Public bodies failing in racial equality, MSPs report

"Institutional racism" within Scotland's public bodies, and "unacceptable" levels of unemployment and in-work poverty among minority ethnic communities, are prevalent and must be tackled, according to a committee of MSPs.

In a new report, Holyrood’s Equalities & Human Rights Committee urges public authorities to produce an action plan to increase the number of people they employ from minority ethnic communities and reduce the ethnicity pay gap in their organisations.

The MSPs have been investigating what actions are being taken to make sure minority ethnic communities have parity of employment and career progression, focus on employers covered by the Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010, including local authorities, health boards and other large public bodies. 

They heard evidence that, despite various initiatives, recruitment, retention and progression of minority ethnic groups in the workplace had regressed over the last two decades and that there was a resistance on the part of employers to acknowledge the existence of institutional racism and its effects.

Following a previous report published in 2016, the Scottish Government developed a Race Equality Framework, which sets out how race equality should be delivered from 2016-2030.

However, in late 2019 the committee heard from representative community organisations and academics that progress had stalled, and decided to undertake the present inquiry.

The new report calls for more use of positive actions to address under-representation of minority ethnic communities in the public sector workforce, and for the Scottish Government to make new regulations to require public bodies to publish their ethnicity pay gap, with an action plan to deliver identified outcomes with associated timescales.

Committee convener Ruth Maguire MSP commented: "The inquiry heard evidence that unemployment and in-work poverty remains disproportionately higher for people from minority ethnic communities than it is in the majority of the population. We are seriously concerned by the lack of progress in tackling this issue.

"It is extremely disappointing and frustrating that we regularly have to revisit this issue, and it’s little wonder that during our inquiry we heard many witnesses and representatives of black and minority ethnic communities refer to ‘consultation fatigue’.

"From the evidence we heard, there is a sense that many employers prefer to look outwards rather than inwards, as though the issue lies with the minority ethnic communities, when the reality is that the issue lies with the public authorities themselves. It is evident that a key factor within this is the failure of the leaders of public authorities to acknowledge the existence of institutional racism and, in so doing, failing to act to deliver a culture shift within their organisations."

She continued: "The committee is unanimously of the view that, despite all the mechanisms at the disposal of public authorities, including their equality duties and responsibilities, the ethnicity employment gap remains unacceptable and much more needs to be done to reduce the ethnicity pay gap, so we see more minority ethnic people in senior positions."

Ms Maguire concluded: "We sincerely hope that our successor committee will not have to revisit this subject, unless it is to reflect on the result of positive action, accountability, and eradication of institutional racism in Scotland."