Publishing the first ever comprehensive report on the race equality performance of Scotland's private sector employers, the CRE said that despite the growing awareness of the need for equal opportunity policies among employers, institutional racism continues to have a huge impact upon ethnic minority workers.

61% of those who consider themselves to be equal opportunity employers had no more than a written statement or even, in some cases, an unwritten policy on equality.

Almost two-thirds of the 500 employers interviewed for the research were unable to cite any practical steps which they had taken to put their equal opportunities policies into practice.

CRE Deputy Chair and Commissioner in Scotland, Dr Moussa Jogee, said: "This report presents a challenging agenda for Scotland's business community. Much has been achieved but a great deal remains to be done to ensure that racism has no future in Scotland in the 21st century."

"We look to the Scottish Executive, to business organisations, to local authorities, to the enterprise networks, to unions and to employers themselves to take up the recommendations in this report and make a reality of their spoken commitment to equality practices."