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CERES: Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland 
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RACE RELATIONS (AMENDMENT) ACT 2000
[What is the Act about?] [The General Duty] [The Specific Duties]
The Act
- extends the scope of the RRA 1976 to include activities previously excluded
- imposes a general duty upon all public authorities to promote racial equality.
- gives Scottish and UK Ministers the power to impose specific duties on publicbodies to promote racial equality
- makes chief constables vicariously liable for acts of racial discrimination by police officers. This means that a chief constable will be responsible for any acts of racial discrimination by any of her / his police officers regardless of whether or not she/ he was aware of the act or whether or not the act was carried out on her / his instructions.
- gives the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) new enforcement powers- if public bodies fail to meet its specific duties then the CRE can take enforcement action, requiring a body to comply. These powers were taken over by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 1 October 2007 when it took over the CRE’s duties and responsibilities.
The General Duty to public authorities is to have due regard to the need
(a) to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; and
(b) to promote equality of opportunity; and(c ) to promotoe good relations between persons of different racial groups
The general duty requires public authorities to take action to prevent acts of racial discrimination before they occur. It has four main principles, these should be borne in mind when implementing the duty:
- Obligatory – you can not choose not to promote race equality, but should try to include it in everything that you do i.e. build it into to your processes and plans
- Relevant – consider whether your functions or actions might have implications for or affect race equality
- Proportionate – the weight you give a function should be proportionate with its relevance to promoting race equality e.g. you may choose to focus on the function which affects the most people such as your bullying and harassment policy, rather than on your estates policies, or prioritising the what you can do to promote race equality
- Complementary – the three parts of the General Duty are complementary so you should try to find ways to meet all three parts:
More information on these principles can be found in the CRE Guide for Public Authorities
Read this for specific guidance for education.
The specific duties require key bodies to prepare and publish a Race Equality scheme. For schools in Scotland, the responsibility to draw up a Race Equality Scheme will fall to the education authority to which that school belongs to. If a school is self-governing, then the Board of Governors of that school will be responsible for drawing up the scheme.
A Race Equality Scheme shall state, in particular-
(a) those of its functions and policies, or proposed policies, which that body or person has assessed as relevant to its performance of the duty imposed by section 71(1) of the Race Relations Act (the general duty); and
(b) that body or person's arrangements for-
(i) assessing and consulting on the likely impact of its proposed policies on the promotion of race equality;
(ii) monitoring its policies for any adverse impact on the promotion of race equality;
(iii) publishing the results of such assessments and consultation as are mentioned in paragraph (i) and of such monitoring as is mentioned in paragraph (ii);
(iv) ensuring public access to information and services which it provides; and
(v) training staff in connection with the duties imposed by section 71(1) of the Race Relations Act and of the amended Act[What is the Act about?] [The General Duty] [The Specific Duties]