Five Years On: Progress and Persistence of Racial Inequalities in the UK
May 2025 marks the fifth anniversary of the Black Lives Matter protests that shook the UK in 2020. In the intervening years we have seen some movement in addressing racial disparities—in policing, employment and education—but the overall picture remains one of deep inequality.
Policing: Small Steps, Big Shortfalls
Stop-and-Search: Data shows only a marginal decline in stop-and-search rates for Black people. They are still nearly four times more likely to be stopped than white people.
Use of Force: Despite some reductions, Black individuals remain disproportionately subject to taser deployments and physical restraint.
Prosecution Rates: Black people are more frequently arrested and charged than their white counterparts for comparable offences.
These figures make clear that police reform must go beyond surface-level changes. Commitments to better training, independent oversight and community accountability are vital if we want to see real progress in the next five years.
Employment and Education: Closing Gaps, Brick by Brick
Unemployment: The Black unemployment rate has fallen by around 1.5 percentage points since 2020, yet remains significantly above the national average.
Wage Disparity: Black workers still earn on average 10–15% less than white workers in equivalent roles.
Academic Attainment: GCSE and A-level pass rates for Black students have improved slightly, but they remain under-represented in top universities and vocational apprenticeships.
Tackling inequality here means more than diversity quotas. It requires targeted investment in careers advice, mentoring schemes and anti-racism training in workplaces and schools.
Legal Reform: Recommendations Unheeded
A Guardian investigation last month found that only one in three recommendations from major race-equality reports over the past four decades has been acted upon. This includes:
Lammy Review (2017): Fewer than half of its proposed criminal justice reforms have been implemented.
McGregor-Smith Review (2017): Many employers still fail to publish ethnicity pay gaps.
Windrush Lessons Learned Review (2020): Only limited progress on preventing future wrongful detentions.
The message is clear: issuing reports is not enough. We need binding targets, transparent progress reports and consequences for institutions that drag their feet.