Equality Act 2010: public sector Equality Duty consultation open

The draft regulations are now open for public consultation until 10 November 2010.

• Equality Act 2010: The public sector Equality Duty: Promoting equality through transparency - a consultation

These regulations will cover England and some cross-border agencies.

The proposals

• Higher education institutions will no longer have to publish equality schemes or action plans. Instead they will be required to annually publish equality data on how they perform against the public duty. This includes data on workforce and the services they provide (e.g. education).
  The Equality and Human Rights Commission will set out the standard requirements for the data to be published.
• Institutions will have to use evidence (informed by their published data) to set specific and measurable equality objectives. These will need to be renewed at least every four years.
  This is intended to help people to judge how effective institutions have been in addressing the three parts of the general duty.
• There will no longer be a prescribed process of equality impact assessment. However, institutions should assess the impact of policies and procedures on the general duty and publish this in their annual report, along with the information used to assess the impact.
• There will no longer be a prescribed process of engagement or consultation. However, institutions should be open about how they have engaged with people with different protected characteristics, and who they have consulted.
• There will be no specific duties for higher education institutions set by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. However, this may change in the future.
• There will be no Secretary of State reporting duty in relation to disability.
• There will be no specific provisions on procurement.
• The public duty extends coverage beyond disability, gender and race, to include age, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, religion and belief and sexual orientation.

ECU response

Equality Challenge Unit has drafted a response to the consultation. Higher education institutions are invited to review and comment on this response.

ECU will also be working to support the sector with the specific duties in the coming months.

Related pages

• Equality Act homepage

• Equality Act 2010: Implications for higher education institutions briefing