February 1998

British Sikh Federation submission to the United Nations, 21st July 2000

United Nations International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)

Contents

House of Lords, Upper House of Parliament

Selection and Appointment of King or Queen

Appointment of Judges

Bias in Political selection process

Recognition of Ethnic Minorities

Group Actions

Institutional Racial Discrimination, and widespread racial discrimination against Asians

Police

Colleges / Higher Education / Universities

Health Service

State controlled / regulated Television and Radio

Millennium celebrations

Human Rights Commission

Apology for British Empire Slavery and Colonialism

No compensation for Slavery and Colonialism

Lower levels of pay for women, Asian and black ethnic minorities

Commission for Racial Equality

Institutional Racism worse in British Energy than London Metropolitan Police

1. House of Lords, Upper House of Parliament

Protestant Christian priests are reserved a number of seats in the House of Lords, but such formal arrangements are denied to other religious groups, e.g. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Other Christian groups, etc. This amounts to religious discrimination.

2. Selection and Appointment of King or Queen

King or Queen has to be a Protestant Christian and takes an oath to uphold the Protestant Christian religion, which is unfair to the other religions in the country, e.g. Christian Catholic, Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, etc. This amounts to religious discrimination.

The King or Queen should take an oath which does not seek to uphold any particular Christian sect or any particular religion.

3. Appointment of Judges

Appointment of Judges to the courts is by the Lord Chancellor, who is also a member of the political party Government ruling the country. Appointment of Judges should be carried out by an independent Commission, free of political bias.

4. Bias in Political selection process

Selection of candidates for political parties can at times be very unfair, so that well capable and desired candidates are prevented from being selected. A typical example is that of Ken Livingstone, who despite getting some 85,000 votes was unsuccessful, whilst the chosen candidate Frank Dobson only got about 20,000 votes in the candidate selection process. This biased result was produced by means of an electoral college, so that the person desired by the political leader, Prime Minister Tony Blair, could be chosen as the candidate to fight the election for London Mayor. Subsequently, Ken Livingstone won the London election with a substantial margin over Frank Dobson.

5. Recognition of Ethnic Minorities

Census 2001 questions failed to give fair recognition to the Asian languages or to the British Sikh Community as an ethnic group, despite the highest court having ruled that Sikhs were a separate ethnic group, and requests from all leading political parties to do so; the British Sikh Community was also larger than many other ethnic group categories that were monitored. Gaelic languages (mainly spoken by white persons) were monitored in a census question, whilst those languages spoken by Asians were not monitored.

6. Group Actions

The USA government changed the law many years ago to allow groups to bring legal actions in cases of systematic discrimination against women and ethnic minorities, and this law has been used to bring successful challenges through the courts against such discrimination. This has resulted in changes in the employment and progression of such groups.

In the UK many employers continue to practice racial discrimination against ethnic minorities and women in terms of recruitment, retention, progression, and delivery of services. The UK government should put in place similar legislation to that in the USA, so that group actions can be brought by women and ethnic minorities, since the previous legislation contained in the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Sex Discrimination Act has not worked since they rely on individual acts of discrimination (where it is difficult for the individual to gather enough legal evidence to prove the covert discrimination that goes on or for frightened witnesses to stand up and risk their own employment).

The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, headed by a Judge, showed that there was widespread institutionalised racial discrimination throughout all police services; the Government subsequently stated that institutionalised racial discrimination was widespread throughout all government departments, despite the existence of "equal opportunity policy statements" over many years. This is a process problem, not individual actions, which need a process solution of group actions. The UK government needs to put in place such a legal framework of rights and actions.

7. Institutional Racial Discrimination, and widespread racial discrimination against Asians

Institutionalised racial discrimination is prevalent in many large organisations and companies, e.g. Teaching (previously reported by the BSF, and later raised by the CRE Chairman as well), Medical, Water/ Gas / Electricity utilities, Commission for Racial Equality, Local Authority Councils, County Councils, etc. The Home Secretary should require all such bodies to put in place monitoring and setting targets for the recruitment, retention, and promotion of ethnic minorities.

Separate targets should be set in place for the Asian communities (Sikh, Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani), otherwise Asians will not get their fair share of jobs, and the majority of jobs would be given to the Black communities, e.g.

Black Jobs Asian Jobs

Commission for Racial Equality 44% 19%

Birmingham City Council 8.5% (5.9%) 6.1% (13.5%)

Sandwell Borough Council 6.6% (3.3%) 5.6% (10.8%)

Walsall Borough Council 5.74% (1.32%) 2.17% (7.90%)

Wolverhampton Borough Council 6.44% (5.21%) 5.87% (12.85%)

Merton London Borough Council 9.6% (5.9%) 2.7% (8.1%)

Hammersmith & Fulham London B.C 22.7% (8.2%) 3.6% (3.7%)

Corporation of London 4.26% 0.8%

Waltham Forest London B.C 19.2% (11.45%) 7.34% (10.60%)

City of Nottingham Council 6.3% (3.8%) 3.9% (3.4%)

Nottinghamshire County Council 3.79% 1.67%

Cabinet Office 6.0% 3.2%

Dept for Education and Employment 5.1% 2.8%

Dept of Health 7.6% 4.7%

Figures in brackets indicate population proportions from the 1991 Census; the job figures were provided by the organisations themselves. The figures for the central government depts. e.g. Cabinet Office, DfEE, Dept of Health were obtained from the Institute for Employment Studies, Equality Proofing in Performance Review in the Civil Service, April 2000.

From the above it can be seen that so many large public bodies practice racial discrimination against the Asians, and even the Commission for Racial Equality practices racial discrimination against Whites (who get only 31% of the jobs) and Asians, since Asians are twice as large as Blacks on a population proportion basis and have higher educational achievement rates according to the Government Office for National Statistics, e.g. those studying for a first or higher degree in 1995 (19-24 age) gave Sikhs & Indians: 29%, Black:12%, White : 13%, Pakistani/Bangladeshi:14%.

In Wolverhampton Borough Council alone, some 700-1200 jobs are denied to Asians, amounting to a loss of £11-18 million per year in salaries alone, whilst blacks receive 124 more jobs in comparison to their 1991 Census population proportion.

8. Police

The Public Inquiry, headed by a Judge, into the death of an ethnic minority student Stephen Lawrence, exposed the collective failure of the police to seriously investigate racist crimes and the racism within the police that leads to such an approach. The subsequent Report was a landmark in spelling out this racism at the heart of the police and insisting on the existence of "institutionalised racism". But this does not mean the racist rot in the police has gone away, from its canteen culture to its treatment of Asian and black people in the community. Too often Asian and black people, rather than the perpetrators, are treated as the problem.

9. Schools / Colleges / Higher Education / Universities

Asian and black teaching staff are seriously under-represented in schools, colleges and universities; those present as teaching staff are kept in lower job grades, despite having better academic qualifications (e.g. Ph.Ds) than their white counterparts. The UK Government should work with trade unions, ethnic minority groups and research bodies to end this form of racial discrimination.

According to the UK Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), despite the national increase of women students in higher education, women are under-represented at every level of professional staff:

71% of university lecturers are male

Women comprised only 7% of professors in 1997-98

15% of degree students in engineering and technology are women - but less than 1% of professors

50% of degree students in natural sciences / mathematics are women, but only 3% of professors

10. Health Service

There is tremendous racial discrimination against Ethnic Minority doctors and nurses, who form 23% of those working in the health services, since they are disproportionately confined to the lower job grades.

11. State controlled / regulated Television and Radio

The BBC is set up under statutory legislation, and is responsible to the Secretary of State; however, there are many aspects where the BBC fails to provide fair coverage for ethnic minorities.

(a). Racial and Religious Discrimination by BBC

The British Sikh Federation (BSF) presented a Petition to the BBC and Secretary of State on 11 December 1998 calling on the BBC to stop religious discrimination against non-Christian religions, and racial discrimination against the Punjabi language spoken by Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims in this country; the Punjabi language is spoken by 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis resident in the UK, and after English, it is the second most used language in England. The Commission for Racial Discrimination (CRE) has published a factsheet stating that Punjabi is the most spoken language by Asians living in Britain, see enclosed copy.

The Petition was signed by MPs, MEPs, Councillors, Students, Businesses, Sewing Machinists, Bus Drivers, Taxi Drivers, Housewives, Pensioners, etc. from all over the country, see Appendix 2 giving a list of some of the MPs, MEPs, and Councillors.

The Petition called for fair treatment in the provision of TV and Radio programmes for ethnic minorities.

The Petition recognised that the BBC produces good regular Christian religious programmes, such as Songs of Praise and at other times such as Christmas and Easter; these programmes promote and maintain the Christian religion and should continue. At Christmas time BBC Radio and TV provides extensive coverage to the Christian event through many different programmes for nearly a whole month, including Christmas coverage on BBC Asian programmes. However, the BBC does not provide any regular programmes on TV for non-Christian religions, which is clearly religious discrimination. The BBC was urged to treat all religions fairly and take action on the following points: -

1. Provide a regular TV programme for non-Christian religions as well;

2. The BBC Radio Asian Network in the Midlands still does not provide regular news in the Punjabi language everyday, despite the fact that the majority of Asians in the Midlands and nationally are Punjabi Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who speak and understand Punjabi. There should be news several times everyday in Punjabi, with fair and proportionate coverage in Punjabi and other languages (e.g. Gujarati) for other programmes as well; instead, the BBC provides daily news coverage in other less well spoken Asian languages in the UK.

The BBC has stated that it has an “aspiration” to provide news in Punjabi, but is unable to state when it will do so; however, the BBC has recruited many Asian journalists to provide news coverage in other languages.

The BBC accepted in letter dated 9 February 1998 that Punjabi was the main language of Indians and Pakistanis living in the UK; however, Punjabi speakers continue to be unfairly treated.

3. The BBC was urged to extend the Asian Radio network to cover the whole country, and not just keep it in the Midlands. The BBC has now done this through digital broadcasting technology, as it had promised, by broadcasting on digital channel 930.

On the basis of large research surveys published by the independent Government Office for National Statistics, the following figures can be obtained for persons living in this country:

Indian - Sikh: 51%, Hindu: 33%, Muslim: 6%, Christian: 5%, Other: 1%, No religion: 4%

Punjabi origin: 70%, Gujarati origin: 17%, Other: 13%

Main language spoken: Punjabi:50%, English:29%, Gujarati: 12%, Urdu:3%, Hindi: 2%, Other: 4%

Pakistanis – Main language spoken: Punjabi: 48%, Urdu: 24%, English: 22%, Other: 6%

Nawaz Sharif, a Punjabi, was Prime Minister of Pakistan, whilst Punjabis Zail Singh and Inder Kumar Gujral have been President and Prime Minister of India respectively. The BJP political party now ruling the Indian Union and the State of Delhi, have stated that until the late 1970s Punjabi was the language spoken in Delhi by 70% of the people.

Whilst the BBC has a Policy and Book of Promises that it will not practise racial or religious discrimination, it is clearly not implementing those measures in the instances reported above.

(b). BBC Radio Asian Network bans Sikh greeting “Bhole so Nihal – Sat Sri Akal”

BBC Radio Asian Network has banned the Sikh greeting “Bhole so Nihal – Sat Sri Akal” at the start of Punjabi programmes; senior management of the radio station led by Mrs Vijay Sharma still does not allow daily news in Punjabi, does not provide a fair proportion of Punjabi programmes, does not provide a fair proportion of Punjabi songs / music, does not allow the presenters to speak in Punjabi most of the time, despite the fact that Punjabis comprise 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis living in the Midlands and UK and programmes are now also transmitted on national digital satellite channel 930.

Every song played on the radio station means that royalty monies have to be paid to the singers; so why are Punjabi singers being penalised by having fewer records played? However, the radio station allows greetings / plays music on other language programmes, e.g. Allah Hu (Muslim greeting stating that Muslim God Allah is almighty), Jai se Krishan (Hindu greeting that victory be to Hindu God Krishan), Khudda Hafish (Muslim greeting referring to Muslim God), etc. Even the small Mirpuri district in Pakistan gets its own 3 hour “Mirpuri” language programme.

On a language basis, Punjabis do not get fair treatment, i.e. do not get 70% of the language programmes (see enclosed Radio Times programmes extract spreadsheet )

On a religious basis, Sikhs do not get fair treatment either, with the other Hindu and Muslim groups getting much greater time coverage, see schedule below based on the enclosed Radio Times programmes extract; the Punjabi language is said to cover others as well as Sikhs, so that our greeting has now been banned. However, the other specific language programmes cover the other religions only, e.g. Muslims are covered by Urdu/ Mirpuri/ Bengali, whilst Hindus are covered by Gujarati and Hindi.

BBC Radio Times 18-31 Dec 1999 programmes for BBC Radio Asian Network

Language	Day of Week	Time (Start)	Time (Finish)	Duration (hrs)	Area	Sub-Totals (hrs)	Religious Group

Bengali	Monday	7	9	2	Birmingham		Muslim
	Tuesday	7	9	2	Leicester		Muslim
Sub-Total				4		4


Gujarati	Sunday	6	9	3	Leicester		Hindu
	Monday	7	9	2	Leicester		Hindu
	Wednesday	7	9	2	Birmingham		Hindu
	Thursday	7	9	2	Leicester		Hindu
Sub-Total2				9		9


Hindi	Thursday	7	9	2	Birmingham		Hindu
	Friday	7	9	2	Leicester		Hindu
Sub-Total				4		4


Mirpuri	Sunday	6	9	3	Birmingham		Muslim
Sub-Total				3		3


Punjabi	Sunday	3	6	3			All
	Wednesday	7	9	2	Leicester		All
	Friday	7	9	2	Birmingham		All
Sub-Total1				7		7


Urdu	Tuesday	7	9	2	Birmingham		Muslim
Sub-Total				2		2

Totals						29


Provision	Time (hrs)

Hindu	13
Muslim	9
Sikh	0
Mixture	7
Total	29

Official Figures

Government Office for National Statistics for people living in Britain:

Pakistani – main language spoken – Punjabi: 48%, Urdu: 24%, English: 22%

Indian – religion – Sikh: 51%, Hindu: 33%, Muslim: 6%, Christian: 5%

Hindi is spoken by 2% of Indians living in the UK

Government Dept for Education and Employment letter dated 5 Nov 1999:

GSE examinations in 1998 - Panjabi : 1,686 Hindi : 0 Gujarati : 1,147

A Level examinations in 1998 – Panjabi : 262 Hindi : 22 Gujarati : 0

Commission for Racial Discrimination

The latest 1999 data from the Commission for Racial equality states that Punjabi is the most commonly spoken language among British Asians, which includes 95% of all Sikhs and 74% of all Pakistanis.

BBC Radio Times article, 24-30 January 1998, religious figures in UK

Sikh 600,000

Hindu 500,000

Jew 300,000

Other religions 300,000

(d). Punjabi / Sikh coverage less on TV

The coverage provided for Sikh / Punjabi films is woefully inadequate, although Punjabis form some 70% of all Indians and Pakistanis living in the UK. Much coverage has been provided for Hindi and Hindu films, e.g. Mahabharat series ran for half an hour every week for 2 years. However, there has been no similar provision of programmes for British Sikhs and Muslim Pakistanis.

(e). Portrayal of Asians in TV programmes

Why is it that Asians are often not shown in good, successful roles? Why does the BBC show more negative images for Asians, e.g. arranged marriages, youngsters running away from home? Why is it that blacks or Christian Asians or Asians not following their family values are given a higher profile instead? In the USA, by contrast, minorities are portrayed in good successful leadership roles, e.g. Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Sidney Poitier as a successful police detective, Bill Cosby, Will Smith, etc. Why is that the BBC can spend vast sums of money on dramas, soaps, Gormenghast, etc without showing a single successful Asian person or family? Can the BBC make such a good Asian series?

12. Millennium celebrations

Over £700 million were spent by the Government, and bodies controlled or influenced by the Government, on the Millennium Dome alone in London, in order to celebrate the 2000 year anniversary of the Christian religion. However, the Government spends hardly anything to celebrate the events of other religions, e.g. the 300 Years anniversary of the Sikh religion in 1999 to celebrate the Birthday of the Sikh Nation.

13. Human Rights Commission

The UK government has passed legislation setting up a Human Rights Commission for Northern Ireland. The Scottish Parliament is likely to set up it's own Human Rights Commission to cover Scotland. The government states it has an open mind on the setting up of a Human Rights Commission covering England and Wales, after being pressed by Members of Parliament during the passage of the Human Rights Act 1998; the MPs had stated the need for an enforcement body, as already done for the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

The Labour political party had itself raised the possibility that it might establish a Human Rights Commission, in a pre-election consultation paper in December 1996. It said then that it would be important for the Act to be monitored, for individuals to be given advice and assistance in taking cases, and for draft legislation to be scrutinised for compliance with international human rights standards, and suggested that a Human Rights Commission (HRC) might be the appropriate body to fulfil such functions.

The UK government is now dragging its feet in setting up a Human Rights Commission for England and Wales; there are probably two factors, i.e. cost and political (divide and rule). At the moment there are 3 separate bodies, consisting of the Commission for Racial Equality(CRE), Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), Disabilities Commission, all with their consequent separate costs. These three bodies do not appeal to the whole population, e.g. the white population is not interested in the CRE (since it is perceived to be looking after the interests of Asians and blacks, which form 8% of the population, whilst the employment data shows that it does not look after the interests of Asians and Whites, but looks after the interests of blacks), most men are not interested in the EOC since it is perceived to be interested in discrimination against women, most of the population is not interested in the Disabilities Commission since it looks after the interests of the disabled.

The UK government should be urged to replace these existing bodies with a Human Rights Commission, which would result in a reduction of costs due to sharing the same facilities, e.g. administration staff, buildings, legal expertise, clerical staff, etc. The Human Rights Commission would also have a national appeal, since it would be dealing with the human rights of all people, including the protection and promotion of those rights not presently covered by any of the existing separate bodies such as the CRE, EOC, Disabilities Commission.

14. Apology for British Empire Slavery and Colonialism

There is tremendous racial discrimination in the teaching of history in schools, with virtually nothing being taught of the history of Asians and blacks, and the British Empire is glorified in schools, despite the large scale killings and looting that went on.

President Bill Clinton, USA, has apologised for the ill treatment of American Africans during the periods of slavery and subsequent racial discrimination.

The President of Germany has recently apologised for the ill treatment and deaths of 6 million Jews during the Nazi period and agreed to pay Billions of Dollars in compensation.

The Government and banks of Switzerland have agreed to pay Billions of dollars in compensation to Jews, as a result of their involvement during and subsequent to the Germany's Nazi period.

The British Government needs to make an Apology of Substance for Slavery and Colonialism and to return the treasures stolen during this period, such as the largest diamond of all the Koh-i-noor from the country of Punjab (put into the Queen’s crown). The BSF supports the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) call on the Government to :

1. Make an apology for the inhumanity and injustice suffered by black and Asian people over 5 continents through enslavement and colonisation.

2. Formally apologise to black and Asian people in Britain today who have to live day to day with the worst legacy of colonialism : racism.

3. Acknowledge the voluntary and enforced contributions that black and Asian people have made to Britain and its economy, and agree in principle to the emerging demands for reparations.

4. Cancel the debts of countries which suffered as a result of slavery and colonialism.

5. End the practices of neo-colonialism and advance the cause of establishing an equitable world order.

6. Integrate black and Asian history within the British education curriculum ensuring a true depiction of the past and present.

The legacy of slavery and colonialism

· £150 million profit made by the British from West Indian plantations alone

Michael Craton, Sinews of Empire : A Short History of British Slavery (1974)

· It is estimated that during the last thirty years of British colonial administration British trading and shipping interests took out of Ghana a total of £300 million

Kwame Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite (1963)

· Bengal famine of 1770 killed 10 million people

Stanley Wolpert, A New History of India (1982)

· Britain's loot alone from India was worth up to £1000 million

William Digby, Prosperous British India : A Revelation from the Official Records (1901)

· During British imperial rule half of India's annual net revenues flowed out of the country

Romesh Dutt, The Economic History of India under early British Rule (1906)

· 28,825,000 Indians starved to death in 24 famines between 1854 and 1901

Ibid

· The Bengal famine of 1943 claimed 1,500,000 victims

Famine Inquiry Commission, report on Bengal, Delhi (1945)

· As late as 1834 Britain had 540,559 African slaves in the Caribbean

· Prior to the European's arrival in 1772 there were 4000 black Tasmanians in Tasmania. This was reduced to 203 survivors within 59 years. By 1846 Tasmania's black population had been wiped out.

MM Bennet, The Australian Aboriginal as a Human Being (1930)

· The European settlement in Australia in 1778 saw a Black population of 300,000 reduced to 77,501 by 1921. By 1932 the population was down to 59,719

Thomas Dunabin, The Making of Australasia

If Prime Minister Tony Blair can quite rightly hold a Holocaust Day for the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews, surely a British Empire Holocaust Day should be held for the millions of people killed and subjugated during the colonial period.

15. No compensation for Slavery and Colonialism

The UK has received compensation for the suffering of people inflicted by Germany and Japan, and should make similar compensation to those countries that suffered during the British colonial period. This amounts to racial discrimination in the way the UK Government deals between compensation matters for white and non-white persons.

16. Lower levels of pay for women, Asian and black ethnic minorities

According to the UK Equal Opportunities Commission, throughout their working life women usually earn less than men; this is as true for women managers as for women in other jobs. Women who work full-time currently earn 80% of men's hourly pay on average, and only 73% of men's average weekly earnings. this also results in lower company pensions for women, since pensions are usually linked to pay. Men aged 65-74 had an average weekly income of £167 in the UK in 1994-95, while women of the same age had an average income of £92; women aged 65-74 therefore earned 55% of the average income of men of this age.

The UK needs to make changes to the Equal Pay Act 1970 or the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, so that employers are required to publish pay/pensions data for men and women and thereby demonstrate equal pay. Publication of such public data will make the levels of discrimination clear, and force employers to pay women equally in terms of basic pay, promotions, and pensions.

17. Commission for Racial Equality

The Commission for Racial Equality is not sufficiently funded so that it can carryout all it’s functions fully, although many millions of pounds provided elsewhere by the Government go unclaimed in other Government Departments, e.g. welfare and social benefits.

18. Institutional Racism worse in British Energy than London Metropolitan Police

British Energy is the largest generator of electricity in the country, and makes profits from the electricity bills that we all pay. It has 7 power stations in England and 2 power stations in Scotland, with large offices in Gloucester, Cardiff, Glasgow, and Edinburgh with a total of 5,300 employees; apart from one power station, all the other power stations are nuclear. British Energy is one of the successor companies to the previous Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) nationalised company in England and Wales, and its equivalent much smaller company in Scotland.

However, its employment practices are a serious cause of concern, employing only about 50 Asian and black ethnic minorities in total, and failing to employ even a single Asian or black ethnic minority graduate last year (98/99) although many white graduates were appointed, despite Asian and black ethnic minority graduate job application rates from all over the country running at 17-24% of all graduate applicants for engineering and other kinds of jobs. This continuous practice over the last 30-40 years, of none recruitment or only very low levels of recruitment for Asian and black ethnic minorities, has meant that there are only about 50 (1%) such persons in a total workforce of 5,300. Those that are employed are confined to the lower job grades, with not a single Asian or black person at Executive Director, Director, Manager, or Group Head levels; the Scottish part of the company has the worst record of all, with not a single Asian or black person, apart from those recently transferred from England. This makes British Energy one of the worst employers in the country, even worse than the London Met Police with 3.5% Asian and black ethnic minority employees. Such low employment and promotion levels are not acceptable, when compared with the national population proportion of 8%, graduate job application rates of 17-24%, high educational qualification rates, and a higher study rate for engineering and science subjects for Asian and black ethnic minorities according to the Office for National Statistics.

The company has taken no notice and action following the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry findings, or that Parliament and the Government have accepted there is widespread institutional racism, or the best practice used elsewhere involving monitoring/ setting of targets for ethnic minorities recruitment, retention, progression/ separate ethnic minorities advisory group, or the research findings of the Institute of Employment Studies about racial discrimination in staff performance appraisals, or reports of the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), etc. It has failed to put in place equal opportunities monitoring, even though it was requested by company trade unions in January 1999; it has deliberately failed to do so, so that it could continue to mask its practices against Asian and black ethnic minorities.

Although Peter Hollins, Chief Executive, signed the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) Leadership Challenge in October 1998, giving his personal commitment to the implementation of racial equality measures, and Sir John Robb, Chairman, gave a public commitment in July 1999 that best practices would be used, nothing much has changed. It appears that either lower levels of management are failing to implement the top level policy, or the top level pronouncements are just mere rhetoric with no real commitment. The required changes would need to be driven by the top officers, since the deeply ingrained company culture is against Asian and black ethnic minorities, a fact that is clear to objective outsiders. Company officials keep justifying the present position within the company, and even refuse to accept that there is any institutional racism.

At privatisation, there was a real fear that since there were only 2 power stations in Scotland, the company would consolidate for business reasons in England, with a subsequent reduction of jobs in Scotland, since most of the 80% power stations, employees, customers, and shareholders were in England; following pressure from Scottish MPs, it was agreed that the company headquarters would be in Scotland with no loss of jobs to England. After privatisation, this has now meant a subsequent and continuous loss of jobs from England, with more and more consolidation of management, engineering, and corporate function jobs in Scotland.

The following actions need to be taken: -

Amend present legislation going through Parliament, e.g. Utilities Bill, Race Relations (Amendment) Bill, etc, so as to require British Energy and other Utilities to put in place Government best practice for monitoring and setting targets for ethnic minorities recruitment, retention, progressions, delivery of services, etc. The Utilities perform an important public service, making their profits from the general public, and should be required to put an end to their institutional racism against Asian and black ethnic minorities; this will be to the benefit of British Energy and other Utilities since in the London area 25% of customers are ethnic minorities, whilst in the West Midlands they form 17% of customers.

Urge the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate and issue a Non-Discrimination Notice against British Energy, for it’s institutional racism against Asian and black ethnic minorities, and also against white staff from England and Wales (since most jobs are now being given to white staff from Scotland); please write to: Gurbux Singh, Chairman, Commission for Racial Equality, Elliot House, 10/12 Allington St, London SW1E 5EH

Amend legislation so that group or class actions can be taken against such companies as British Energy, e.g. by Asian and black ethnic minorities or white staff from England.

Amend legislation so that the principles of the Equal Pay Act for women are also available for Asian and black ethnic minorities (males and females) doing an equivalent job to their white colleagues, so that companies do not keep denying promotions to ethnic minorities on minor differences in job descriptions.

Urge British Energy to accept there is institutional racism, and to put best practices in place as mentioned above, by writing to Peter Hollins, Chief Executive, British Energy Ltd, 10 Lochside Place, Edinburgh EH12 9DF

British Sikh Federation,

P.O. Box 242,

Wolverhampton, UK

WV4 5DH