|
The Government Equalities Office has launched a consultation on
the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010. The
consultation document is asking for views on draft regulations on the specific
equality duties, and on which public bodies will be subject to those
duties.
The general equality duty requires public bodies to eliminate
discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations
between different groups. The general duty is expected to come into force
in April 2011. The specific duties are aimed at helping public bodies to
meet their obligations under the general equality duty, and to make them more
accountable to the public.
The consultation document shows a change of direction from the
previous Government’s proposals in relation to the specific duties. One
change is that there will be no specific duties on procurement or action
planning. The aim is to cut out "unnecessary regulation" and make it
possible to judge public bodies on their results, not on their internal
processes.
The specific duties proposed in the consultation are:
- Publication of information: public bodies must publish information (at
least annually) relating to their performance of the general equality duty,
including:
- information relating to the protected characteristics of the workforce,
if the public authority has 150 or more employees (the Equality and Human
Rights Commission's code of practice will set out what data should be
published and this is expected to include data on the gender pay gap, the
proportion of staff from ethnic minority communities and the distribution of
disabled employees throughout an organisation's structure);
- impact assessments on their policies and practices;
- information that they took into account when carrying out impact
assessments on their policies and practices; and
- details of engagement undertaken with interested parties.
- Equality objectives: public bodies must set equality outcome objectives,
at least every four years, informed by the evidence and data that they
publish, which will help them to fulfil their obligations under the general
duty.
The consultation document sets out transitional provisions for the
implementation of the specific duties. The specific duties relating to
publishing equality-related data are expected to come into force from April
2011, but public bodies will not be expected to publish equality objectives
until a year after the duties have come into force (ie not before April
2012).
The consultation closes on 10 November 2010.
Also
Equality Act 2010 The
XpertHR forthcoming law section explains the changes that will be brought in by
the Equality Act 2010 and links to further guidance on the implementation of the
Act. |