Race Discrimination and Public Authorities

Public Authorities

In April 2001 the RRA was amended to put in place a key recommendation of the Macpherson Report which looked into the death of Stephen Lawrence, namely that the prohibition on race discrimination in the RRA should extend to the police. The RRA 2000 went further and extended the RRA to all public bodies. This gives people new rights to challenge race discrimination by bodies such as the police, local government, mental hospitals and prisons in the courts. The prohibition on discrimination by public authorities can now be found in section 19B of the RRA. These provisions do not apply to some immigration decisions, and to decisions not to prosecute someone.

General and specific duties on public authorities

As a result of the RRA 2000, public authorities have a general duty. Each listed authority is required ‘…in carrying out its functions…to have due regard to the need - (a) to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; and (b) to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups’. This means that the authority needs to look carefully at its policies and consider how they need to be changed to ensure they meet these aims.

Certain public authorities can also be subjected to ‘specific duties’ set out by the Home Secretary. So far this has been a requirement to produce a Race Equality Scheme, and to have in place arrangements for monitoring the ethnicity of staff. Many public authorities have therefore published Race Equality Schemes which set out what they plan to do to promote racial equality in their policies and procedures.

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