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HR Business Partners

Date: updated March 2011

Equality Act 2010

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Equality Act 2010 - Background

• The first wave of changes arising from The Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 October 2010.

• The aim is to create a single approach to equality across all equality strands now called ‘protected characteristics’ although there are exceptions, for example ‘pregnancy and maternity’ is not protected from indirect discrimination.

• The principles behind the Act are transparency, democratic accountability and measurable results.

• The next part of the the Equality Act is a new public sector equality duty which came into force on 5 April 2011.

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Equality Act - Protected Characteristics

• The Act protects people from discrimination on the basis of ‘protected characteristics’ (these used to be called ‘grounds’). Protected characteristics are:

– age;

– disability (definition has changed – potentially bringing more people into scope of the Act);

– gender reassignment (definition has changed – medical supervision no longer required);

– marriage and civil partnership;

– pregnancy and maternity;

– race;

– religion or belief;

– sex; and

– sexual orientation.

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Equality Act – at a glance

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Equality Act - changes to discrimination

• Discrimination by association – it is illegal to discriminate against someone who is associated with a person who has a protected characteristic.

• Discrimination by perception – it is illegal to discriminate against someone if this is due to perceiving them to have a protected characteristic – even if this is incorrect.

• Indirect discrimination – already applies to most protected characteristics –extended to all except pregnancy and maternity.

• Discrimination arising from disability – unfavourable treatment because of something connected with the disability. There is no requirement for a comparator. Remember potentially more people will therefore be covered by the Act.

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Equality Act - changes to harassment

• Harassment applies to all protected characteristics except for pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnership.

• The new law extends protection to people if:

– they are harassed because they associate with someone who has a protected characteristic; or

– because someone thinks you have a protected characteristic, • For example, if someone is harassed because their son is gay, or because

someone wrongly thinks they are Muslim.

• Third party harassment

– DWP will be potentially liable for the harassment of our staff by third parties who are not our employees – For example, customers.

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Equality Act - staff responsibilities

• DWP have standards and guidance to make sure behaviours such as bullying and/or harassment are unacceptable and to provide excellent service to our customers.

• These standards and practices remain and staff should therefore continue to:

– be treated with respect at work and not be harassed, bullied or unfairly discriminated against on any grounds;

– treat our customers, colleagues and partners fairly and with respect;– put in place reasonable adjustments for disabled customers and disabled staff;– provide an accessible service for all our customers; and– carry out equality impact assessments on all new policies and procedures and

changes to existing ones.

• Further information on equality and what you need to do to deliver equality in your role can be found on: – Equality and You:

http://intralink/1/corp/sites/hr/nonpolicy/diversityandequality/department/strategyandpolicy/DWP_T580323.asp#TopOfPage

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Equality Act – public sector equality duty

• A new public sector equality duty came into effect on the 5 April 2011.

• The public sector equality duty consists of a general equality duty and specific duties.

• Note: only the general duty will come into force in April 2011. The Government are consulting on the specific duties – see later slide.

• In general the public sector equality duty covers how a public authority acts as an employer, how it develops policies, how it designs and delivers services and how it procures services.

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Public sector equality duty – the general duty

• In summary we must, when carrying out our functions, have due regard* to the need 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.

• The above applies to eight out of nine of the protected characteristics including: – age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race,

religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. • Marriage and civil partnership is slightly different and are only covered by the

first point above.

*‘due regard’ is covered on slide 11.

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Public sector equality duty – the specific duties

• The specific duties are designed to help Public Bodies to meet the general duty.

• The specific duties will not come into force until July (currently planned) due to a Government review of the draft regulations relating to the specific duties.’

• The review on the specific duties means that Departmental requirements are as yet unclear in relation to the specific duties.

• At present we are continuing with our equality impact assessment process until further guidance is received to enable us to demonstrate compliance with the general duty.

• Further information: – Equality Act public sector equality duty:

http://intralink/1/corp/sites/hr/nonpolicy/diversityandequality/department/strategyandpolicy/DWP_T619729.asp#TopOfPage

– Equality impact assessments: http://intralink/1/corp/sites/hr/nonpolicy/diversityandequality/department/impactassessments/index.asp

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Public sector equality duty - what does ‘due regard’ mean?

• The Department must meet the requirements of the Equality Act and the public sector general duty, which means having due regard when carrying out our functions.

• Due regard involves:– removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their

protected characteristics.• For example, providing access to our services by use of an interpreter or larger

font documents.

– taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people. • For example, taking steps to take account of disabled people’s disabilities and

treating some people more favourably than others.

– encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

– fostering good relations, • For example, tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people

from different groups.

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Further Information

• Further information can be found:

– The Diversity and Equality intranet site: http://intralink/1/corp/sites/hr/nonpolicy/diversityandequality/index.asp

– Government Equalities Office (GEO): http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_bill.aspx

– EHRC: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/guidance-equality-act-2010/