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Government to publish Race Disparity Audit next
week
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Furthers government drive to tackle embedded
injustices
Next week the Government will publish the results of an
unprecedented audit of public services.
The most extensive review of its kind ever undertaken, the Audit
will examine how people of different backgrounds are treated
across areas including health, education, employment and the
criminal justice system.
It reflects the Government’s world-leading commitment to
transparency, openness and the use of Big Data. The results
will be published on a website, Ethnicity Facts and Figures,
which will go live on Tuesday
(10th October) next week. The Prime
Minister has stipulated that this should be a permanent resource,
with new datasets added over time, allowing people to see how
services are performing in their communities and across every
aspect of their lives.
Ordered by the Prime Minister shortly after taking office, it
forms a key part of the agenda she set out in her first speech on
the steps of Downing Street to tackle injustices in
society.
has been clear that tackling
those long-standing injustices must begin first with exposing and
then confronting what she will call “uncomfortable truths.”
Initial findings from the Audit, which will when published
contain thousands of datasets for information and analysis, show
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The unemployment rate for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)
people of working age is nearly double that for white British
groups (8% compared to 4.6%).
Employment rates overall are far higher for white people (75.7%)
than BAME groups (63.9%) across the country as a whole.
More than nine in ten Headteachers are white British.
White pupils from state schools had the lowest university entry
rate in 2016.
In 2016, almost a quarter of Chinese level 3 pupils attained 3 A
grades or higher at A level and almost 3 out of 5 went to
university, making them twice as likely to have gone to
university compared with white pupils.
Two in three white British householders own their home, though
only two in five of householders from any other ethnic group do.
And while there are areas where outcomes for ethnic minorities
have improved and where the gap is narrowing, the findings will
remain a call to action.
Commenting ahead of the launch, the Prime Minister said:
“In doing this ground-breaking work we are holding a mirror up to
our society. The idea itself is not new – Charles Booth’s maps of
rich and poor areas in Victorian London drew attention to
hardship that was too often hidden – but this focus on how
ethnicity affects people’s lives will present findings that are
uncomfortable.
“My most fundamental political belief is that how far you go in
life should be based on your talent and how hard you work - and
nothing else. Britain has come a long way in my lifetime in
spreading equality and opportunity, but this Audit will be
definitive evidence of how far we must still go in order to truly
build a country that works for everyone.”
The Audit will reveal a complex picture – there are big
differences in outcomes for ethnicities in different parts of the
country, as well as significant disparities between different
ethnic minority groups.
And the report will seek to reflect the ethnic disparities
observed in the data that have the most impact on people’s
quality of life and their future opportunities. The findings
themselves will reflect society over decades - with the several
of the datasets dating back well over a decade.
It will show where in the UK young black children perform best in
school, the proportion of judges from an ethnic minority, which
parts of the community have the greatest fear of crime, and
whether white teenagers are more or less likely to smoke.
To address some of these initial findings, the Prime Minister is
today setting out targeted action in ‘hotspot’ areas where there
are big gaps in employment. That will include –
Expanding successful mentoring programmes to help people into
work. Targeting additional traineeship programmes to help young
people. These offer English, Maths and vocational learning
alongside a work placement to 16-24 year olds to help them
prepare for employment.
Working with employers large and small to help close the
employment gap, including in identifying good recruitment
practices.
While BAME employment rates are now at their highest rate for
fifteen years, the Audit will show the scale of the challenge.
The Government will be setting out further measures alongside
full publication of the findings online shortly.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
There are over 460,000 more people from ethnic minority
backgrounds in work compared with 2015.
