|
|
|
|
Home
| About GEO | Government
achievements on Equality |
|
| |
|
What has the Government achieved on Equality
in general? |
|
The Government has introduced a number of practical
measures to promote equality:
• On
Equality in General
• On
Gender
• On
Race
• On
Disability
• On
Religion and Belief
•
On Sexual Orientation
• On
Age
• On
Transsexuals
On Equality in General
-
Initiated the biggest review of our equality institutions in the last 25
years.
-
Through
the Equality Act 2006, established the Equality and Human
Rights Commission, which will challenge unlawful discrimination and help
protect individuals’ rights to fair treatment
-
Initiated the Discrimination Law Review in
February 2005 to undertake a fundamental review of all equality
legislation and bring forward proposals for a clearer and more
streamlined equality legislation framework, which produces better
outcomes for those who experience disadvantage. A Green Paper
'A Framework for Fairness: Proposals for a Single Equality Bill for
Great Britain' was published in June 2007 and the consultation
closed on 4 September 2007. The Government is now considering all
the responses received and
intends to publish a formal response shortly setting out what will
be included in the Equality Bill.
-
In July
established the Government Equality Office to strengthen further
the Government's ability to deliver across the entire equalities
agenda.
On Gender
-
Introduced the Gender Equality Duty which since
April 2007 requires public sector
bodies to pro-actively promote gender equality of opportunity
-
Delivering on recommendations of the 2006 Women and Work Commission
report with a range of actions to tackle the gender pay gap
-
Introduced the National Minimum Wage.
Two-thirds of the beneficiaries are women and it has contributed to a
drop in the full time median pay gap dropping from 17.4% in 1997
to 12.6% in 2006. The National
Minimum Wage will increase again from 1 October 2008 from £5.52 to £5.73 per hour
-
Introduced the new rights for working families
to request flexible working – employees with children under six
or disabled children have had the right to require employers to
seriously consider their requests to work flexibly since 2003.
In April 2007 the right to request flexible working was extended to carers of
adults. Currently around 14 million people are working flexibly.
The Government has also decided to extend the right to request
to parents
of children aged up to 16 and plans to introduce new regulations
from April 2009.
-
Improved parental rights and pay - paid
maternity leave was extended from 26 to 39 weeks from April
2007, with the flat rate of Statutory
Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption
Pay increasing from £112.75 to
£117.18 per week in April 2008.All employed women able to choose to take
up to one year off work. The Government also intends to extend Statutory
Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance and Statutory Adoption Pay from 39 weeks to
52 weeks by the end of this Parliament.
-
Introduced paternity
leave. The Government also intends to give working fathers a new right to up to 26 weeks paternity leave, with the
aim of introducing this alongside the extension of Statutory Maternity Pay,
Adoption Pay and Maternity Allowance to 12 months.
-
Launched both the National Childcare Strategy
in 1998 and the Ten Year Childcare Strategy in 2004, to
enhance parental choice and opportunities and children's
development by expanding good
quality, affordable early education and childcare (including the
free entitlement for all 3 and 4 year olds), and establish
integrated Sure Start early years and family support programmes.
-
Introduced the Sex Discrimination (Election
Candidates) Act 2002 allowing positive measures towards women’s
increased political participation. Announced in 2007 the intention to extend
the time available to political parties to use these special measures
towards women's increased political participation
to 2030.
-
Established
a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women Councillor’s Taskforce
in May 2008 to take practical action to increase the numbers of
councillors from these communities.
On Race
-
Built
on the Race Relations Act 1976 by passing
the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. The 2000 Act extended
the scope of the original Act, by making it clear that bodies
carrying out public functions are not permitted to discriminate
on racial grounds, and must in fact combat unlawful racial
discrimination. The 2000 Act placed a general duty on public
authorities to promote equality of opportunity; and good
relations between people of different racial groups. Around
43,000 public bodies are now subject to this duty.
-
The Race
Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 also introduced certain specific
duties to support better performance of the general duty. These
specific duties, which apply to most public authorities, are to:
undertake ethnic monitoring of workforces, including recruitment
and progression; assess the impact of policies and services on
race equality externally; and prepare a race equality scheme
showing how the public authority is carrying out the general
duty.
-
Implemented Council Directive 2000/43 EC, “The
Race Directive”, through the Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment)
Regulations 2003, which introduced an express statutory
prohibition of harassment on the grounds of a person’s race or
ethnic or national origins, amended the definition of indirect
discrimination, changed the burden of proof, and made other
changes.
On Disability
-
The Department for Work and Pensions estimates
that there are over 10 million disabled people in Britain, of
whom 700,00 are children.
-
The UK has become a world leader in disability rights,
specifically:
-
extending the employment provisions of the
Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (DDA) in October 2004 to
cover all employers and previously excluded occupations (with the
exception of the armed forces), bringing an additional 1 million
employers and 7 million more jobs within the scope of the
employment provisions and requiring service providers, for the
first time, to make reasonable adjustments to physical features,
such as steps and counters, which act as barriers to disabled
people accessing goods, services and facilities.
-
the DDA introduced a duty on public
authorities to promote equality of opportunity for disabled
people called the Disability Equality Duty (DED).
-
"Improving the Life Chances of Disabled
People," published in 2005 set out the Government's vision that
by 2025 all disabled people should:
-
Established the Office for Disability Issues (ODI),
a cross-Government unit to support the Minister for Disabled
People and to help Government deliver its commitment to "ensure
greater equality for disabled people by reducing barriers to
participation".
-
Launched Equality 2025: The UK Advisory
Network on Disability Equality to act as the conduit for the
voices of disabled people to influence policy and service
delivery at an early stage.
-
Coordinated the
signing of the UN Convention on Disability Rights. The
Convention covers areas such as the right to life, access to
justice, personal mobility, health, education and work.
-
Published an Independent Living Strategy (ILS) on the 3rd March
2008. This five year strategy was co-produced with disabled
people. It is jointly owned by six government departments and
details over 50 government commitments that seek to deliver real
choice and control for disabled people along with greater access
to housing, health, education and training, employment,
transport and participation in community and family life.
On Religion and Belief
-
Implemented the
principle of equal treatment in employment and training,
irrespective of religion or belief through the Employment
Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. These
Regulations prohibit discrimination in employment and vocational
training on the grounds of religion or belief, including where
the discrimination occurs because of a person’s lack of religion
or belief. The Regulations provide protection from direct
discrimination, indirect discrimination, victimisation and
harassment.
-
Introduced provisions contained within Part 2
of the Equality Act 2006 to complement the Employment Equality
(Religion or Belief) Regulations and afford protection against
discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief in: the
provision of goods, facilities and services, education, the
disposal and management of premises and in the exercise of
public functions. Part 2 of the Equality Act provides
protection from direct discrimination, indirect discrimination
and victimisation. The measures address an imbalance which had
emerged from case-law under the Race Relations Act in which Jews
and Sikhs were afforded protection in the areas outlined above
while members of other, multi-ethnic, religions were not. The
provisions within Part 2 came into force on 30 March 2007.
-
Introduced the Racial & Religious Hatred Act 2006 which creates a new offence of
incitement to religious hatred. The Act came into force on
1 October 2007.
On Sexual Orientation
-
Ensured the repeal of section 28
of the Local Government Act 1988.
-
Lifted the ban on lesbians and gays serving in the armed forces
in 2000.
-
Introduced the Sexual Offences Amendment Act,
which resulted in the age of consent becoming equal for gay men,
lesbians and heterosexuals in January 2001.
-
Enabled same-sex couples and civil partners to
apply to adopt a child jointly through the Adoption and Children
Act 2002.
-
Ensured the repeal of the discriminatory criminal
offences of gross indecency and buggery, replacing them with
offences that operate in a gender and sexuality neutral way
through the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
-
Introduced the Criminal Justice
Act 2003, empowering courts to impose tougher sentences for
offences motivated or aggravated by the victim's sexual
orientation.
-
Extended protection against discrimination in
employment on grounds of sexual orientation through the
Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003.
-
Introduced the Civil Partnership Act 2004,
enabling same-sex couples to make a formal, legal commitment to
each other by forming a civil partnership. The Act came into
force on 5 December 2005 and by the end of 2006 the
Act had enabled over 18,000 same sex couples to register their civil
partnership in the UK.
-
Introduced the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation)
Regulations 2007, providing vital protections from
discrimination on grounds of goods, facilities and services,
education, the use and disposal of premises and the exercise of
public functions. The Regulations came into force on 30th
April 2007.
On Age
-
Introduced legislation that extends protection against discrimination in
employment on grounds of age. Increased the employment rate for people aged 50 to State Pension Age from 66.3
per cent in Spring 1999 to 70.9 per cent in Spring 2007.
-
Provided over 1.4million employers and individuals with practical help and
guidance on age through the Age Positive materials and website and
via the ‘Be Ready’ national guidance campaign.
-
Through the National Service Framework for
Older People, have set national standards to improve services
for older people, whether they are at home, in residential care
or in hospital, leading with actions to address age
discrimination in access to care and treatment.
-
Reduced, from 13% to 8.9% in the last two
years, the proportion of people aged 75 or over being delayed in
hospital.
-
Introduced the Pension Credit (October 2003) -
specifically designed to target extra help at those with low and
modest incomes or savings. Many of the poorest pensioners who
have benefited most are women – of those in receipt of Pension
Credit, around 58% are single women.
-
Creating a Children’s Commissioner to act as a
children’s champion independent of Government.
-
Creating a new statutory duty on all relevant
services to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children.
On Transsexuals
-
Introduced legislation that allows transsexual people
to apply for full legal recognition in their acquired gender
-
Extended the
protection from discrimination available in the employment field
on the grounds of a person’s gender reassignment to the fields
of goods, facilities, services and premises through the Sex
Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008.
(top)
Back to section
homepage
See also
(top)
|
|
|
Updated April 2008 | © Crown
copyright |
|
|
|
|
