Equality Duty: Specific duties laid before Parliament PDF Print E-mail

The Government has laid regulations relating to the specific duties, which are designed to help implementation of the public sector Equality Duty, before Parliament. These apply to public bodies working in England and across Great Britain. 

The regulations require public authorities to publish:
• one or more equality objectives, at least every four years, starting in April 2012
• information to demonstrate how they are meeting the Equality Duty
 
The specific duties were originally due to come into force with the general duty in April. However, in March the Government decided that the draft specific duties published in January 2011 after a consultation in 2010 were too prescriptive. A consultation was undertaken from March to April 2011 on a revised policy paper which removed the requirements for public bodies to publish details of any engagement or equality analysis undertaken when determining policies and equality objectives. 
 
The new draft regulations have also changed the wording from a requirement for public authorities to prepare and publish ‘equality objectives’ to ‘one or more equality objectives’. The requirement to set out how progress will be measured has also been omitted. 
 
For further information, visit the Government Equalities Office website