Following the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1991, the inquiry chaired by Sir William Macpherson, concluded that the investigation carried out by the Metropolitan Police had been marred by ‘professional incompetence, institutional racism, and a failure of leadership’. Published in 1999, the Macpherson Report on the Inquiry into the Matters Arising from the Death of Stephen Lawrence made a set of 70 recommendations relating to policing specifically.
More broadly, however, it led to a concerted review of how public sector organisations were addressing discrimination generally and racism specifically, resulting in a more strategic approach.
In April 2001, the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 came into force imposing a general duty on public authorities to promote racial equality. The disability equality duty came into force in 2006, followed by the gender equality duty in 2007.
As a result of the Equality Act 2010, the approach was extended across the nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.