Professor Shamit Saggar, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, recently gave oral evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Women and Equalities inquiry into the Race Disparity Audit.
The Women and Equalities Committee launched an inquiry to look at the results of the recently published Race Disparity Audit. The audit uses published Government data to examine how people of different ethnicities are treated across public services in areas including health, education, employment and the criminal justice system.
The inquiry is considering:
- how the audit results should affect future approaches to collecting and analysing data on equalities and outcomes
- how the Government should take forward its policy response to the published data
- what the data shows about priorities for addressing disparities.
Maria Miller MP, Chair of the Committee, said:
“The Race Disparity Audit was launched by the Prime Minister with the aim of tackling injustices in society; it is no surprise that its results so far show there is still a long way to travel.
“We want to look at how effective the audit and the data behind it will be as tools to move society further along the road to equality.
“We are keen to learn about how better information can lead to better policy, and to hear from service providers, researchers and the public about how useful they will find the data for understanding and reducing disparities in outcomes for different ethnic groups.
“We also want to hear ideas for what Government should do now to address the findings of the Audit, and what the most urgent priorities for action should be.”
Watch the evidence session here or read the transcript here
The Committee has also published written evidence by ISER summarising recent research findings here