Britain's Equality Bill receives Royal Assent
(12 April 2010)

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has welcomed the passing of the Equality Bill, which received Royal Assent last week. It contains a series of measures for tackling inequalities which the Commission considers will help Britain to become a fairer society. The Electoral Reform Society also welcomed the new Equality Act, broadly supported by all three main political parties and passed through negotiations at the end of the parliamentary session known as the ‘wash-up’. Under the new laws, political parties will be required to report on the diversity of their candidate selection, thus exposing any under-representation and showing where action needs to be taken. The Act also extends the period for which all-women shortlists may be used for parliamentary and other elections until 2030.

Some of the specific measures in the bill, which the Commission has supported, include:

• Making the law easier to understand and implement by simplifying 116 pieces of equality legislation into a single Act for individuals, public authorities and private organisations.
• Giving people the right not to be treated less favourably by public authorities because of their age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or transgender status; as well as their disability, gender, or race which were already covered.*
• Extending anti-age discrimination rules to include goods, facilities and services, thereby stopping people being unfairly refused insurance or medical treatments based on what age they are, for example.

Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission said:“Simplifying legislation and extending protection to a wide range of groups that face discrimination will help Britain become a fairer society, improve public services, and help business perform well.

“The Commission’s role now is to make sure the legislation works in practice, by explaining what it means, how it should work, and ultimately, using our powers to help right any wrongs.

“We’re already working on Codes and Guidance that set out what the new legislation does for employers, public services and the people of Britain.”

Electoral Reform Society welcomes the new Equality Act

Alice Delemare, Women’s Officer at the Electoral Reform Society said “The new legislation will encourage parties to make parliamentary candidates more diverse; not only in terms of women’s representation, but also in terms of ethnicity, disability and age. Achieving greater diversity is very important for the legitimacy of our democracy However, it remains to be seen how the new equality laws will be implemented and enforced. Whether the Act will translate into real action, or just be another box-ticking exercise."

“Candidate monitoring by the political parties would undoubtedly support efforts to increase diversity. But ultimately, we don’t just want to measure what is wrong – we want action to put it right. And until we have a fundamental reform of the electoral system we are unlikely to achieve real change. International comparisons show that proportional systems produce more diverse parliaments. We favour STV as it’s a proportional system that lets voters choose who to vote for by gender or age while at the same time supporting their preferred party.”

Quick Summary

The Equality Act consolidates a maze of existing laws but also gives new powers to extend existing discrimination law in some areas. The bill does not only include measures to deal with inequality between men and women. It covers a variety of inequalities - or 'protected characteristics' - including sex, and sexual orientation, age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, and religion.

Key areas

• Provides powers to extend age discrimination protection outside the workplace
• Clarifies protection against discrimination by association, for example in relation to a mother who cares for her disabled child
• Extends protection from discrimination on the grounds of gender reassignment to school pupils
• Extends discrimination protection in the terms of membership and benefits for private clubs and associations
• Creates a unified public sector duty, intended to promote equality in public policy and decision-making. It also extends existing provisions to the protected characteristics of sexual orientation, age and religion or belief, and proposes a new public sector duty related to socio-economic inequalities
• Provides for legislation requiring that employers review gender pay differences within their organisations and publish the results
• Extends the period for which all-women shortlists may be used for parliamentary and other elections until 2030 and allows parties to reserve places on shortlists of candidates for people on the grounds of race or disability.

* The protected characteristics in the Public Sector Equality Duty are listed in the Equality Bill as: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.