EQUALITY ACT 2010: CONSULTATION AND REFORMS

This circular advises branches that the Government is consulting on its proposals to remove, review or delay a number of elements of the Equality Act 2010. Closing date for responses directly to the Government Equalities Office is 7 August 2012.

On 15 May, the Home Office announced proposals to remove, review or delay a number of elements of the Equality Act 2010 as part of the Equalities Red Tape Challenge initiative. The Government has also announced the outcome to the consultation on reform of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-vote-office/May_2012/15-05-12/6.home-Outcomes-of-equalities-Red-Tape-challenge-and-reform-of-the-Equality-and-Human-Rights-commission.pdf

The Key Proposals

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is now consulting on a number of proposals including:

• Removal of Employer liability for the harassment of an employee by a third party (i.e. a customer). These provisions help to provide a level playing field across employers and are a useful statutory underpinning and justification of local authorities’ policies. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/consultations/third-party-harassment/?view=Standard&pubID=1026978 UNISON believes that these protect employees who have been subjected to repeated harassment by customers, clients or service users which the employer knew about but failed to take reasonable steps to prevent.

• Removal of the power of Tribunals to make wider recommendations in a successful discrimination case because it reports that some employers take their own steps after a tribunal hearing to prevent a further case arising and believe that it is not an appropriate remedy as it requires tribunals to formulate proposals that go beyond the case in question. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/consultations/equality-act-wider-enforcement

• Removal of the statutory mechanism by which individuals can obtain information where they think an employer or service provider has acted unlawfully towards them. Whilst many local authority employers may believe that the questionnaire process places administrative burdens on them, and often requires input from legal advisers, the procedure does provide a framework for requests, which where the form is used makes it easier to identify when a request has been made and sets out a timetable for responding. If that framework is removed, employers could face increased uncertainty about when and how to deal with questions which could lead to or arise out a potential discrimination complaint.

• Proceed with the removal of the socio-economic duty.

• Delay commencement of dual discrimination provisions

• Delay commencement of reasonable adjustments to common parts provisions

Review of Reforms

• Further to government’s commitment in 2011 to assess the effectiveness of the specific duties of the public sector equality duty (PSED), they have decided to bring forward that review and extend it to include both the general and specific duties, in order to establish whether the PSED is operating as intended. This once again refers to its ‘strong desire to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy’. Details will be provided as soon as they become available.

• The Government has decided to go ahead with the review of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) as set out in a consultation in 2011. Details of the Government response to the consultation ‘Building a fairer Britain: reform of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’ can be found at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/equalities/equality-government/equality-human-rights-commission It will be recruiting a new Chair and a smaller board of commissioners to conduct a comprehensive review of EHRC-s budget. A further review of the EHRC’s performance will be carried out in autumn 2013 which could mean further cutting back or contracting out of its functions. Reports suggest that £10m of grants would be cut from the EHRC budget. Currently 61 local equality organisations receive grant funding and there is a concern that this measure will damage local equality groups. Further details are due to be published on the Home Office website.

Next Steps

UNISON is extremely concerned about the government’s announcement on its response to the Red Tape Challenge on equality. UNISON will be responding to the consultations to make clear our opposition to the removal of provisions we fought long and hard to secure. Branches should be clear that for now, there is no change to the current law.

Branches are encouraged to submit comments on the proposals which we can feed into our response. Comments should be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by 1 July 2012. Alternatively, branches can respond directly to the GEO on the consultation documents mentioned and details of how to do so is available on the GEO website http://homeoffice.gov.uk/equalities/equality-act. Closing date for responses is 7 August 2012.