'A Framework for Fairness: Proposals for a Single Equality Bill for Great Britain'

The CRE was very disappointed that the Discrimination Law Review, 'A Framework for Fairness', failed to provide a strong starting point for a single Equalities Bill. In particular, we are concerned that proposals may lead to a weakened single equality duty that runs contrary to the spirit of the Macpherson Report and over five years' experience with the Race Equality Duty. In addition, there are concerns that access to justice and enforcement have failed to be addressed in the green paper, both of which will provide the fundamental underpinning of any legislative commitments.

The CRE strongly encourages you to respond by 4 September 2007, and to attend the awareness-raising events that are underway nationwide. We would particularly urge stakeholders to come forward with any examples of where they believe the race duty (and the strengthened race relations laws) have made a difference and led to positive equality outcomes.

To discuss proposals and any concerns, email Graham O'Neill, the CRE's senior legal policy officer. 'A Framework for Fairness' can be accessed on the Department for Communities and Local Government website.

Forward Thinking seminar, 9 July

The importance of community safety and a fair and effective criminal justice system to strong and cohesive communities is well documented. For ethnic minority communities, the problems are two-fold; not only are they disproportionately the victims of crime, but they also tend to suffer more at the hands of the legal system through measures such as stop-and-search and ASBOs.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson, Nick Clegg MP, pictured left, and Professor Ben Bowling, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at King's College London, will discuss ways in which this deadlock can be broken. They will look at systemic reform, as well as the role for communities themselves.

This lunchtime seminar will be held on Monday 9 July 2007 at noon at the CRE's London office. To book your place, email us at forwardthinking@cre.gov.uk. For reports from our previous seminars and news on future events, please visit our Forward Thinking website.

Unaccompanied asylum seeking children

The CRE welcomed the opportunity to feed our views into the Home Office consultation 'Planning better outcomes and support for unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASCs)' at the end of May.

Our paper dealt with processes surrounding UASCs, particularly the immigration and care arrangements pre- and post- 18.

Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill

The CRE published a briefing paper on the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill, ahead of its reading in the House of Lords on 25 June 2007.

In recent years, the deaths in custody of, among others, David 'Rocky' Bennett and Zahid Mubarek, have raised serious questions about the ability to hold mental health and criminal justice agencies to account for institutional and systemic failures.

This briefing paper sets out the reasons why we are supporting the Lords amendments to extend the Bill to include deaths in custody.

Young black people and the criminal justice system

The Home Affairs Committee has published its report on young black people and the criminal justice system.

The CRE provided a written submission welcoming this inquiry, stating: 'We believe it is timely given the recent research commissioned by the Youth Justice Board which found that ethnic minority youngsters are over-represented in the youth justice system.'

Ethnic monitoring in courts

The CRE has been maintaining pressure on the Ministry of Justice (formerly the Department for Constitutional Affairs) to improve levels of ethnic monitoring of court outcomes.

Following our request, the MoJ has produced a tightly timetabled action plan for May to July 2007. A report on progress is expected at the conclusion of that period. For more details, see the MoJ website.

Compliance of probation service race equality schemes

Following advice and guidance from the CRE, the National Offender Management Service has confirmed that all probation boards have now made changes to their Race Equality Schemes (as advised by the former National Probation Directorate) and all schemes have been assessed as fully compliant. Click here to download our briefing (in PDF format) on the Offender Management Bill.

More information is available from the CRE's senior policy officer for criminal justice, Phil Pavey.

The Private Sector Future Policy seminars

The CRE's Private Sector Directorate hosted two policy seminars at the end of May on 'Employment, Education and Skills' and 'The Workplace'.

The seminars were a great success, with a broad range of speakers, including Mark Fisher, of the Sector Skills Development Agency and Sarah Veale, Head of Equality and Employment Rights at the TUC, engaging participants in lively debate.

Notes from both of these sessions are available from the CRE's private sector policy officer, Reshmi Thakur.

Compass conference

The CRE organised a fringe session at the recent annual conference of Compass, the left-of-centre think tank.

Entitled 'Britishness, citizenship and identity', a panel including the CRE's Director of Policy and Public Sector, Nick Johnson, MEP Richard Howitt, former minister Barbara Roche and editor of Prospect Magazine, David Goodhart, discussed the issue of national identity before a packed audience.

'Participation and local strategic partnerships' research paper

In 2006, the CRE commissioned the Black Training and Enterprise Group and Urban Forum to look at ethnic minority participation in local strategic partnerships (LSPs). The project forms part of the CRE's research programme on integration, which examines ways of strengthening social and political participation by all members of society.

The findings suggest that the majority of LSPs conduct neither ethnic monitoring of individuals involved in the LSP or associated sub-groups, nor ethnic monitoring of the projects where Neighbourhood Renewal Funding is allocated.

The full report is now available to download from the CRE website.

The Getting Results funding programme

Getting Results is the CRE's grants programme for local racial equality work. It has helped to support a wide range of community-based projects in recent years.

We have published two new case studies on our website which demonstrate how these projects have worked, and what they have achieved. Click on the link following each summary below to read more.

Case Study 1: Civic Parliament aims to re-engage people with politics

More than 60 local organisations in Scotland joined forces to set up the Ethnic Minority Civic Parliament. This initiative aimed to help promote positive race equality messages, while also encouraging greater levels of ethnic minority involvement in - and understanding of - the political process. [more...]

Case Study 2: Young people take the initiative on local leisure activities

BMEYPP is a Brighton-based project run by young people, for young people. Its main aim is to bring young ethnic minority people together to plan and run a range of arts- and sports-based activities. CRE funding allowed the project to recruit a youth worker, and to run almost four times as many project sessions as originally planned. [more...]