More robust data and stronger analysis is needed to safeguard fairness says Commission

27 Feb 2015 02:44 PM

More robust data, examining the combined impact of decisions and a broader range of evidence are all needed to ensure government budget and spending review decisions are as fair as possible to all, warns the Equality and Human Rights Commission in its new report published recently.

The report identifies improvements made by HM Treasury and other departments since the government's 2010 Spending Review, such as in the collection and use of equality data, and a new-toolkit to help policymakers consider the potential impact of decisions during policy development. However, it also highlights areas for improvement and sets out a route map for the next government to follow.

Public bodies, such as HM Treasury and other government departments, are legally obliged under the Equality Act 2010 to consider the impact on people with different protected characteristics - such as disabled people, ethnic minorities or women - when making financial decisions. Public bodies must consider how their decisions can avoid creating disadvantage and improve equality of opportunity.

The law does not prevent government from making difficult decisions but it does mean decisions have to be made in a fair, transparent and accountable way, considering how they will affect different members of the community.

The report recommends steps the incoming government should take to ensure fair financial decision making in the future including:

• Improving the quality of data by engaging further with government departments to clarify expectations and reach a common and agreed approach on different types and sources of acceptable data and evidence.
• Assessing the combined effects on people of different decisions. Decisions in different departments which affect women for example, should be assessed together for their total impacts.
• Improving the coverage of evidence and analysis in the Equalities Impact Statement published alongside major government announcements, such as budgets and reviews of spending.
• Monitoring how decisions on spending and taxes impact in practice, in order to better understand how they affect people and using that information to make better decisions in the future.
• Making sure the government has the best possible advice by nominating a body to have overall responsibility for advising Ministers on the impacts of tax and spending decisions on different people in society, including women, ethnic minorities and disabled people.

Mark Hammond, CEO of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said:

“We are all well aware that the next government will have difficult decisions to take on tax and spending. However the recommendations we set out in this report will go a long way to making sure that those decisions are seen to be fair to everyone. Fairness is a value we all share, and the benefits are obvious: better-targeted decisions which make the most effective use of public money delivered through a process which recognises the impacts on different people.

For more press information contact the Commission's media office on 0161 8298102, out of hours 07767 272818.

Notes to Editors

• Future Fair Financial Decision-Making
  This report brings to an end this phase of the Commission's work on Fair Financial Decision-Making which began in October 2010 with the Commission's formal Section 31 Assessment of the government's 2010 Spending Review. The findings from that assessment were published in May 2012 and have been followed subsequently by a Progress Report in June 2014 and the publication in July 2014 of the Cumulative Impact Assessment research report setting out a methodology and case study of the impact of fiscal decisions from 2010-2015 on people sharing protected characteristics by Landman Economics and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).
• The Commission's 2012 report: Section 31 Assessment report Making fair financial decisions - an assessment of HM Treasury's 2010 spending review
• The Commission's Fair Financial Decision-making Progress Report - June 2014
• Research report 94 Cumulative Impact Assessment by Landman Economics and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)
• The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006. It operates independently body to protect and promote equality and human rights in Britain. It aims to encourage equality and diversity, eliminate unlawful discrimination, and promote and protect human rights. The Commission enforces equality legislation on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation. It encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998 and is accredited by the UN as an ‘A status’ National Human Rights Institution.