According to recent press reports, the Labour party has drafted a Race Equality Bill which extends equal pay rights to BAME and disabled workers. At the moment, the equal pay regime only applies on grounds of sex.

This is arguably all potentially rather academic because if a BAME employee is paid less than a white employee on grounds of their race, they can recover the difference as an ordinary race discrimination claim. Whilst there are technical differences in the legal tests, we anticipate those will only change the result in a small minority of cases.

Other changes said to be in the draft Bill introduce ethnicity pay gap reporting, ensuring police officers and staff undertake anti-racism training and reviewing the school curriculum to make sure it is sufficiently diverse.

Watch this space closely!