8 March 2005 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) Report on the Race Relations Act
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alan Johnson, has today published a report by BFI on local authorities’ compliance with the Race Relations Act as regards their benefits sections. This is a follow-up report on progress since the first BFI report of 14 May 2003.
All inspectorates are to promote compliance of the Race Relations Act. BFI published its Race Relations Act report in May 2003 on the extent to which 10 randomly selected local authorities had complied with the requirements of the Race Relations Act, as amended by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.
Since then the BFI has worked with the Commission for Racial Equality and the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that the requirements of the Race Relations Act were incorporated in Performance Standards for the administration of housing benefits.
This second BFI report in this important area is based on 15 BFI inspection reports published since May 2003. It shows that no local authorities were meeting all the criteria relating to the Race Relations Act as set out in Performance Standards.
At the time of BFI’s inspections, 4 of the 15 local authorities had assessed the impact of proposed policies, or monitored the impact of existing policies, on race equality and, 2 local authorities that failed to meet this requirement had a large ethnic minority population.
The report notes that 8 local authorities had not provided training on the requirements of the Race Relations Act. However, areas of good practice were identified in the 15 local authorities and BFI are pleased to report there was widespread compliance with the requirement to produce a Race Equality Scheme.
Notes for editors
- The Race Relations Act 1976, as amended by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, came into force on 2 April 2001. It requires local authorities to remove discrimination and make the promotion of racial equality central to the way they administer their business, with additional requirements for authorities with more than 150 employees.
- This means that local authorities must actively promote race equality and prevent unlawful discrimination. They are also expected to promote equality of opportunity and good race relations between people of different racial groups. Local authorities were required to produce a Race Equality Scheme by 31 May 2002, or in the case of Scotland, 30 November 2002.
- BFI has a duty to inspect the performance of local authorities in the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit under the terms of the Social Security Administration Act 1992. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 has imposed additional duties on local authorities in the area of race equality.
- The Race Relations Update Report was based on information obtained from BFI inspections of 15 local authorities since May 2003.
- The HB/CTB Performance Standards can be downloaded from: www.dwp.gov.uk/housingbenefit/publications/2003.asp
- Media copies of the BFI inspection report can be obtained from the Department for Work and Pensions Press Office on 020 7238 0866.
- All BFI inspection reports can be found on the BFI website – www.bfi.gov.uk.
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