A/HRC/41/54/Add.2 mortality.42 Austerity measures and cuts in social benefits for the most precarious segment of society, usually minority ethnic women, have further affected health outcomes. 29. Gypsies and Travellers experience poorer physical and mental health outcomes than the rest of the British population.43 Compared with the overall population, Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are more likely to suffer from bad health, including lower life expectancy, high infant mortality rates, high maternal mortality rates, low child immunization levels and a higher prevalence of anxiety and depression, as well as chronic diseases. 44 30. According to information received during consultations, some immigrant women, including refugees, are too afraid to give birth in hospitals for fear of being targeted by immigration enforcement agencies and feel they have no other choice but to give birth at home. This is the case even for women with legal status or entitlement to legal status, because many fear that “hostile environment” immigration policies will nonetheless result in harm to themselves or their loved ones. In this context, organizations defending the rights of migrants have denounced the 2017 memorandum of understanding 45 between the Home Office, the Health and Social Care Information Centre (now known as “NHS Digital”) and the Department of Health, which provided for the exchange of information between these institutions on the immigration status of patients. The memorandum deterred patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds from seeking needed medical care for fear of being reported to the immigration services. Others, including the Health and Social Care Select Committee 46 and health-care practitioners, have echoed these concerns. In a positive development, the memorandum of understanding was withdrawn on 8 November 2018.47 The Special Rapporteur strongly recommends against any future attempts to involve health-care service providers in the enforcement of immigration law. A. Racial impact of austerity measures 31. Since 2010, the United Kingdom has adopted sweeping austerity measures that have dramatically cut public sector funding and services and public benefits, including changes to tax policy that have consequences on access to welfare for racial and ethnic minority communities. Reliable reports have shown that the austerity measures have been disproportionately detrimental to members of racial and ethnic minority communities, who are also the hardest hit by unemployment. For example, the Equality and Human Rights Commission estimates that by the 2021/22 tax year, the racially disparate impact of austerity measures adopted by the Government between 2010 and 2017 will result in a 5per-cent loss in income for Black households, which is double the loss for White households.48 Similarly, cash losses as a result of tax, welfare and wage reforms will be the largest for Black households (about £1,600 on average) and the smallest for White households (about £950 on average). 49 Testimonies from racial and ethnic minority community representatives and civil society actors during consultations corroborated these statistics. 32. Unsurprisingly, austerity has had especially pronounced intersectional consequences. As a background matter, women in the United Kingdom earn and own less, and bear a greater responsibility for unpaid work, than men. 50 Reliable reports show that racial and 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/national-maternity-review-report.pdf, p. 57. www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/healing_a_divided_britain__the_need_for_a_comprehensive_race_equality_strategy_final.pdf, pp. 31–32. www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/is-britain-fairer-findings-factsheet-roma.pdf. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment _data/file/774071/MoU_between_HSCIC__Home_Office_and_DH.pdf. www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/healthcommittee/inquiries/parliament-2017/mou-data-sharing-nhs-digital-home-office-inquiry-17-19/. www.gov.uk/government/publications/information-requests-from-the-home-office-to-nhs-digital. www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/impact-of-tax-and-welfare-reforms-2010-2017interim-report_0.pdf, pp. 3 and 13. Ibid., p. 12. See www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/how-fair-is-britain.pdf. 9