The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) today raised concerns to the United Nations (UN) about the different experiences many people from different ethnic minority groups face across healthcare, justice and employment in England and Wales.
The EHRC’s latest report, submitted to the Committee for the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), highlights serious issues in areas including:
- Criminal Justice: Black children made up 26% of the youth custody population in 2023 compared to just 6% of the general population aged 10 to 17. Black offenders and those of mixed ethnicity were also more likely to receive a custodial sentence compared to White offenders between 2018 and 2022.
- Work and employment: The EHRC’s 2023 Equality and Human Rights Monitor and Is Wales Fairer reports found that people from Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups face the highest unemployment rates in Britain. Some ethnic groups are also paid less than White British workers on average. Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers have the largest pay gap when compared with White British workers.
- Housing and accommodation: In England and Wales, the highest levels of overcrowding were in households headed by an individual from an ethnic minority group in 2021. For example, households headed by a person from the Bangladeshi ethnic group had the highest level of overcrowding (28.7% in England, 17.2% in Wales) compared with all households (4.4% in England and 2.2% in Wales).
- Mental health: Black people in England were three and a half times more likely than white people to be detained under the Mental Health Act in 2022-2023.
The EHRC makes recommendations to the UK and Welsh governments to help address these issues, including:
- Governments should commission independent research to better understand how experiences of insecure work differs by race and ethnicity
- Governments should ensure regular, good quality data is collected at both local and national levels by public institutions to improve understanding of racial disparities in mental health services
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said:
“Everyone should enjoy their human rights, regardless of their race.
"Our latest submission to the UN highlights the extent to which some people from ethnic minority groups fare worse than others. We found particularly significant disparities experienced by Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups in relation to their living standards, employment and health outcomes, and experiences of the criminal justice system
"We urge the UK and Welsh governments to closely look at our report and action our recommendations, to support the achievement of racial equality in Britain.”
Notes to editors
- The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is Britain’s national equality body and has been awarded an ‘A’ status as a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) by the United Nations.
- The CERD is an international human rights treaty adopted in 1965. The UK agreed to follow CERD in 1969 to take action on eliminating racial discrimination in all its forms. For more information on the CERD, see the relevant page on our Human Rights Tracker.
- The EHRC made it’s last submission on the UK’s implementation of CERD in 2016.
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