The CRE considers that despite improvements in protection from discrimination and some steps towards substantive equality and better relations between different groups in British society, we are far from eliminating discrimination and disadvantage faced by national minorities.

It is also vital to take into consideration the fact that British society is changing rapidly in a number of ways that means there are new pressures on the government and threats to national minorities in terms of discrimination and growing disadvantage:

• with connected issues of globalization and migration, increasing numbers of migrants are coming to live in the UK;
• there are changing demographics in the UK meaning that the percentage of ethnic minority people of the total population is increasing;
• world events relating to terrorism have increased discrimination, prejudices and fears towards Muslims and impacted on community relations.

The CRE has a number of concerns which we consider require action are:

Meaning of national minorities under the Convention:

• the position of the CRE is that the government's approach to the meaning of national minorities only by reference to racial groups that have been recognised as such in case law is too narrow and creates arbitrary distinctions and is not reflective of the purpose of the Convention;

Discrimination:

• discrimination in employment and as criminal acts against national minorities remains widespread and the law prohibiting discrimination needs to be more comprehensive, effective and consistent;
• some groups have faced particularly concerning levels and new forms of discrimination, prejudice or exploitation and these include Gypsies and Travellers, Muslims and new migrants from Eastern Europe.
• as a result of changes in laws and government policies it is increasingly difficult for national minorities to access justice if they wish to bring claims of discrimination;
• the manner in which the government exercises stop and search powers is disproportionate with respect to national minorities and the government has failed to take adequate measures to rectify that and prevent discrimination.

Achieving substantive equality and an integrated society:

• substantial inequalities still exist between a range of ethnic minorities and the rest of society across a number of sectors such as employment, education, health and criminal justice;
• Gypsies and Irish Travellers continue to face substantial equality across Great Britain and this has been compounded by problems associated with a lack of suitable housing in terms of permanent and temporary sites. The CRE inquiry and report Common Ground highlights that increasing numbers of sites is crucial within the context of the race equality duty, reducing community tensions and promoting good race relations;
• in relation to promoting equality, the equality duty on public authorities needs to be made outcome rather than process focused and public authorities need to take more leadership in making equality a strategic priority;
• in the context of the equality duty, public authorities should be compelled to use procurement actively in achieving greater equality within the organisations which provide contractual services and in the manner in which goods or services are delivered;
• there are in some sectors such as housing and education trends of greater segregation of communities. There is also a lack of active participation of national minorities in economic and public life. As a result the government needs to research, measure and develop policies to improve interaction and participation of national minorities.

The role of the media

• some sectors of the media's reporting of a number of groups such as Gypsies and Travellers, asylum seekers and refugees and new migrants from Eastern Europe has often been largely negative, based on stereotypes and inaccurate;
• the current mechanisms for regulating discriminatory reporting within the Press Complaints Commission are insufficient as they only permit action to be taken where an article discriminates against a particular individual rather than groups generally;
• the media should take leadership in recognizing its powerful effect and taking responsibility for developing a more effective regulatory system against all forms of discrimination.