Is Britain fair if you are Black? some academic research on FTSE boards and more.

According to a review released this week  more than 30% of FTSE 100 companies do not have a BAME Black board member
Read the full facts in the EY Parker review 2020 report 
it is an update to an earlier 2016 Parker report on ethnic diversity on boards. Read the full text to compare trends
Also at the end of 2019 the Green Park review of leadership in Uk companies found that while inequality was dreasing by gender fro BAME . "For BAME leaders, progress has been slower and more inconsistent. At the very top of the FTSE 100 companies, there has been no improvement since 2014, with representation stuck at around 3%. At wider Board level, progress has been limited at around two percentage points and actually went into reverse over the last 12 months among both NEDs and Executive Directors"

What percentage of the UK population are black? 

Get data on this from the UK census
and the Ethnicity facts  webpage maintained by the Uk government

Are they over represented in poor lower grade jobs?

The ONS produces data on employment type by ethnic group 4 times per year in its labour market reports. It also has this useful summary of facts and figures on unemployment by ethnic group which shows that BAME groups are much more likely to be unemployed than the white population.

Race in the workplace: The McGregor-Smith Review in 2017
Independent review by Baroness McGregor-Smith considering the issues affecting black and minority ethnic (BME) groups in the workplace concluded that "There is discrimination and bias at every stage of an individual’s career, and even before it begins".

What about other areas of life

Do Black people get a bad deal?
The only conclusion according to the Racial Disparity  Audit of 2017 is yes. This is ma simplified statement of several facts from a complex report, but findings include: "Relative to the UK population overall, people living in households headed by someone in the Asian, Black or Other ethnic groups were disproportionately likely to be on a low income. Almost half of households in these ethnic groups had incomes in the bottom 40% nationally before housing costs were taken into account."

Key sites for tracing policy documents include:
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Runnymede Trust publish reports holding the government to account.
Institute of Race Relations research on race and public policy
they produce a calendar of of  racism and resistance
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe