FacilityBlog from Today's Facility Manager: The First Facility Management Blog
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Discrimination Law Review Green Paper: proposals for a Single Equality Bill
This green paper, issued 12 June 2007, is out for consultation until 4 September 2007. It is the result of the Discrimination Law Review, which has been underway since February 2005. It was set up alongside the Equalities Review, chaired by Trevor Phillips. This aimed to investigate the causes of persistent inequality and reported its findings in February 2007.
Summary
The green paper aims to identify areas of anti-discrimination law that need revision, in order to harmonise and simplify the law, to modernise it and to make it more effective.
The main proposals are to:
- promote a culture of compliance with the law
- simplify and standardise definitions and tests in discrimination law
- simplify and harmonise exceptions
- simplify and harmonise the way the law treats public functions and public services
- bring the law of equal pay into the Single Equality Bill and update it in line with case law
- allow a wider range of balancing measures to effectively address entrenched discrimination and disadvantage
- simplify the public sector equality duties by replacing them with a single duty to tackle disadvantage more effectively
- consider extending the coverage of public sector equality duties to the six strands: age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation
- explore how public authorities can actively take account of equality issues in procurement and ways to improve equality practice in the private sector
The green paper aims to determine:
- whether changes should be made to the statutory protected grounds
- the case for prohibiting age discrimination in areas outside employment
- whether to strengthen the protection on grounds of gender reassignment outside employment
- whether to strengthen the protection on grounds of pregnancy and maternity outside employment
- how to improve access to, and use of, let residential premises for disabled people
Downloads
The DIALOG team has provided a summary of the main issues that will directly affect local government: A framework for fairness: proposals for a Single Equality Bill (PDF, 8 pages, 29KB)
You can access the green paper in full on the Communities and Local Government website.
To help authorities to work through the paper, the following Local Government Employers' Advisory Bulletin, which focuses on the employment aspects of the proposals: Advisory bulletin, employment relations no. 530, August 2007 (PDF, 28 pages, 320Kb)
You can also find these documents on the Equality Standard community of practice (CoP). (You will be asked to register. Your registration needs to be confirmed by the CoP administrator. Once you have received confirmation, you can join the CoP).
Deadline and further information
We urge you to take a view on the questions and any other issues you feel are important and send them to us by 17 August 2007.
You may send your own response to Communities and Local Government, but please also send a copy to us also by the deadline.
Comments should be posted on the community of practice (You will be asked to register. Your registration needs to be confirmed by the CoP administrator. Once you have received confirmation, you can join the CoP).
Alternatively, you can send your comments to mandy.wright@idea.gov.uk or michael.macauley@idea.gov.uk. We will collate and summarise these responses and forward them to the Communities and Local Government.
Credo Consultancy / Greg Smith
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