The government has announced the ethnic breakdown of those examined under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, revealing that Asian people are disproportionately affected. The power is specifically employed at transport hubs by counter-terrorism officials and whilst not being formally arrested, it requires examinees to comply with the examination which can last up to 9 hours and may involve questioning, strip-searching and DNA collection.

The ethnicity data was released by Policing Minister Nick Herbert following a question from Labour MP David Lammy in which he asked for the self-defined ethnicity of those detained since the Terrorism Act 2000 came into force. Herbert provided data for the period April 2009-March 2010, which was collected on the basis of officer definition of ethnicity. The figures highlighted that of those examined under the power, 46 per cent were officer defined as white; 27 per cent Asian; 19 per cent Chinese or other; 7 per cent African/Caribbean and 2 per cent mixed race.

As argued by FOSIS, the above figures show that people perceived to be from Asian backgrounds are the most disproportionately targeted since they comprise of far less than 27 per cent of the UK population. In addition, it may be the case that the figures for the “white” and “other” ethnic categories are inflated by examinations of those from Arab or Kurdish backgrounds.

Herbert also clarified that ethnicity has been recorded on the basis of self-recognition since April 2010, and that data for the period April 2010 to March 2011 is expected to be published in autumn 2011.

This post was also published on Left Foot Forward

So we’re back to what is becoming an old chestnut; as the latest senior politician condemns multiculturalism. On Saturday, David Cameron took his place, behind Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Trevor Phillips, arguing that “state multiculturalism” has encouraged “different cultures to live separate lives” with a particular Cameron twist – that the UK needs a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to extremism. Surely, such a panoply of senior politicians should have been able to organize the end of so-called state multiculturalism by now – unless of course it never existed in the first place, they do not really mean it, or the alternatives are simply too unattractive to countenance.

A key problem in debates around multiculturalism is that the term means different things to different people. Some believe that multiculturalism actively promotes separate religious and ethnic identities at the expense of common values, whilst others believe that it simply means the existence and recognition of different identities in a shared political space within a framework of human rights. Runnymede’s understanding of the term has always been the latter.

Written by Runnymede's director, Dr Rob Berkeley. This post was also published on Left Foot Forward

So we’re back to what is becoming an old chestnut; as the latest senior politician condemns multiculturalism. On Saturday, David Cameron took his place, behind Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Trevor Phillips, arguing that “state multiculturalism” has encouraged “different cultures to live separate lives” with a particular Cameron twist – that the UK needs a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to extremism. Surely, such a panoply of senior politicians should have been able to organize the end of so-called state multiculturalism by now – unless of course it never existed in the first place, they do not really mean it, or the alternatives are simply too unattractive to countenance.

A key problem in debates around multiculturalism is that the term means different things to different people. Some believe that multiculturalism actively promotes separate religious and ethnic identities at the expense of common values, whilst others believe that it simply means the existence and recognition of different identities in a shared political space within a framework of human rights. Runnymede’s understanding of the term has always been the latter. This is why the insistence that multiculturalism is the root of all evil has always been confusing to us. On an everyday level, the people of these islands generally accept that different identities exist and for most, thankfully, this is trivial – what people choose to eat, what music they listen to, how they choose to dress, are not generally seen as controversial in this country. The notion of a shared political space and the protection of individuals’ human rights however seem to be more problematic – and the inability to deal with these issues may explain why this debate so often generates more heat than light.

Following announcements that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is about to face 60% budget cuts, Trevor Phillips yesterday gave a speech arguing that equality and human rights are essential to economic recovery. Making the speech at Policy Exchange, a right-wing think tank, Phillips also argued that critics of the fairness agenda “are just plain wrong”, adding that the electorate want fairness “even in a time of austerity”.

In particular, he stated that he wants to tackle fear among some business people that equality legislation is a barrier to employing disadvantaged groups, saying that [the EHRC] want to make it a competitive advantage to be fair and inclusive." He also said that "equality is not a burden to the nation. It is part of what Britain expects. It is part of doing the right thing in our modern society”.

He also criticized those who approach equality policy from more extreme positions, stating that whilst those “fighting the phantom armies of Political Correctness” need to understand that they’ve lost the argument, those who believe “we are still in the days of Alf Garnett's imagination” need to realise that times have changed.

Phillips also waded into the increasingly polarising debate on multiculturalism triggered by David Cameron’s weekend speech on Islamic extremism, stating that he does not agree with those who believe the Prime Minister was wrong to speak on the issue. He also criticised Shadow Justice Minister Sadiq Khan’s statement that the speech was tantamount to “writing propaganda for the English Defence League”, saying that he “would not have used Sadiq's words and [doesn’t] agree with his sentiments”.

Controversial changes to stop and search powers were passed in parliament yesterday, despite campaigns from race equality and human rights organisations. The changes include a substantial reduction of the information recorded on stop and search forms, which will now make it impossible to measure repeat stops and harassment; the effectiveness of a stop and search; and any misuse of force. In addition, police will no long be required to record the use of “stop and account”, which will make it impossible to determine if stop powers are being used proportionately and remove local community scrutiny of stop practices.

These changes were introduced as amendments to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) Code of Practice A, and were passed in parliament as a statutory instrument yesterday by a House of Commons legislation committee. A number of concerns were raised in the committee, particularly by Labour MPs David Lammy and Vernon Coaker.

Lammy in particular criticized the government for not widely consulting with Black and minority ethnic communities – who are more likely to be stopped and searched – before introducing the changes, particularly given the social unrest historically associated with disproportionate use of stop and search. In response, Policing Minister Nick Herbert MP stated that he now recognizes this concern, adding that the need for wider consultation has been taken as “lesson learnt for the future”.

Lammy added that whilst he understands the government’s desire to reduce the amount of bureaucracy faced by the police, he firmly stated that this must not come at the cost of good community relations.

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties with the blog, meaning that older posts have disappeared from the front of the blog home page.

To access posts written in 2010, please select by theme from the tag cloud opposite. Older posts should be available in chronological order shortly. I will not be posting new material until the problem is identified and fixed.