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Public Law Update

23 March 2007 / Ulele Burnham , Jamie Burton
Issue: 7265 / Categories: Features , Public , Profession , Human rights
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Two-tiered duty to promote race equality, Race Relations Act 1976, S71, Legal necessity for proper consultation

RACE EQUALITY

The celebrated Macpherson report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, was a significant event in the development of legal rules designed to take account of systemic racial discrimination. One of the legislative responses to Sir William Macpherson’s well-publicised coinage of the term ‘institutional racism’ was the two-tiered duty placed on public authorities to promote race equality.

Statutory duties

The general duty, found in the Race Relations Act 1976 (RRA 1976), s 71(1), is an obligation for all specified public bodies to have due regard to the need to “eliminate unlawful racial discrimination…and to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups”.

The specific duty, placed upon a further category of public authorities specified by the secretary of state, requires such bodies to make procedural arrangements, eg the publication of a race equality scheme detailing the arrangements for assessing and monitoring the likely impact

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DWF—19 appointments

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Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
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Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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