Government’s radical race equality employment plan

Press release - Immediate Thursday 11th October 2018

Contact OBV press office: 0208 983 5430 / 07920 057 237 / 07584 177 529

Government’s radical race equality employment plan

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Race Relations Act, which was designed to ensure that Black and minority ethnic individuals were no longer willfully excluded from the job market. Today, the Prime Minister will announce the most radical plan since that act to ensure that we not only unlock BME talent in the job market, but also to ensure that talent has the potential to reach the very top.

Continuing her theme of tackling burning injustices the PM will announce that she wants big companies to lay bare their ethnic minority pay gaps. For example, within the GLA London’s mayor revealed that in some areas BME individuals were earning on average 37% less than their white colleagues.

The PM will also announce that companies seeking Government contracts - procurement - which runs into billions must demonstrate they have an internal race equality plan.

A Race Equality Charter will be announced today for companies to sign to, and public sector bodies will be strongly pushed to show how they can close inequality gaps.

Simon Woolley, who heads Downing St’s Race Disparity Unit Advisory committee - a key driver of the PM’s project, said: “These measures have the potential to make the biggest impact on race inequality since the 1968 Race Relations Act. At its core this is about unleashing BME talent all over the UK. In this time of Brexit uncertainty the UK must be able to draw upon the potential talent on its doorstep. This starts this process. We embrace this and everyone wins: government, business, and above all our wider society.”

END.

Notes for editor:
1) OBV is a non-partisan political campaigning organisation working with all Black Minority Ethnic (BME) communities to improve race inequalities including participation and representation in the UK.

2) The consultation, open until January 2019, will set out in detail what information employers should publish to allow for decisive action to be taken while also asking employers how ethnicity data can be collected without placing undue burdens on businesses.

3) Leaders of the UK’s public services, including the NHS, Armed Forces, schools and the police force to also set out plans to increase proportion of public sector leaders from ethnic minority background.