Inequalities Faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities
This House of Lords Library briefing contains a selection of material relevant for the forthcoming question for short debate on the report by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, Tackling Inequalities Faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities, on 25 February 2020.
Ethnic groupsReligion and faith communities
Briefing
- The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee published the findings of its inquiry into inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities on 5 April 2019.
- Among the committee’s key findings were that these communities have the worst outcomes of any ethnic group across a range of areas, including education, health, employment, criminal justice and hate crime.
- The committee also found that there has been a persistent failure by national and local policymakers to tackle these inequalities in a sustained way, leading to services that are ill‑equipped to support Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people. In turn, this has led to a lack of trust in these public services. It further noted issues within these communities, such as a high level of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls.
- Among the committee’s recommendations were that the Cabinet Office create a specific workstream within the Race Disparity Unit for eliminating Gypsy and Traveller inequalities, and that every relevant government department have a strategy for tackling these issues.
- Further, the committee called for more analysis on the scale of the issues faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, including by those of school age who may be ‘missing’ from local authority registers or facing challenges in accessing the right educational provision.
- In its response published on 2 July 2019, the Government agreed with the committee’s findings on the level of discrimination faced by these communities. It pointed to the results of its own Race Disparity Audit, which found that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities were significantly worse off than the general population on almost every measure.
- As announced on 6 June 2019, the Government said it would be developing a cross-departmental national strategy on tackling Gypsy, Roma and Traveller inequalities. It added that it agreed with the committee that health and education inequalities are considerable and must be tackled. Further, the Government said it would seek to develop proposals addressing the levels of violence against women and girls.
- A response from Ofsted was also included as an appendix to the Government’s report, where it said it would look for signs that any pupil has been ‘off-rolled’, and that its new inspection framework will allow better identification and reporting.
Documents