A think-tank is calling for the abolition of the Equality and Human Rights Commission as ‘contributing very little to meaningful equality’.

The stinging rebuke claims scrapping the EHRC would save the government millions at no obvious cost to the public.

The education charity Civitas –  also known as the Institute for the Study of Civil Society – calls for the change in a new report, Small Corroding Words, by Jon Gower Davies, former head of religious studies at the University of Newcastle.

Civitas describes the report as a ‘systematic critique of the philosophy, research and practice of the EHRC’.

“It reveals serious flaws in the EHRC’s review How Fair Is Britain?, that was used to demonstrate unfairness in Britain,” said the report.

“What the research shows are the statistical differences between some groups. This line of thinking entails, for example, taking the fact that men are more likely to die in work-related accidents than women as a sign of unfairness. The EHRC inaccurately blames Britain for differences of this kind.”

The report goes on to build on the contention that the idea of unfairness and diversity is really an incorrect interpretation of data.

“The EHRC review details a vast range of statistical differences between social groups in Britain. However, it makes little attempt to establish what, if anything, is responsible for these differences.

“Instead, when the differences appear to disadvantage some groups, it is assumed to be the result of Britain’s unfairness. Davies reveals the myopia of this position that has to assume away environmental differences between, for example, countries of origin, variations over which British policy has no control,” said the report.

The report concludes that discrimination and unfairness are blamed for results that are often beyond control of anyone in Britain.

“Any action, on this account, could be condemned as unfair. This narrow approach to social policy is neither a reasonable approach with which to judge British society, nor a useful way of developing policies to improve outcomes for minority communities,” said the report.

This article  is filed under : Social Policy, Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Role models