THE EQUALITY ACT 2010

Transcription

1 APPENDIX 1 THE EQUALITY ACT 2010 The Equality Act was developed in order to harmonise the different equality duties and to extend it across the protected characteristics. It consists of a general equality duty, supported by specific duties which are imposed by secondary legislation. In summary, those subject to the equality duty must, in the exercise of their 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. These are referred to as the General Duty or three aims. The Act explains that having due regard for advancing equality involves: Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics. Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people. Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low. Specific duties The specific duties are to: report progress on mainstreaming the general equality duty publish equality outcomes and report progress assess new or revised policies and practices review existing policies and practices gather, use and publish employee information publish gender pay gap information publish an equal pay statement consider award criteria and contract conditions in relation to public procurement. A further duty is imposed on Scottish Ministers to publish proposals for activity to enable listed authorities to better perform the general equality duty. Compliance with the timescales is important as failure to mainstream equality or comply with this legislation risks enforcement action, legal challenge, loss of reputation and damage to the legitimacy of the Council. Members of the Council are individually liable for prosecution in relation to the decisions they take.

2 Reporting requirements of the Scottish Public Sector Equality Duty The Specific Duties were created by secondary legislation in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations The Duties were implemented from 2013 and Full Council agreed the first Reports required under the legislation - on Equality Outcomes, Mainstreaming and Equal Pay - on 28 March The Specific Duties include requirements to publish information and progress reports in This briefing provides a summary of what Dumfries and Galloway Council will need to do to meet these requirements, to report effectively and to meet the regulations. To report progress on our equality outcomes the Council has established performance reporting arrangements with individual projects and activities within Departments being considered by Service Committees on a six monthly basis through the Director s progress reports on the Business Plan. There are also web pages and an annual magazine Broadcast. These routes, along with other communication routes will be used to ensure that the progress in our mainstreaming of equalities is communicated to all stakeholders and people from diversity communities in particular. What are we required to publish in 2015? Councils, Education Authorities and Licensing Boards are separately listed in the Specific Duty regulations. This means that each of the Duties must be carried out by the Education Authority and Boards in a way that is identifiable and distinct from the Council. While there is no requirement to develop separate Equality Outcomes from the Council, the information that is reported must distinguish between the information which relates to the Education Authority and the Boards and that which relates to the Council. The Council is required to publish: A mainstreaming report; Annual employee information together with details of the progress made in gathering and using the information to better meet the duty; A report on progress made towards achieving equality outcomes published in 2013; and We must also publish updated gender pay gap information. Other public sector local partners, including our Regional Transport Partnership, SWestrans, are also producing progress reports on achieving their Equality Outcomes and there is close liaison and shared expertise to ensure they are complementary. When should we publish?

3 For each of these Duties we need to report within two years of when we published our equality outcomes report which for us is no later than 30 April Where should we publish? We have a duty, so far as practicable, to publish using an existing means of public performance reporting. There is also a specific duty to publish the information in an accessible manner. If we choose to upload our information to our website the information should be clearly identifiable and easily searched for and accessed. Documents should also be in a format which is compatible with assistive technology. We should ensure that people are able to request translations of publications if required. Publishing a mainstreaming report The Specific Duties require listed authorities to report on the progress they have made to make the general equality duty integral to the exercise of their functions to mainstream equality. Publishing a mainstreaming report provides us with an opportunity to present the work that our authority has done to meet the general equality duty. We should use existing public performance reporting systems as far as practicable to publish our mainstreaming report. The Report must include (if not published previously): an annual breakdown of the information it has gathered under its Duty to gather and use employee information; and details of the progress that it has made in gathering and using that information to enable it to better perform the equality duty. Mainstreaming equality therefore simply means integrating equality into the day to day working of the organisation. The three parts of the General Equality Duty must be considered in exercising the business functions and processes including budget setting, project planning, service provision and employment.

4 Publishing employee information The Specific Duties require that listed authorities take steps to gather employee information annually and, if not reported elsewhere, report this information within their mainstreaming report. Public authorities must also report on progress made in using the employee information to better perform the General Equality Duty. The Duties are designed to create change for people with protected characteristics and so there should be a clear focus in the 2015 mainstreaming report on how our authority has used employment information in practice. The mainstreaming report should contain: Composition of the authority s employees broken down by protected characteristic; Recruitment, development and retention of employees broken down by protected characteristic; This should cover annual information so we should publish employment information covering the 2 years since we last published. Publishing a progress report for Equality Outcomes An Equality Outcome is a result which you aim to achieve in order to further one or more of the needs mentioned in the General Equality Duty. By focusing on outcomes rather than objectives, this Specific Duty aims to bring practical improvement in the life chances of those who experience discrimination and disadvantage. The Specific Duty also requires the authority/boards to take reasonable steps to involve people who share a relevant Protected Characteristic and their representatives. The Specific Duties require listed public authorities to publish a report on the progress they have made towards their published equality outcomes, within two years. The progress report is an opportunity for us to tell our stakeholders how we have been working to achieve the outcomes we set in 2013 and what progress we have made. How we choose to report is up to us but we should aim to be as transparent as possible, and accurately represent our authority s efforts. We should set out the actions we have taken and detail the measures we are using to monitor our progress. We should report on areas not only where progress is good but also where progress has been slow, or performance poor. That way our reporting should help us identify where we may need to add more resource over the next two years.

5 If it is difficult to monitor actual progress towards an outcome, we may wish to consider reviewing the outcome to ensure that it is measurable. If we review our equality outcomes and decided to adjust them, our progress report should state this clearly and report on any relevant evidence up to the date the changes were made. We should also present the new or updated outcomes. Progress in meeting the Dumfries and Galloway Council (including the Education Authority) and Licensing Boards Equalities Outcomes As decisions for all three services are made by Elected Members, all staff are employed by the local authority, and following work between the Equalities and Human Rights Commission(EHRC) and our Licensing Boards during 2014/15, a joint approach has been taken with all three sets of Outcomes combined. This is consistent practice across Scottish local authorities although to fulfil governance requirements, Licensing Boards considered their aspects of the Outcome Report at their meetings during December Gender Pay Gap Information The Specific Duties require listed public authorities with 150 employees or more to publish information on their gender pay gap by 30 April 2013 and every two years after that. Monitoring the difference in men and women s pay will support our authority in reducing inequality between our employees. To calculate the pay gap, use the most recent data we have, the duty requires that you calculate the percentage difference between men s average hourly pay (excluding overtime) and women s average hourly pay (excluding overtime). The Commission has published a Code of Practice on Equal Pay which explains Equal Pay legislation in more detail, it is available.