Fourth Official Threatens To Resign From EHRC

Equalities watchdog Equalities And Human Rights Commission (EHRC) faced a crisis on Friday night when Sir Bert Massie, former head of what was the Disability Rights Commission, threatened to resign from the organisation. Commissioner Kay Hampton, Chief Executive Nicola Brewer and Group Director For Strategy Patrick Diamond have all recently resigned.

In a written warning to colleagues, which was read out at a board meeting on Thursday, Sir Bert said he was concerned about the performance of the watchdog.

He told The Guardian:

There is an anxiety that the commission is not performing as well as it might do. I am concerned that the work has not been going as fast as it should be. There is a general unease about the direction of the commission and how it is going. If so many people resign, you have to wonder whether they are happy with their direction.

He said the concern was not based on the commission’s posistion on race, gender or disability. It is a broader concern that the organisation is not achieving enough. He added:

Commissioners have a duty to ensure that for the £70m of public money we get, the maximum for every penny spent. It is all about corporate governance. It is a lot of money. We could do a lot with that money.

Sir Bert said his final decision depends on who replaces Brewer as chief executive.

There is also unhappiness within the organisation about Trevor Phillips’ leadership style, his closeness to the government and some of his comments on race. He chose not to comment.

One politician described the disarray within the organisation as a tragedy.

Eighteen months after the Equal Opportunities Commission, Commission for Racial Equality and Disability Rights Commission were merged to create a single, government-funded rights watchdog, campaign groups monitoring the organisation’s progress are increasingly outspoken about their disappointment with its achievements.

Part of the concern stems from a shift in the tone and style of the new body, which emphasises the concept of “fairness” more than the notions of “equality” and “discrimination”, and is less focused on campaigning. A spokesman for the EHRC said it saw itself as “a regulator and not simply a campaigning organisation”. He said: Fairness is a great British value. I think fairness is a concept that a wider population understands.

We are proud of what we have done in our first year, he said, adding that the EHRC had made £10.5m worth of grants to 250 organisations, had been involved in up to 70 legal actions and had produced substantial reports across all equalities sectors.

An equality lawyer, who also asked not to be named, said: The problem is that ‘fairness’, unlike equality, has no basis in law. It’s a much more nebulous concept. Fairness is not about protecting the rights of those who have experienced discrimination, it’s about being fair to everyone, including businesses and white men.