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Equality Duty: Consultation launched
Issued on behalf of: Government Equalities Office
PROCUREMENT AND GENDER PAY REPORTS KEY ELEMENTS
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) today set out its proposals for the new single Equality Duty1, which will require public bodies to tackle discrimination and advance equality of opportunity, including reporting annually on their gender pay gap and considering using procurement to drive equality.
The Equality Duty, a key part of the Equality Bill introduced in April, will build on the existing gender, race, and disability duties, and extend it to also cover age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment in full, and religion or belief. The Duty requires public bodies to consider how their spending decisions, employment practices, and services they provide affect people from these groups. It moves away from a prescriptive tick-box approach to give public bodies more flexibility and innovation in delivering equality for people.
Ministers made it clear in April that public bodies should use
procurement to help drive equality: the public sector spends £175
billion every year buying goods and services. Today's
consultation document proposes that contracting authorities
should:
* Consider using equality criteria when awarding
contracts, for example requiring firms bidding for a diversity
training contract to report the proportion of black or minority
ethnic people they employ;
* Stipulate equality contract
conditions where relevant and proportionate, for example, an
agency managing the recruitment process for a contracting
authority might be required to advertise all vacancies with
part-time or flexible working options.
* Set out how they
intend to use procurement to drive equality.
The Equality Duty will also require public bodies with 150 or more employees to report annually on their gender pay gap; black and minority ethnic employment rates; and their disability employment rates. This will shine a light on inequality, identify problem areas, help track progress, and allow similar bodies to be benchmarked and compared.
Vera Baird, Solicitor General and Equality Bill Lead Minister,
said:
"Society is better when it's equal. It's
about getting the best out of everybody, whatever characteristics
they have.
"The existing equality duties have triggered a culture change. The new single Equality Duty will build on this to embed equality in the heart of public bodies: driving a more personalised approach, with services tailored to meet the needs of different groups and tackle the disadvantage they may face.
"The Government is committed to creating a more equal society with fair chances for everyone, that's why we have this new Equality Duty, and why we have our tough new Equality Bill, which will clarify and strengthen the law."
Other proposals set out in today's consultation document
include requiring public authorities to:
* Publish equality
objectives and set out how they intend to achieve them, reporting
annually on progress against these objectives;
* Show how
they've considered equality when thinking about service
delivery and designing policy;
* Involve employees, service
users and other relevant groups.
Examples of what public authorities could do as a result of the
Equality Duty:
* A town planner might decide to use drop-down
kerbs and accessible public toilets for wheelchair users.
* A
council might provide extra park benches in local parks, so that
older people can benefit from public spaces as well as younger
people.
* A local authority looking for a provider of
'meals on wheels' that delivers culturally diverse food,
including Kosher and Halal meals.
Authorities will not be required to publish a separate equality scheme; instead objectives, action to be taken and results should be developed as part of an organisation's core business planning and reported on in normal business processes, such as annual reports or school profiles.
Enforcement of the new Equality Duty will be by judicial review or through the Equality and Human Rights Commission2.
The aim is for the new Equality Duty to come into force in April 2011. This will allow time for the public sector and business to prepare, and for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and others to provide comprehensive guidance.
The consultation runs until September 2009. More details are at: http://www.equalities.gov.uk
Media enquiries
Please contact the Government Equalities
Office press office on 0207 276 0988.
Notes for editors
* The Government Equalities Office is
responsible for the Government's overall strategy,
legislation and priorities on equality issues. It was established
in July 2007. The Office also has direct responsibility for policy
on gender equality, sexual orientation, and for integrating work
on race.
* The proposals in the Consultation document apply to
public authorities operating across Great Britain in relation to
non-devolved functions, and to public authorities operating in
England. Separate consultation documents will be issued by the
Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government setting out
their plans for specific duties for relevant Scottish and Welsh
public authorities.
* Following this consultation, the
Government will continue to refine policy before publishing draft
regulations next year for consultation.
* The Equality Bill
was published on 27th April 2009 and set out groundbreaking new
laws which will help narrow the gap between rich and poor; require
business to report on gender pay; outlaw age discrimination3; and
will significantly strengthen Britain's anti-discrimination legislation.
1 The general Equality Duty is set out in primary legislation. Today's document sets out proposals for the specific duties, which will underpin the general Duty and which will be contained in secondary legislation
2 Enforcement of the specific duties underpinning the Equality Duty will be through the Equality and Human Rights Commission only.
3 Aged 18 or over, outside of the workplace
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