflets and newspapers
that are likely to incite racial hatred is also a criminal
offence. If anyone has a complaint with respect to any of
these criminal matters they should be reported to the
police.
Racially offensive material in the media contravenes media
codes of practice. Complaints can be made to the Press
Complaints Commission or the Broadcasting Standards
Authority. Complaints about racially offensive
advertisements should be made to the Advertising Standards
Authority.
Are racial
harassment, abuse and violence covered?
You are protected by the Race Relations Act if you have
been abused or harassed on racial grounds in any of the
situations covered by the amended Act. For example, you
can bring a case against your employer if you experience
racist abuse from other employees, or from customers or
clients, and your employer does nothing to put a stop to
it or to protect you from such abuse. You may be able to
take a case against your landlord or landlady if you are
racially harassed by them or by their employees.
In situations not covered by the Race Relations Act, you
may be able to use other laws to get the harassment or
abuse stopped. For example, if you are racially harassed
by your neighbours, their visitors or others in the local
community, you or your local council may be able to get a
court order to stop the harassment. If the people who are
harassing you live in a rented property, the landlord or
landlady may be able to take action to evict them.
Racist attacks and violence are serious criminal offences
and must be reported to the police. The Crime and Disorder
Act 1998 created new 'racially aggravated offences', such
as harassment, assault, grievous bodily harm, and criminal
damages, which carry significantly higher penalties. It is
also a criminal offence under the Public Order Act 1986 to
use threatening, abusive or insulting language or
behaviour in order to stir up racial hatred. This includes
distributing racist leaflets.
The
general duty
The general duty applies to all public authorities listed
in Schedule 1A of the Race Relations Amendment Act (see
Appendix 1 of the Code of Practice). The aim of the duty
is to make the promotion of racial equality central to the
work of the listed public authorities. The general duty
also expects public authorities to take the lead in
promoting equality of opportunity and good race relations,
and preventing unlawful discrimination.
In practice, this means that listed public authorities
must take account of racial equality in the day to day
work of policy-making, service delivery, employment
practice and other functions.
To do this, public authorities should take two factors
into account. The weight which they attach to racial
equality should be in proportion to its relevance to a
particular function. In a local authority, for instance,
attainment levels in schools are going to be much more
relevant than, say, highway maintenance.
Since public authorities must meet all three parts of the
duty — eliminating unlawful discrimination, and promoting
equal opportunities and good race relations — they must
make sure they know how all their policies and services
affect race equality. For example, a new recruitment
policy may help to promote equal opportunities, but if it
is badly introduced, it may actually damage race
relations.
Specific duties
The Home Secretary has issued orders under the Act which
place specific duties on many public authorities to help
them to meet the general duty. These duties come into
effect on Monday 3 December 2001.
Under these duties, certain public authorities (see
Appendix 2 of the Code of Practice) will have to prepare
and publish a Race Equality Scheme. The scheme should
explain how they will meet both their general and specific
duties.
Under the Race Equality Scheme, public authorities will
have to:
The Race Equality Scheme – itself one of the specific
duties – essentially packages the other duties into a
coherent strategy and action plan.
Although Race Equality Schemes are a new development in
Britain, many public authorities already have equality
strategies and action plans. They should build on these to
develop their Race Equality Scheme. Public authorities
should not see the duty as a burden. Promoting race
equality will improve public services for everyone. Public
authorities can meet the duties in their own way and avoid
unnecessary work and expense by using their existing
arrangements and administrative systems.
Specific duties on employment
In addition to the above specific duties, all public
authorities bound by the employment duty (see Appendix 3
of the Code of Practice ) must:
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Monitor,
by ethnic group, their existing staff, and applicants
for jobs, promotion and training
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Publish
the results every year
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Authorities
with at least 150 full-time staff must also monitor:
Specific duties for schools and FE and HE institutions
Schools must:
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Prepare
and publish a race equality policy
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Monitor
and assess how their policies affect ethnic minority
pupils, staff and parents; the emphasis here is on
pupils' achievements
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Higher and
further education institutions must:
Note:
The above specific duties do not apply to schools in
Scotland.
Race equality schemes
A race equality scheme is a statement of how a listed
public authority plans to meet both its general and
specific duties to promote equality under the amended Race
Relations Act. It is meant to help public authorities make
sure that they address their general duty at a corporate
level. The scheme can be part of an authority’s general
equality strategy, but the equality sections must be clear
and specific.
What is a ‘listed’
public authority?
A listed public authority is one that is named in schedule
1A to the Race Relations Act. The list is also included as
Appendix 1 to the Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote
Race Equality. Public authorities bound by the duty
include local authorities; central government departments;
schools, colleges and universities; police; criminal
justice agencies; health authorities; NHS trusts; and
non-departmental public bodies such as the Arts Council of
England. Some public authorities will be bound only by the
general duty, some by the general and employment duties,
and others by these and specific duties placed on them by
the Home Secretary (or Scottish Ministers).
What should a Race
Equality Scheme include?
A Race Equality Scheme must
make clear how a public authority plans to meet both its
general and specific duties. It is a public document and
public authorities will be answerable to the public for
delivering the programme set out in the scheme. The scheme
should be able to answer the following questions:
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