Race Relations Amendment Act 2000

The Commission for Racial Equality has developed a Code of Practice which relates to all public authorities covered by the legislation. We recommend using this list together with the Code of Practice. The legislation is divided into two parts, the General Duty and the Specific Duty. NHS organisations are required to cover both parts.

• 1 General duty
• 2 Specific duties - race equality scheme
• 3 Specific duties - ethnic monitoring
• 4 Three-year review
• 5 Monitoring staff in post and applicants
• 6 Employing more than 150 staff
• 7 Unlawful racial discrimination
• 8 Adverse impact

1 General duty

Under the General duty of the Race Relations Act 2000 all NHS organisations are required to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; and promote equality of opportunity and promote good race relations between people of different racial groups. To meet the general duty you should consider the following four steps:

• make a list of functions, including employment and identify which functions are relevant to the duty
• set priorities for these functions, based on their relevance to race equality
• assess how all these relevant functions and any related policies affect race equality, and prioritise the most relevant. Drawing up a clear statement of the aims of each function or policy, is a way of assessing their impact on race equality and whether there is the information showing how different racial groups are affected
• consider how the policies might be changed to meet the general duty, and then make the changes

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2 Specific duties - race equality scheme

Under the specific duties of the legislation you must prepare and publish a Race Equality Scheme, this should be both a strategy and an action plan. Your Race Equality Scheme should include the following:

• identification of relevant functions and policies;
• arrangements for assessing and consulting on the likely impact of proposed policies on race equality;
• arrangements for monitoring policies for adverse impact;
• arrangements for publishing assessment, consultation and monitoring reports;
• arrangements for making sure the public have access to information and public services; and
• arrangements for training staff.

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3 Specific duties - ethnic monitoring

Under the specific duties you also need to:

• Collect ethnic monitoring data;
• Analyse the data to find any patterns of inequality;
• take any necessary action to remove barriers and promote equality of opportunity; and
• publish the results of assessments, consultations and monitoring each year.

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4 Three-year review

You must undertake a statutory three-year race equality review of your functions, policies and proposed policies.

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5 Monitoring staff in post and applicants

You must have a plan and system in place for monitoring:

• the numbers of staff in posts by racial group
• applicants for employment, training and promotion by racial group.

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6 Employing more than 150 staff

If your organisation employs 150 or more full-time equivalent staff you need to prepare plans to monitor by racial group the number of staff who:

• receive training
• benefit or not as a result of your performance assessment procedures
• are involved in grievance procedures
• are the subject of disciplinary procedures
• cease employment with that body.

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7 Unlawful racial discrimination

If monitoring shows that your current employment policies, procedures and practices are leading to unlawful racial discrimination, you must take steps to ensure that your organisation ends that discrimination.

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8 Adverse impact

If monitoring shows that the policies, procedures and practices have an adverse impact on equality of opportunity or good race relations you should consider how your organisation needs to change to meet the same aims, without harming equality of opportunity or race relations.