Race relations after 50 years
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By Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the statute which originated equality legislation in Britain: the Race Relations Act 1965. In the last 50 years, anti-discrimination law has proliferated. The Equality Act 2010 consolidated laws which now extend to eight protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex and sexuality. The act of 2010 combines the effect of nine statutes and over 100 statutory instruments.
Few would now question the role of the law in promoting equal treatment. Yet the original statute was novel not only in its subject matter but also its approach to enforcement, which had no earlier parallel in Britain. The Labour Government which introduced the Race Relations Bill in 1964 had initially provided for criminal penalties on those found guilty of what was to be the crime of racial discrimination. After the Bill was introduced in the House of Commons, however, Ro...
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