Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many members of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are (1) Black, or (2) Muslim, and what steps (a) they, and (b) the EHRC, plan to take to improve ethnic and religious diversity on the EHRC.

The Minister for Women and Equalities has recently announced five appointments to the board of the EHRC, to take effect from 1 December 2020. With these appointments, the EHRC board will have four permanent members, out of 14, from minority ethnic backgrounds, including one black commissioner. This exceeds the government’s commitment and ambition for 14% of all public appointments to come from ethnic minority backgrounds by 2022. At the moment, one member of the EHRC board identifies as Muslim.

The government is committed to maintaining diversity of appointments to the EHRC board.

At executive levels the EHRC, as an independent body, makes its own operational decisions about staff appointments.