Race report: All the times there have been findings of institutional racism in the UK

© Provided by The i The inquiry by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities began after the Black Lives Matter movement last year. (Photo: Getty)

A landmark report published on Wednesday declared that the UK is not institutionally racist following the Black Lives Matter movement last summer.

It comes despite several previous reports and inquiries ruling in the last few years that systemic racism does exist.

Reviews have taken place following incidents like the Grenfell fire in 2017 and the Windrush scandal the following year.

Here are all the times there have been findings of institutional racism in recent years.

Macpherson report

Following the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, a public inquiry was led by Sir William Macpherson into the police response to the killing.

Sir William’s final report, published in February 1999, ruled that London’s Metropolitan Police was “institutionally racist”.

At the time, the public inquiry heard from more than 80 witnesses and considered 100,000 pages of documents.

Macpherson’s historic report made a total of 70 recommendations on changes to policing and wider public policy – of which 67 had been fully or partially implemented within two years. 

Race Disparity Audit

The first report to look into nationwide claims of institutional racism was the Race Disparity Audit commissioned by then Prime Minister Theresa May.

Its results were published in 2017 and showed widespread evidence of inequalities in several areas such as education, health, employment and treatment by the police and courts.

Figures showing apparent evidence of racial bias were published on a new Government website, a move which Mrs May said at the time left institutions “nowhere to hide”.

“People who have lived with discrimination don’t need a government audit to make them aware of the scale of the challenge,” she said.

“This audit means that for society as a whole – for government, for our public services – there is nowhere to hide.”

Lammy Review

Another report published at a similar time was the 2017 Lammy Review, conducted by the Labour MP David Lammy.

Mr Lammy’s report looked specifically at the justice system in England and Wales and concluded that it discriminates against people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

In his report, Mr Lammy made 35 recommendations – including delaying or dropping some prosecutions.

He also highlighted shocking figures which showed that at the time, people from BAME backgrounds made up 25 per cent of the prison population.

McGregor-Smith Review

Mr Lammy’s findings followed another 2017 report called the McGregor-Smith Review, which looked into racial discrimination in the workplace.

The review suggested that people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds faced lower employment rates than their white counterparts.

Ruby McGregor-Smith, a Tory peer led the probe, which recommended that companies publish data on how ethnically diverse they are by pay band – similar to the publication of gender pay gap figures.

But four years since its publication, the main recommendations from the McGregor-Smith Review have still to be implemented.

Windrush and Grenfell

Government reviews into the Windrush scandal and the Grenfell tower fire also found there had been institutional racism in the response to the crises.

The Home Office’s Windrush response, led by Amber Rudd, was found to have shown “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race”.

While a lawyer for some Grenfell families said the public inquiry must ask if the 72 deaths were “a product of institutional racism” since at least 34 victims were nationals of African, Middle Eastern or Asian countries.