Peers Tell Government To Outlaw The Caste System In The UK

In a vote in the House of Lords peers defeated the government and said that discrimination on the grounds of caste should be outlawed in the UK. Peers backed an Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill amendment to add caste to race discrimination laws.

The government opposed the move, saying it had set up an education programme to tackle caste discrimination. Peers said this was not enough, and the law needed to be changed. The government was defeated by 256 to 153.

The defeat was the second of the day for the government, with peers also challenging the government over the role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in promoting a more equal society.

You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.

Benefits Cheats Cause A Negative Image Of Disabled People: New Report

New Research by the disability charity, Scope shows that almost half (46%) of disabled people feel that attitudes towards them have worsened over the last year.

Disabled people single out the tiny number of people falsely claiming disability benefits and the way their actions are reported by the media as the chief causes of public hostility. At the same time disabled people report that they are increasingly confronted by strangers questioning their right to support.


It comes after ministers released data suggesting 55% of sickness benefit claimants were no longer eligible for it. The government is changing the welfare system to try to get more people into work and is scrapping the three main benefits for disabled people in the process. Anyone receiving these benefits will be reviewed to see if they are capable of work or eligible for other benefits.

But a report from a parliamentary committee for Scope has warned that changes to disabled people's benefits may risk their right to independent living. The report asked 500 disabled people, their parents and carers a series of questions in England, Wales and Scotland. It found:

• 46% of those polled said people's attitudes towards them had worsened over the last year
• 40% said people's atitudes had stayed the same; 16% said they had improved
• Nearly two-thirds (64%) said they had experienced aggression, hostility or name calling
• Nearly three-quarters or (73%) said they had experienced an assumption they did not work.
• When asked what could be contributing to such hostility, 87% singled out people claiming disability benefits to which they are not entitled
• 84% highlighted negative media coverage about benefit cheats

You can read the full report & more on this issue from Scope here on their website: http://www.scope.org.uk/news/discrimination

Women Hold Fewer Than 1/3 Of Top Jobs - BBC Research

Figures compiled by BBC News show that fewer than 1/3 of the UK's most inflential jobs are currently held by women.

Women occupy on average 30.9% of the most senior positions across 11 key sectors analysed by the BBC, including business, politics and policing.The armed forces and judiciary have the fewest women in top posts - 1.3% and 13.2% respectively - while secondary education has the most (36.7%).

Campaign group the Fawcett Society said progress was still too slow.

"Men outnumber women by four to one in Parliament and only a third of local councillors are women," the group's Preethi Sundaram said.

"When we look at the top quarters of power in the political world there are only five women there out of 22… It's quite an appalling fact really."

The European Commission is considering new laws to get more women into the top management jobs. Currently, just one in seven board members at Europe's top firms are women.

You can read more on this story as well as statistics on women in top jobs here: Women hold fewer than one third of top jobs.

What Can Care Providers Do To Support Older Gay People?

May 17th was the International Day Against Homophobia. A recent paper by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Perspectives on ageing: lesbians, gay men and bisexuals by Sally Knocker shines a spotlight on the huge impact that prejudice has had on older people's lives and on the impact that the morms of their youth still have upon their present experience.

Sally found that many fear needing services, believing (rightly or wrongly) that their identity will become invisible or that they will experience prejudice from care professionals or their own peers. This is particularly true for those who are HIV positive. A national survey found that many HIV-positive older people fear that social care services, care homes and sheltered housing might be HIV prejudiced and/or homophobic. One in five reported experiencing age- or HIV-related discrimination in the past year, and HIV discrimination was worst in healthcare and goods and services.

New Progress Report On Tacking The Inequalities Experienced By Gypsies & Travellers

The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a progress report by the Ministerial working group on tackling inequalities experienced by Gypsies and Travellers. It contains 28 measures from across government that aim to improve outcomes for Gypsies and Travellers across education, health, accommodation, employment and in the criminal justice system.

You can read the progress report in full here: Progress report by the ministerial working group on tackling inequalities experienced by Gypsies and Travellers

Latest Research From the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is an endowed charity which funds a UK-wide research programme into the root causes of poverty and social exclusion and seeks to identify ways of overcoming them. The following research reports are now freely available to download from their website:

• Involving older people in service commisioning: more power to their elbow? This research seeks to discover what happens when older people are given the opportunity to shape service commisioning and delivery.



• Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2011 - The annual report from the JRF on the state of poverty and social exclusion in the UK.

Hate Crime Laws Extended

People who murder disabled or transgender people in hate crime attacks will face life sentences with a starting point of 30 years, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has said. The Ministry of Justice plans to amend the Criminal Justice Act 2003 so that murders motivated by hatred or hostility towards disabled or transgender people will have the same starting point as for murders aggravated by race, religion and sexual orientation. This will double the current starting point for disability and transgender hate crime murders. The Act will also be updated so that where any offence is shown to be motivated by hostility towards the victim on the grounds of transgender, as well as race, religion, sexual orientation, and disability, sentences must be made more severe.

You can read the full press release here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/press-releases/moj/newsrelease081211.htm