Public bodies will have a general duty to promote race equality - they will have no discretion to decide "whether the promotion of race equality is an 'appropriate activity' ". They must promote equality of opportunity and "good relations" between people of different racial groups.
"Promoting racial equality is a top priority for this government, which has done more to promote race equality than any previous government".
The general duty to promote race equality is a "positive one" requiring public authorities to be pro-active in seeking to avoid unlawful discrimination before it occurs.
Brendan Barber of the TUC also said more needed to be done, such as imposing a positive duty to promote race equality on the private sector.
Government has a key role to play - next month for the first time there will be a legal obligation on public bodies to promote race equality thanks to the Race Relations (Amendment) Act.
The government this week called on public services to ensure ethnic minorities are fairly represented in top jobs as part of a package of new duties to promote race equality.
Above all, the judges know that the stated justification for QASA is to "provide the regulators with an opportunity to promote race, gender and disability equality within the profession by helping to eliminate discrimination of advocates based on characteristics irrelevant to their competency".
The commission for racial equality has powers under the act to issue a compliance notice to a public body which it believes is not fulfilling its duties to promote race relations.
