Ministers have been accused of “dragging their feet” on tackling racial inequality in the UK and needlessly commissioning further reviews, according to the head of the equalities watchdog.
David Isaac, the outgoing chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said a coherent race strategy should be a priority for Boris Johnson and there has been little sign of action so far.
“I do believe that they are dragging their feet,” Isaac told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme.
“They seek to understand it. They are clearly talking to lots of people with lived experience and that’s important, but are they taking action and is this a top priority? I don’t think so.
“The time for more recommendations in my view is over. We know what needs to be done. Let’s get on with it.”
A number of reports into racial inequality in the UK have been published since 2017, including an independent review by Labour MP David Lammy into black and ethnic minority people in the criminal justice system, and Ruby McGregor-Smith’s review into race in the workplace.
Theresa May also commissioned the race disparity audit to build up a picture of representation in the public sector.
Johnson announced a further review in June 2020, a commission on race and ethnic disparity, following the widespread Black Lives Matters protest.
Isaac said there was no reason for organisations not to report on their ethnicity pay gaps, something that was consulted on by government in 2019 but not taken any further.
“There are lots of quick wins. Implementing the ethnicity pay gap – reporting on that would shine a light on the disparities we see in relation to income,” he said.
Setting targets within businesses for more people of colour to occupy senior positions in the workforce is also essential, he added.
Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch hit back at the claims, saying Issac had never raised them with her despite a series of meetings and that the government is carrying out 16 recommendations from the Lammy review.
“I’m the first black equalities minister we’ve had in many years and this is a top priority for me. It’s simply not true the government is dragging its heels on this,” she said.
“We don’t accept every single recommendation that comes forward, obviously. This is a government that writes its own policies. We don’t outsource the policy making.
“But one of the things that this commission is doing, is actually looking at why is it that despite all of these actions people still believe we’re doing nothing. That is really important for me to work out.”
In his four-year tenure at chair, Isaac said the commission had undertaken more investigations than at any other time in its 13 year history.
This includes a live investigation into antisemitism in the Labour party, which is expected to report back publicly this year.
It has also looked at gender pay disparity at the BBC.