Phillips lauds Scots for funding equality

The UK’s equalities chief is to call on chancellor Gordon Brown to invest significantly more on promoting equality in England to match a sharp increase in funding in Scotland.

Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), told a debate on equalities in Scotland last week that he had been “hugely impressed” that spending on promoting equality in the country had risen from £1m to £15m since 2001.

Phillips added: “England spends about £45m. I intend to go to Gordon Brown and ask for a similar multiple.”

Phillips was speaking ahead of the publication of the government’s equalities review on Friday (2 March), which he has chaired.

The review is looking at the causes of discrimination and inequality in society, and Phillips said: “What I have learned from the review is you have to put resources into promoting equality.”

He told the debate, organised by the Scottish parliament’s equal opportunities committee, that England could learn from Scotland’s approach to integrating Pakistani children, gypsies and travellers into mainstream society.