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The Commission for Racial Equality has today launched its final legacy document, “A lot done, a lot to do: Our Vision for an integrated Britain”.

The report outlines the current state of UK race today with facts and statistics relating to all aspects of British life, from young people, health and education through to employment, communities, sport and local government.

In it, the CRE sets out the challenges faced in creating an integrated society and some key steps that need to be taken to reduce pernicious inequalities, growing social segregation and declining participation.

It contains specific recommendations for both government and the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights.

CRE Director of Policy and Public Sector, Nick Johnson Said:
“The issue of how we live together in our increasingly diverse world is of paramount importance. Despite this there is still a real risk that this agenda may be lost within the CEHR.”
“The simple fact is despite the progress that has been made, if you are an ethnic minority Briton, you still are still more likely to be stopped by the police, be excluded from school, suffer poorer health treatment and live in poor housing. The language may have changed but the reality is racial inequality is alive and kicking.”

Of concern are the findings that Britain is becoming increasingly segregated. Johnson said that:
 ”Additionally, people increasingly live ‘parallel lives’, risking division and conflict.”
“To achieve an integrated Britain, we need to achieve equality for all sections of society, interaction between all sections of society and participation by all sections of society.”
“Delivering integration should be a national priority.”
“We hope that with the help of this, our final legacy document, that the issue of race and integration will be kept in forefront of the mind of all policy makers.”

Recommendations include greater discussion of identity and citizenship in the school curriculum, a renewed emphasis to rid the prison service of its institutional discrimination and new funding mechanisms for local authorities who are undergoing rapid population mobility.

The functions of the CRE, together with those of the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission, are to be subsumed into the CEHR next month.  The CEHR is led by Chair Trevor Phillips and his deputy (and TMP contributor) Baroness Prosser, who headed the government’s Women and Work Commission.