Third Report: Unequal impact? Coronavirus and BAME people

The government states that preventing ill-health remains a priority as PHE transitions, with functions under consideration. While claiming its obesity strategy is culturally appropriate with targeted campaigns, it does not commit to extending the NHS Health Check to BAME individuals from age 25, deferring to local authority commissioning responsibilities and existing prevention programmes.

The government agrees on addressing health inequalities and highlights ongoing work like the NHS Long Term Plan and Phase 3 recovery, acknowledging the importance of Professor Marmot's findings without committing to implementing all specific recommendations.

The government describes ongoing work by PHE, DHSC, and NHS on flu and COVID-19 vaccine communications, mental health, and diabetes prevention, all targeted at ethnic minority groups, but does not explicitly confirm implementation of recommendations five and six from the specified Public Health England report by the end of Summer 2021.

The government describes existing press, radio, TV, and BBC partnerships used to share COVID-19 information in multiple languages to reach ethnic minority audiences, without committing to updating general guidance.

The government commits to ensuring all local areas engage minority ethnic women in the Community Champions scheme, monitoring progress and addressing barriers to access information, testing, and vaccination.

The government is working towards mandatory ethnicity recording on death certificates, amending GP contracts for patient ethnicity data, and publishing weekly vaccination data by ethnicity, but full implementation requires primary legislation and further work on disaggregation standards and informant reporting.

The government confirms robust data is critical, outlining ongoing work within PHE to improve ethnicity data for COVID-19 cases and deaths, and mandating the UISPC to improve comprehensive and quality ethnicity data collection and analysis, including weekly vaccination data.

The government states that the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website already features a dedicated page on Ethnicity and COVID-19, which includes links to key datasets providing disaggregated statistics on deaths, intensive care admissions, and infection rates by ethnic group.

The government states that expanding the Minister for Equalities' work to include economic impacts would undermine her current focus, but highlights wider government efforts, including a £4.5 million UKRI research project, that will assess COVID-19's impact on ethnic minority groups across various issues including employment.

The government rejects extending the EHRC's inquiry terms of reference to include economic impacts, stating it would undermine the current focus, and indicates that responsibility for equality impact assessments lies with individual departments while wider government research addresses economic impacts.

The government states it is committed to helping the lowest paid through the pandemic and is considering proposals from the 'Health Is Everyone’s Business' consultation on reforming SSP, with a response expected shortly, rather than immediately extending SSP eligibility.

The government states the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities is already considering employment as a priority, but defers commenting on its possible findings or recommendations regarding zero-hours contracts until after its report in February.

The government rejects developing a separate Universal Credit mobile application, stating the existing online service works effectively on smartphones and a new app would impact delivery. They also note telephone support is available for those unable to use online services.

The government rejects making the equality survey mandatory for Universal Credit applicants, stating that the Department for Work and Pensions lacks the legal power and that primary legislation would be required.

The government states that existing and future research with Universal Credit customers already examines barriers to claims and is representative of the population, without committing to a specific review and published report by January 2023 focused on BAME access or limited English proficiency.

The government updated existing 'Stay at Home' guidance in January with practical self-isolation steps and works with local groups to cascade messages, but rejects producing a new overcrowding strategy, citing ongoing reviews of HHSRS and DHS and an existing long-term strategy to reduce overcrowding.

The government rejects publishing a new strategy by Summer 2021, stating it is already reviewing the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and the Decent Homes Standard (DHS) as part of a major commitment to improve rented home standards, with initial findings expected in Autumn 2021/2022.

The government states it is undertaking a full evaluation of compliant environment policies, including access to public funds, with initial analysis due by Autumn 2021, but does not address the recommendation to suspend the no recourse to public funds policy during the pandemic.