Summary
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) people have been acutely affected by pre-existing inequalities across a huge range of areas, including health, employment, accessing Universal Credit, housing and the no recourse to public funds policy. As the pandemic progressed, many of these underlying inequalities made the impact of the pandemic far more severe for BAME people than their White counterparts.
Our inquiry found that comorbidities pose a risk for BAME people in experiencing coronavirus more severely and, at times, with adverse health outcomes. To tackle comorbidities, primary prevention should be prioritised. We are concerned that the decision to disband Public Health England (PHE) could result in a gap in the prevention work that is already underway. Before the onset of the pandemic, many reviews and reports have put forward recommendations to tackle health inequalities, such as the Marmot Review. The Government should finally act on these recommendations.
It is vital that Government guidance is accessible to everyone so that individuals can stay informed and prevent contraction or transmission of the disease. The Government must ensure its guidance is culturally competent. We believe that current guidance is inadequately catering to the needs of BAME people and the publication of translated guidance has been slow and often less accessible than English-language versions. We welcome the Government’s Community Champions scheme; it is a step in the right direction.
We welcome the Government’s steps to make recording ethnicity on death certificates mandatory. However, we are disappointed that this has taken the Government so long. We agree with the Minister for Equalities that the data would have been helpful, and we do not understand why collecting this data was delayed. This data will be valuable in assessing the impact of coronavirus on BAME people and will also add value to understanding wider health disparities. We understand that data sharing is voluntary. However, we believe it is the Government’s responsibility to build trust among BAME communities so that they are comfortable in volunteering data. We strongly disagree with the Minister’s approach and the resistance to deploy resources for data collection; this does not show a sustained effort to capture “a full picture”.
We welcome the Minister for Equalities’ commitment to consider occupation as part of the work she is doing to take the PHE review forward; it is vital that the Government examines the interaction between ethnicity, occupation and outcomes of coronavirus. There is a link between the occupation of a person and their exposure, vulnerability and risk of contracting the virus. We fear that work on formally establishing this link has been significantly delayed. No clear assessments have been made on whether BAME workers in shutdown sectors have experienced a loss of income. We believe that the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s inquiry into the experiences and treatment of ethnic minority workers in lower paid roles in the health and social care sector should be the start, but not the extent, of its work in assessing the relationship between coronavirus, occupation and inequality.
Previous Governments have done much work to improve the zero-hours contract policy; however, this work has not gone far enough. The coronavirus pandemic has sharpened the focus on the systemic issues with the zero-hours contracts policy, including the disproportionate number of BAME people on zero-hours contracts. The pandemic has highlighted the unequal way that zero-hours contracts operate: employers can deny furlough to employees and instead reduce their working hours to zero. In some cases, workers on zero-hours contracts are ineligible for Statutory Sick Pay. We are deeply concerned by the impact of the zero-hours contracts on BAME people, particularly throughout the course of the pandemic. While in some cases and for some people, the zero-hours contract policy can be a suitable employment option, the pandemic has clearly demonstrated the need to review the way the zero-hours contract policy operates and its impact on BAME people. The long-term impacts of zero-hours contracts, including the poor quality of jobs, should be included in the suggested review to be undertaken by the Commission for Race and Ethnic Disparities.
There are known barriers to applying to Universal Credit. These have been thrown into sharp focus by the pandemic. Given that the country has now exited two national lockdowns and continues to be subject to covid-19 restrictions, it is critical that the Government ensures that those who need Universal Credit can access it. The Government does not know enough about how Universal Credit is operating for different groups. The Government does not know, for example, how many BAME claimants there are and if they are negatively affected by the Universal Credit application system.
The guidance that the Government has produced for those in overcrowded housing is substandard. There was no clear guidance in one place from the Government on how to overcome the practical challenges of living in overcrowded, and in some cases multigenerational, accommodation. This continues to be the case nine months after the country first entered lockdown. Poor housing conditions have adverse impacts on health; living in poor quality housing is an aggravating factor in experiencing coronavirus severely. Pre-existing housing inequalities may have exacerbated the impact of coronavirus on BAME people. We welcome the Social Housing White Paper 2020 that the Government published in November 2020.
Since the coronavirus pandemic is recent and emerging there is very limited in-depth evidence that provides an account of the impact of the no recourse to public funds policy. Much of the evidence that stakeholders have provided to us is anecdotal and substantive evidence is required. However, early evidence provides the consensus that there are severe impacts of the NRPF policy that need to be addressed.
The coronavirus pandemic has sharpened the focus on pre-existing inequalities for BAME people across a range of policy areas. With the possibility of a vaccine and the end in sight, now is the time to tackle these inequalities, now is the time to carve a better, brighter future, now is the time to act.
Published: 15 December 2020 Site information Accessibility statement