In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the UK to protest against structural racism within British institutions, including the police.
The Black Lives Matter protests were the largest anti-racism rallies in the UK since the abolition of slavery, and led to the government announcing a new review – the 12th since 1981 – into ethnic disparities.
Five years on, and the political mood in the US appears to have shifted, with a new president who claims he has “ended all of the lawless, so-called diversity, equity and inclusion bullshit”. But has there been any progress on ethnic inequalities in the UK in the five years since BLM? The figures paint a mixed picture.
Policing
For many Black people in Britain, encounters with the police often take the form of stop and search. Black people were 3.7 times more likely to be stopped and searched compared with white people in 2024 – but this marks a large improvement since 2019.
Other racial disparities in policing have also recently narrowed. In 2023/24 Black men were 3.3 times more likely than white people to have force used against them by police. That figure is down from 4.8 times more likely in 2019/20, mainly due to an increase in police using force against white people (Asian people were slightly less likely to have force used on them than white people, while those from a mixed background were around the same).
Despite the improving statistics, Black individuals were still the most likely of any ethnic group to experience almost every type of violent police tactic in England and Wales, from handcuffing to dog bites and the use of firearms, and when force was used, it often involved multiple tactics. The greatest disparity was in firearm use: Black people were 7.5 times more likely to have a gun pointed at them than white people (although the two times shots were actually fired by police in 2023/24 were against white people). This was down from 12.2 times as likely in 2020/21.
Racial disparities in the criminal justice system often begin at the point of arrest. Black people remain significantly more likely to be arrested than their white neighbours – but this has also improved in recent years, falling from 2.7 times as likely in 2019/20 to 1.7 times in 2023/24.
Even when measured against the already disproportionate arrest figures, Black people are still the most likely to be subjected to force. (This also likely understates the true disparity, as just 70% of use-of-force reports resulted in an arrest.)
What about the police themselves? Home Office figures show that recruitment of ethnic minorities continues to tick upwards – 8.4% of officers were non-white in March 2024, compared with 7.3% in March 2020.
Large issues remain. A year and a half after Louise Casey’s 2023 review, which found that the Metropolitan police was institutionally racist, minority ethnic officers told the BBC the issue was getting worse. Campaigners have also raised concerns around the recent use of predictive policing algorithms, saying they are racist and target the poor.
The criminal justice system
Research by the University of Leeds found that in the three years to December 2021, Black and minority ethnic people were significantly more likely to be charged for a comparable offence than white British defendants, after taking into account the age and sex of defendants.
In response, last November, the Crown Prosecution Service published an action plan to identify and tackle disparity. The action plan is expected to change the guidance for prosecutors, and introduce tools, education and training to identify bias and support decision-making. The next phase of research is yet to report on whether disproportionality has improved.
The director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, said: “It is apparent from the data that there have been racial disparities in our legal decision-making. This is clearly unacceptable and I apologise, both personally and on behalf of the organisation.”
Business and the economy
Ethnic minorities are less likely to be in employment than white people – 69.2% were employed in 2025 compared with 76.8% for white people. While this employment gap is large – just under eight percentage points – it has halved from 16 percentage points 20 years ago.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest there has also been a small increase in minority ethnic business ownership. In 2021, non-white people made up 12% of business owners, up from 8.9% in 2012. This broadly reflects the rise in ethnic minorities from 14% to 18% of the population between 2011 and 2021.
There has also been progress in representation among the UK’s business and civil service elite. Figures from the annual Parker report show that 19% of directorships in the FTSE100 were held by minority ethnic directors – up from 12% in 2020. A similar increase can also be seen in the FTSE250, where 15% of directors are from an ethnic minority (up from 10% in 2021). However, a 2023 report found just seven FTSE100 CEOs were ethnic minorities – one more than the number called Simon.
The civil service has also seen some incremental progress when it comes to ethnic minorities in senior leadership roles. In 2024, 10.6% of the senior civil service level were minority-ethnic, compared with 6.5% a decade earlier.
Education
Figures from English schools show that minority ethnicchildren in general do better than their white counterparts when it comes to achieving basic maths and English GCSEs – and the gap is widening. White and mixed ethnicity students were also more likely to be suspended than other ethnic groups.
The clear exception is Gypsy Roma and Traveller children, who are between two and three times more likely to face a suspension than white British students – a disparity which has remained stubbornly high since figures were published in 2019/20 (pupils across the board have been more likely to be suspended since the pandemic).
When it comes to post-16 qualifications such as A-levels the figures show that all ethnic groups have increased achievement rates over the past decade. Again, Asian or Asian British and Black or Black British students were more likely to achieve a level 3 in the latest year of data, with white students having the lowest attainment rates. However, the figures show that economic background plays a stronger role than ethnicity here, with all ethnic groups seeing lower rates among those students eligible for free school meals.
In terms of representation, the percentage of teachers from non-white British ethnic backgrounds has gradually increased over the past 15 years – from 11.2% in 2010/11 to 16.2% in 2023/24.
Health
It is clear that ethnic health disparities exist in the UK, though the evidence is often fragmented, relying largely on individual studies and patchy data.
A 2021 study found that people of white or mixed ethnicity had lower life expectancy at birth than other ethnic groups, based on the 2011 census. However, there are other areas of healthcare where Black and minority ethnic people are more disadvantaged. Ethnic minorities have worse access to GPs, and Black mothers are almost three times as likely to die in childbirth – a disparity that has remained stubbornly high.
Black people are also far more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white people. There were roughly 239 Black people detained per 100,000 people in 2023/24, compared with 69 in every 100,000 white people – a gap which has widened in recent years.
The reasons behind these disparities are complex, often tied to differences in income, job opportunities, housing conditions and broader issues such as racism.
In 2020, in response to the Black Lives Matter protests, the NHS set up the NHS Race and Health Observatory, an independent body which aims to tackle inequalities in health and care. Their report this March revealed that patients from minority ethnic backgrounds reported poorer experiences with communication from their GP practices compared with white British patients, and often felt they were not taken as seriously.
