Public bodies will be named and shamed if they are found to have a poor record of employing black and Asian people under new Government proposals.

Today the plans from Home Secretary Jack Straw were welcomed by the deputy leader of Bradford Council, Mohammed Ajeeb.

The proposals will form the biggest overhaul of race laws in more than 20 years, and come in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry which raised major concerns about "institutionalised racism" in the police force.

Full details of the measures are expected to be published after the inquiry report in February but will force public bodies like councils and the NHS to publish details of how many ethnic minority recruits they have, and how fast they are promoted.

The Government has ruled out "positive discrimination" and job quotas for ethnic groups, but wants firms to set up schemes where senior black or Asian staff act as mentors to junior recruits.

The new legislation will replace the 1976 Race Relations Act which Mr Straw, whose Blackburn constituency includes a sizeable Asian population, thinks has failed to wipe out discrimination. Coun Ajeeb said: "We would welcome a review of the national race laws.

"After over 20 years, a review is long overdue and is needed to properly reflect the multi-cultural population of Britain.

"Most importantly, it needs to ensure the end of discrimination on grounds of race and religion."

Chief executive of Bradford Breakthrough, Charles Forga,n said he was in favour of publishing data about the make-up of institutions as long as it was not used to name and shame.

"It's incredibly complex. You can't go crudely into it to name and shame for the same reason you shouldn't have positive discrimination."

Mohammed Amram, a commissioner for the CRE who was involved in lobbying Mr Straw for change, said: "The Act needs to be made more hard hitting."

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