Today's post is written by our head of policy, Dr Omar Khan

Every ten years the Census provides us with multiple insights into the state of modern Britain. In today’s release of the 2011 Census, we find that the Black and minority ethnic (BME) population has reached nearly 8 million – roughly the population of Scotland and Wales combined.

Overall, the BME population is now 14.1% of the overall total in England and Wales, rising from 7.9% in 2001. This doesn’t include the significant ‘White Other’ population which is now 2.5 million, or 4.4% of the overall population. Much of this growth has been through immigration, and many will assume that the ‘White Other’ population is primarily Eastern European. However, this population also includes White French, White Australian, White Argentinian and White American people, which explains why this disparate ‘group’ is now some 12.6% of the population of London.

Combined with the 40% of the population that is Black and minority ethnic, a minority of London’s residents are now ‘White British’ (46%). While this is indeed a striking development, it masks an arguably more significant development – the greater dispersal of ethnic minorities across the UK. Contrary to much received wisdom, Britain is becoming less ‘segregated’ every year.

Today’s blog post is written by Ojeaku Nwabuzo, a researcher at Runnymede

We welcome the Equality and Human Rights Commission's report, published on Monday, which highlights the Treasury’s failings to comply with the public sector equality duty at the time of the Spending Review 2010. In 3 out of the 9 measures the EHRC chose to concentrate on, the Coalition Government was found to not be fully in accordance with the public sector equality duty. This, however, is not the complete story. The public sector cuts in the 2010 Spending Review were unprecedented in their scope and depth. At the time, the Coalition Government planned an estimated £80.5 billion cuts to public spending across 19 government departments. The Commission’s detailed assessment covered only a segment of the Coalition Government’s reforms (read chapter 3 of the report for more details).

Runnymede was 1 of 9 organisations that provided formal submissions to the Commission. One important point that we raised, which was echoed in the Commission report, was the glaring data gaps in the Coalition Government’s assessment of the impact on ethnic minorities. We were shocked at the Coalition’s Government’s lack of analysis of the services and benefits being cut and the numbers of minority ethnic people that would be affected. The Government’s own Overview of the impact of Spending Review 2010 on equalities included just 397 words to the impact of cuts on ethnic minorities.

Today's blog post is written by Runnymede's policy and research analyst, Klara Schmitz

Runnymede is part of UK NGOs Against Racism, a group of race equality organisations which are taking their concerns about the government's inaction on race equality to the United Nations.

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.

Westminster became a hotbed of discussion on race and equality issues throughout yesterday’s parliamentary debates.

In an exchange about knife crime and police bureaucracy, police and criminal Justice minister, Nick Herbert said that the coalition government is dedicated to reducing ’time wasting bureaucracy’ and will make hospitals share non-confidential information with the police so that they can target stop-and-search in gun and knife crime hot spots.

This could have a significant impact on race equality, as ethnic minorities are often the target of stop and search investigations. However, it has not yet been made clear as to what ‘bureaucracy’ will be scrapped.

See our latest report Ethnic Profiling: The Use of ‘Race’ in UK Law Enforcement for more on the effects stop and search has on the black and minority ethnic (BME) community.