A/HRC/41/54/Add.2 ethnic minority women are the worst affected by austerity and that additional variations in terms of degree of vulnerability exist along ethnic lines. Even holding qualifications constant, racial and ethnic minority women are the worst affected by benefit cuts and tax policy changes and are less likely than White women to find employment. 51 33. Austerity measures have also severely undercut small and medium-sized charities,52 organizations that play a vital role in promoting and protecting racial equality. In almost all of the Special Rapporteur’s consultations, civil society and community representatives most commonly cited the devastating impact of austerity and funding cuts as undermining their capacity to advocate for racial equality and fight discrimination. Cuts have had an important impact on the work of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, which has seen a stark reduction in its staff. 34. Austerity measures in the United Kingdom are reinforcing racial subordination. One measure that would mitigate this dynamic would be to subject all proposed fiscal policies to properly designed and implemented equality impact assessments aimed at revealing the projected disparate effects on racial and ethnic minority communities of the policies. The findings of such assessments should be available to the public and must result in meaningful changes to policy proposals. They must ensure that the proposals do not predictably, even if inadvertently, exacerbate racial and ethnic disparities. B. Racial impact of criminal justice law and policy 35. Many of the communities and organizations with whom the Special Rapporteur consulted highlighted the devastating racial impact of criminal justice law and policy in the United Kingdom. The Lammy Review, an independent study commissioned by the Government, captures the national picture in this regard, providing an overview of how at every stage of the criminal justice process – from stops-and-searches to sentencing – racial and ethnic minority communities are targeted disproportionately. It also highlights the complex picture of differential disparity within racial and ethnic minority communities. For example, Blacks make up 3 per cent of the United Kingdom population but in 2015/16 accounted for 12 per cent of the adult prison population and more than 20 per cent of children in custody.53 Other racial and ethnic minority groups were also overrepresented but to a lesser degree. The Lammy Review highlights the overrepresentation of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children in secure training centres, and a striking increase in Muslim prisoners across different ethnicities from about 8,900 to 13,200 over the past decade. 54 Muslims, who are about 5 per cent of the United Kingdom population, now make up about 15 per cent of the prison population. This dramatic rise is not associated with terrorism offences.55 36. Data on Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in the criminal justice system are sorely lacking, making it difficult to ascertain the extent to which the system has a disparate impact on those communities. This lack of data requires urgent rectification, not least because estimates point to serious overrepresentation of those communities in the prison system. The Lammy Review underscored the high number of Gypsy/Traveller suicides in prison, 56 reinforcing the need for better data and action to protect Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, as well as members of other groups, from direct and indirect discrimination and exclusion. 51 52 53 54 55 56 10 www.intersecting-inequalities.com/copy-of-report. www.lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk/assets/uploads/LBF_Smallest%20 Charities%20Hardest%20Hit_Executive_Summary_final.pdf. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads /system/uploads/attachment_data/file/643001/lammy-review-final-report.pdf, p. 3. Ibid., p. 3. Ibid., p. 12. Ibid., p. 47.