Gender Equality Duty
The UK Government announced its intention to implement its
longstanding commitment to introduce a duty on public bodies to
promote equality of opportunity between women and men in the White
Paper "Fairness for All: A new Commission for Equality and Human
Rights" published May 2004. This introduction of a public
sector duty to promote gender equality is incorporated into the
Equality Act. This outlines the general duty which will
require all public authorities, as employers and service providers,
to have due regard to:
- The need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment,
and
- To promote equality of opportunity between men and
women
From 31st April 2007, this general duty applies to all public
bodies - and private and voluntary organisations that carry out
public functions. Underpinning this general duty will be a
set of specific duties to guide listed public authorities in
complying with the overall general duty. As a public authority
Suffolk County Council has published a
Gender Equality Scheme which outlines our response to the
duties and the actions we will take to address them.
Specific Duties
The design of the specific duties will have a focus on outcomes
and actions rather than a minimum compliance or the production of
paper documents. This is reflected in the 3 principles in the
Government's proposal that the duties will be:
- Outcome focussed
- Proportionate
- Relevant
The proposal is that there will be three key duties:
- Publishing a gender equality scheme and reviewing on a 3 year
cycle
- Publish an equal pay policy
- Conduct gender impact assessment
It is explicit that in order that the scheme, the pay policy and
any Gender Impact Assessment will be robust and transparent there
needs to be:
- Consultation/involvement/engagement
- Monitoring of progress
- Review and remedial action
Further information
We are a member of Opportunity Now, and their postal
address is Business in the Community, 137 Shepherdess Walk, London
N1 7RQ.