The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

that modified the earlier

Race Relations Act 1976 The Race Relations Act 1976 was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. The scope of the legislation included discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and n ...

. The legislation outlawed race discrimination in areas not covered by the 1976 legislation. This included the introduction of a broader definition of "public authorities" to cover public functions performed by private organisations. Furthermore it required public authorities to promote racial equality and allowed the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...

to extend the list of public bodies required to promote race equality, and to impose specific duties on those bodies. This was buttressed by the

Commission for Racial Equality The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality. The commission was established in 1976, and disbanded in 2007 when its ...

being empowered to enforce those duties and to issue codes of practice on how public bodies should fulfil their specific and general duties. The act also introduced some more specific regulations relating to education (discrimination claims against educational bodies to be brought to court immediately) and the police (

chief police officer In the United Kingdom, a chief police officer is the most senior police officer in a police force. The chief police officers are the 53 Chief Constables, the Commissioner of the City of London Police and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Po ...

s became liable for discrimination carried out by their officers). Finally, government ministers could no longer issue conclusive certificates in cases of racial discrimination by claiming given acts of race discrimination were not unlawful because they were done for the purposes of national security.

References

United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2000 Anti-discrimination law in the United Kingdom Race relations in the United Kingdom {{UK-statute-stub