The judge who presided over Southall Black Sisters' court case against Ealing Council has produced his final written judgment. In the judgment, Lord Justice Moses reaffirms some important principles about equality, which may be helpful in the struggle to maintain funding for specialist services.

In a briefing, Southall Black Sisters outline the main principles confirmed by the judgment:

• There is clear duty on local authorities to assess the negative impact of any policy or change in services on racial groups or indeed other groups before the policy is adopted and if there is adverse impact, to find ways to minimise or eliminate the risk.
• Rearguard action - i.e. any attempt by a local authority to carry out equality impact assessments to justify policies already determined or a tick box approach to equality impact assessment - will not be lawful.
• Targeting services to specific racial groups and positive action to eliminate racism does not undermine the principles of cohesion or the Race Relations Act. "Cohesion is achieved by overcoming barriers. That may require the needs of ethnic minorities to be met in a particular and focussed way. The Southall Black Sisters illustrates that principle…There is no dichotomy between the promotion of equality and cohesion and the provision of specialist services to an ethnic minority."
• Specialist services are entitled to give themselves a name which announces the specialist nature of their purpose. "Specialist services for a racial minority from a specialist source is anti-discriminatory and furthers the objectives of equality and cohesion."

Southall Black Sisters would be interested to hear from anyone who makes use of this judgment.