Government responds to Youth Select Committee report on racism and religious discrimination

• Read the Government Response (pdf 349KB)
• Read the Report: Young people and the issues of racism and religious discrimination
  

In their report, the Committee concluded that people's attitudes towards racism and religious discrimination have become normalised and there is ambiguity surrounding what constitutes such behaviour. The report stressed that the Government needs to do more to define racism and religious discrimination as well as to raise awareness of what these definitions actually mean in practice.

Key points of the Government response include:

• On the YSC's recommendation that PSHE should be a compulsory subject in schools,  the Government has responded by noting that the Department for Education is actively considering the case for further action on PSHE, with particular consideration being given to improving quality and accessibility to ensure that provision is high-quality and age-appropriate
• The Government welcome Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton and the British Youth Council setting up a national hate crime Independent Advisory Group for young people. They recommend that the Government's Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime should be consulted on this in order to share its expertise.
• The Government is not implementing the recommendation that the Government Equalities Office should have a separate Minister who heads up its work and works exclusively on the Government's work tackling discrimination, including racism and religious discrimination, and promoting equality and diversity. The Government has noted that the current Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for Education, the RT Hon Justine Greening MP, is responsible for working with her Cabinet colleagues to encourage regular and consistent consideration of equalities issues in policy development.

Chair's comment

 Bronagh Hughes, 18, Chair of the Youth Select Committee said:

"The Youth Select Committee welcomes the Government's swift and comprehensive response to our report published late last year, 'Young People and the Issue of Racism and Religious Discrimination', and is particularly appreciative of the cross departmental nature of the response we have received. Whilst we do wish that more of our recommendations could have been supported, we were particularly pleased to read of the Department of Education's consideration of further action on the teaching of PSHE, and the Government's welcome of the establishment of a national hate crime Independent Advisory Group for young people. These are issues that are very important to all members of the Youth Select Committee."

Further information:

The Youth Select Committee is a British Youth Council initiative, supported by the House of Commons. The Committee has eleven committee members aged 14-19 and includes Members of the Youth Parliament (MYPs), youth councillors, a young mayor and one elected representative from each of the devolved nations.

The Youth Select Committee has eleven committee members aged 15-19, and includes Members of the Youth Parliament (MYPs), youth councillors, a young mayor and one elected representative from each of the devolved nations. It is a British Youth Council initiative, supported by the House of Commons. 

'Tackling racism and religious discrimination' was chosen as the priority campaign of the UK Youth Parliament at its annual House of Commons debate on 13 November 2015, and the topic was debated again in this year's debate on 11 November 2016.