Community Action Northumberland

A number of local councils have asked about the implicationsfor them of the Public Sector Equality Duty. The latest policy covering the general Equality Duty for public bodies came into force on 5^th April 2011.

The Public Sector Equality Duty consists of a general equality duty, which is set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 itself, and specific duties which are imposed by secondary legislation. The specific duties are being considered currently and will be announced by the deadline of July 2011 for implementation by December 2011.

Local councils should be endeavouring to conform to the general equality duties and will be required to report on how they are proposing to conform to the duties and also say how well they are doing to ensure they eliminate inequality.

Local councils are covered by this Act and in performing their duties do need to conform to the requirements of the Act. This requires them to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

These are sometimes referred to as the three aims or arms of the general equality duty. The Act helpfully explains that having due regard for advancing equality involves:

• Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics.
• Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people.
• Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

The Act states that meeting different needs involves taking steps to take account of disabled people’s disabilities. It describes fostering good relations as tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups. It states that compliance with the duty may involve treating some people more favourably than others.

The new duty covers the following eight protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Public authorities also need to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination against someone because of their marriage or civil partnership status. This means that the first arm of the duty applies to this characteristic but that the other arms (advancing equality and fostering good relations) do not apply.

Further information is available at this Link

The bottom line, at this point of time is that the council must ensure that it is addressing equality in all its aspects and all of its business and will have to report on what they are doing and how well they are doing it.

Please check for further updates when specific duties and reporting is announced.