April 8, 1999.

Dear Mr Bryson,

Thank you for your letter to the Home Secretary of 26th February 1999 where you express concern about racism against white people. Your letter has since been passed to me and I have been asked to reply.

The Government is fully committed to tackling racism in whatever form it takes. The Government has introduced new racially aggravated offences, in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which carry higher maximum penalties where there is a racist motive or demonstrates racial hostility in connection with the offence. The Courts are also under an obligation to treat a racist motive as an aggravating factor in any offence.

The Home Secretary has now published his Action Plan in response to the recommendations from the Inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence. The action plan is guided by certain principles including the need to support police officers to enforce the law in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic Britain and raising standards and professional competence in the investigation of crimes of all kinds, whether racist or not.

The Home Secretary has also announced his intention to extend the Race Relations Act 1976 to public services. The Act currently outlaws discrimination based on a person's race.

All of the legal provisions mentioned about protect everyone from racial violence or discrimination. They do not only target ethnic minorities in the UK. They apply to discrimination against white people because they are white or violence against targeted against a white person because they are white. The police will record as a racial incident an attack on a white person made by a non-white person if it is motivated by racial hostility.

The Government has made clear that the lessons to be learned from the Lawrence Report are a challenge to everybody in this country. The Prime Minister has made it clear that he wants "...a country where every colour is a good colour and every member of every race able to fulfil their potential."

Brian Quaife