Councils seek delay to equality guidance

The timetable for promoting race equality is
“unreasonable”, local government leaders claimed last week.

Under present plans, local councils and other
public authorities will have to publish a race equality scheme by
the end of May. But the Local Government Association is seeking an
extension on the deadline, because of delays in the publication of
the Commission for Racial Equality’s draft code of practice due in
May.

The code, which will help authorities meet the
duty to promote race equality under the Race Relations (Amendment)
Act 2000, was published for consultation last December, having been
delayed from the summer because of last year’s general election.
The final version of the CRE code is unlikely to be published “much
more than a month or two prior to the deadline on authorities”,
claimed the LGA.

“The LGA played a key role in lobbying for the
introduction of duties to promote race equality and contributed to
drafting the code of practice. It seems ironic that authorities
will now be penalised by the delay in the overall timetable,” said
councillor Margaret Eaton, LGA equalities executive
chairperson.