The Equality Bill and equality practitioners Nicola Dandridge, Equality Challenge Unit, 16 July 2009

Equality Challenge Unit ECU promotes equality and diversity for staff and students in higher education institutions in the UK Implications of the Bill Implications of the public sector duty Ongoing consultation on the specific duties Feedback and issues raised by the sector: positive and negative

The Equality Bill Purpose: harmonise and strengthen 9 protected characteristics Direct discrimination: association and perception Indirect discrimination: simplified comparison Equal pay: gender pay gap and ban on secrecy Positive action Socio-economic status New public sector duty Employment Tribunals: new powers to make recommendations to benefit workforce

Positive action General clause 152: will cover students oOvercome or minimise disadvantage oMeet needs oParticipate in activities ‘Having identified its white male pupils are underperforming at maths, a school could run supplementary maths classes exclusively for them.’ Recruitment and promotion clause 153: employers will be able to use equality characteristic as ‘tie break’ between equally qualified candidates What does ‘equally qualified’ mean?

Socio-economic status Clause 1: When making decisions of a strategic nature …[an authority must] have due regard to the desirability of exercising them in a way that is designed to reduce the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage Only applies to bodies with strategic functions: not higher education institutions But positions SES within Equality Bill

Source: LSC/ DFES

Public sector duty: clause 143 Extends to all equality characteristics Requires due regard to the need to oEliminate discrimination oAdvance equality of opportunity (remove or minimise disadvantage; meet different needs; encourage participation in public life) oFoster good relations (tackle prejudice; promote understanding) Ongoing consultation on specific duties

Consultation on specific duties: feedback Overall positive response to proposals Concern about implicit hierarchy of equality characteristics (clauses 4.29 and 5.17 – data and reporting to relate to gender pay gap and race and disability employment rates) Concerns that requirement for data and reporting relates solely to staff not students Moving away from impact assessments being mandatory: what does this mean in practice? Need for guidance on procurement Responses by 30 September 2009

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