The EHRC has launched a landmark fund to tackle race discrimination and help victims seek justice, it has announced.

The Race Legal Support Fund sees the regulator dedicate one of its biggest ever funds to legal work to fight race discrimination. Open for a minimum of two years, the fund will see up to £250,000 allocated this year to tackling race discrimination, harassment and victimisation, with more available in future years.

Launching the fund, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:

“From sports clubs and workplaces, many ethnic minority people sadly still face prejudice and race discrimination in their everyday lives. And organisations of all kinds are failing to protect victims from it. That’s why, as Britain’s equality regulator, we are taking on this challenge. Through one of our biggest funds, we will help victims find justice by taking action against organisations who may have broken equality law. This will help us to advance race equality across Britain.”

From December 2021, legal practitioners will be able to apply for funding to seek advice and help to resolve complaints of race discrimination, up to and including legal proceedings where appropriate.

The new fund follows the success of the EHRC’s previous schemes providing support to disabled people who’ve experienced discrimination and those who’ve been discriminated against by institutions such as education providers and transport operators.

It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and/or sexual orientation. These are called protected characteristics.