CABINET OFFICE News
Release (Cabinet Office on behalf of Government Equalities Office)
issued by The Government News Network on 26 June 2008
Cabinet Office on
behalf of Government Equalities Office
Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, today announced
new measures which will be in the Equality Bill, which will
streamline and strengthen discrimination legislation, including
banning age discrimination, to make Britain a fairer place.
Despite considerable progress, inequality and discrimination
still exist: Women are paid on average 12.6% less per hour than
men; disabled people are two and a half times more likely to be
out of work, and ethnic minorities a fifth less likely to find
work; and two thirds of over-fifties feel that they are turned
down for a job because they are too old.
Framework for a Fairer Future - the Equality Bill outlines
further steps to tackle this inequality, including:
End age discrimination
The Equality Bill will include powers to ban all unjustified
discrimination against older people, such as denying them medical
treatment1. Things that help older people, such as free bus
passes, will still be allowed.
Public bodies will also have a new legal duty to eliminate age
discrimination and promote equality.
There will be a transitional period to allow organisations time
to adjust. Work is already underway, and the Government will
consult on provisions to bring the new law into force more quickly
in sectors, which are ready to comply.
Increase transparency and ban 'gagging clauses'
Inequality cannot be tackled if it is hidden. Transparency is
essential to eradicate discrimination:
* The Equality Bill will ban 'gagging clauses' so that
work colleagues can compare wages and challenge employers who
unlawfully pay them less. Nearly a quarter2 of employers ban their
staff talking about their wages, with women more likely to be in
the dark about colleagues' pay than men.
* Public authorities will report on important inequalities like
gender pay, disability employment and ethnic minority employment.
* At the moment Employment Tribunals can only make judgments work
for the individual who brought the case. The Bill will allow
tribunals to make recommendations which will benefit everybody in
the workforce and stop similar types of discrimination happening again.
* £160billion is spent every year by the public sector on British
businesses - Government will look at how public procurement can be
used to deliver transparency and change.
* The Equality and Human Rights Commission will conduct a series
of inquiries in sectors where there is clear inequality, for
example the gender pay gap in financial services is 41.5% compared
with the national figure of 12.6%.
* Businesses will be challenged through the development of an
equality "kite-mark" to report on the gender pay gap in
their organisation and their employment of disabled and ethnic
minority staff.
* The Government will work with the CBI and Unions to collect
evidence on the effectiveness of equal pay job evaluation audits.
The Government expects business increasingly to regard reporting
on their progress on equality as an important part of explaining
to investors and others the prospects for the company. It will
review progress on transparency and its contribution to the
achievement of equality outcomes, and in light of this, consider
over the next five years, using existing legislation for greater
transparency in company reporting on equality.
Positive Action for women, and other under-represented groups
Employers will get the right to address under-representation, for example:
* Under-representation of ethnic minorities in the police;
* Local authorities which want to promote more women to higher
positions or to recruit more black, Asian and ethnic minority candidates.
This will allow employers to take under-representation into
account when deciding between two equally qualified candidates,
and so allow workforces to better reflect society.
The CBI, TUC and Equality and Human Rights Commission support
positive action. Recognised business benefits of a diverse
workforce include attracting new business, understanding
customers' needs, and filling skills gaps. This will be
entirely permissive, rather than compulsory, and will help
organisations such as police forces which want to increase the
number of ethnic minority officers to better reflect the local community.
New equality duty on the public sector
Public authorities already have a duty to consider how their
spending decisions, employment practices and service delivery
affect people whatever their race, disability or gender, which has
created a positive culture change. The Bill will replace this with
a new streamlined and strengthened equality duty which will also
include age and sexual orientation.
This means that public bodies will need to consider how services
affect a wide range of different people. For example a library may
provide IT training specifically for older people, or a police
authority may provide an emergency mobile phone text service for
deaf people.
Ms Harman said:
"This is an important milestone on the road to a fair and
equal society. Fairness is important for every individual, for our
society, and for our economy.
"We have made progress on tackling unfairness against women
and black and Asian people and people with disabilities. But we
want to do more. This is why we're introducing the Equality
Bill, which will streamline and strengthen the law.
"Fairness is important for the rights of individuals, for
our society to be peaceful and at ease with itself, and for our
economy to be effective.
"Equality is not just right in principle, but is necessary
for Britain to be a modern and thriving economy; diversity makes
us outward facing and helps us compete in the global economy."
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
"From the outset, unions have fought hard for fairness at
work and today's Bill is an important landmark on that
journey. It is also a testament to the hard work and commitment
shown by Harriet Harman towards delivering equality.
"Britain's workforce is unrecognisable from previous
generations when equality legislation was first introduced. This
timely Equalities Bill should therefore help the workers of today
and tomorrow to reach their potential.
"The TUC will now work with Government to ensure that the
proposals in this Bill make a real difference to people's
working lives throughout the UK."
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said:
"In an ageing society, the way we ensure older people are
treated with respect is one of the most important issues we face.
Unfair age discrimination has no place in our society, or in
health and social care services. We have already started a
campaign to make sure older people are treated with dignity in all
care settings, and are investing £520 million to transform adult
social care. This will increase the numbers of people who receive
a direct payment or personal budget, giving older people and
others greater choice and control over their care. However, there
is still more to be done. I look forward to working with
charities, social care providers and the NHS to end unfair age
discrimination in healthcare."
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell said:
"More and more of us are living longer, and increasingly we
have big ambitions for later life. All sections of society need to
adapt to these new realities and the public and private sectors
will need to take people's needs into account. This Bill
takes us closer towards a Britain where all people have the
opportunity to participate fully in society - and are seen first
for what they can contribute, not their age or their disability,
for example. "
In addition to the Equality Bill and its linked package of
measures, the Government will do further work on whether the law
can be toughened to give redress to people who suffer
discrimination on combined multiple grounds, for example by a
black woman, or an older man. It is also considering whether there
is a case for representative actions, which would allow bodies
such as trade unions or the Equality and Human Rights Commission
to take one claim to court on behalf of a number of individuals.
The Equality Bill will make it easier for people and businesses
to know their rights and their obligations. It will be written in
plain English and will replace nine major pieces of legislation
and around 100 other measures, spanning forty years, from the 1970
Equal Pay Act through to the 2005 Disability Discrimination Act.
At the current rate of progress it will be:
2085: Gender pay gap closes
2100: Black Asian and ethnic minority employment rate reflects population
2080: Parliament to have equal numbers of men and women MPs
Probably never: Disabled people get the same job prospects.
The Government is committed to reduce disadvantage and promote
equality and opportunity for all. In the last year, it has
established the new Government Equalities Office, set up the
Equality and Human Rights Commission, agreed an ambitious Public
Service Agreement target on equality, and set up the National
Equality Taskforce.
A comprehensive paper on the content of the Equality Bill will be
published later this summer, which will include the response to
the Discrimination Law Review: A Framework for Fairness consultation.
The Bill is expected to be introduced in the next Parliamentary
session, which starts in December.
'Blueprint for a Fairer Future - The Equality Bill' can
be downloaded at http://www.equalities.gov.uk
Notes for editors
* Harriet Harman made an Oral Statement on Thursday 26th June 2008.
* The Equality Bill will replace the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex
Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the
Disability Discrimination Act 1995, much of the Equality Act 2006,
the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, the
Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, the
Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, and the Equality Act
(Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 (all as subsequently
amended), plus other ancillary pieces of legislation.
* 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 and religion or
belief into the overall equality framework. http://www.equalities.gov.uk
* The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body
established under the Equality Act 2006, which took over the
responsibilities of the Commission for Racial Equality, Disability
Rights Commission, and Equal Opportunities Commission as well as
taking on new responsibilities for sexual orientation, religion or
belief, age and human rights. It is the independent advocate for
equality and human rights in Britain. It aims to reduce
inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations
between people, and promote human rights.
* The National Equality Taskforce will consist of leading
academics and experts, and will bring cutting-edge research and
thinking on all equality matters to the heart of Government.
* Age discrimination is already banned in the workplace.
1 The details of the new age discrimination ban will be set out
in secondary legislation made under the Equality Bill. The
Government will set out a timetable for further public consultation.
2 According to the former Equal Opportunities Commission in 2004.