Britain’s equality watchdog has extended a legal agreement with the Home Office by a year.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) entered the legal agreement with the Home Office in March 2021 setting out actions for the department to take to address its failure to comply with equality law when implementing ‘hostile environment’ immigration measures.
In November 2020, the EHRC’s assessment found that the Home Office had failed to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) when developing, implementing and monitoring the hostile environment policy agenda.
In particular, it had neglected to fully consider the impact its policies would have on Black members of the Windrush generation.
The legal agreement has been extended to allow additional time to complete and embed the agreed actions.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:
“When we signed this agreement in 2021 we made it clear that the experiences of the Windrush generation must never be repeated, nor forgotten. Our assessment found the Home Office had failed to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty and we have no doubt that these failures had a detrimental impact on many lives.
“The original two-year agreement and action plan was put in place to ensure equality and fairness was placed at the heart of future Home Office policies and practices. We have agreed with the Home Office to extend this plan by a year to allow them additional time to complete the agreed actions and to embed the improvements they’ve made.”
The agreement, under section 23 of the Equality Act 2006, commits the Home Office to an action plan of improvements to demonstrate that it:
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looks for and properly considers evidence and feedback from stakeholders representing affected groups to understand the equality impacts of policies and practices;
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has a clear understanding of equality data and evidence that it uses to inform decisions and policymaking at all levels, including of the potential and actual impact of the department’s work on different protected characteristic groups; and
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has taken meaningful action to improve internal knowledge and expertise on how to comply with the PSED.
Following the extension, the agreement will now conclude on 31 March 2024.
If the Home Office does not adhere to the terms of the agreement and implement the action plan, further enforcement action can be taken.
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