Equalities Bill

In June, the government announced an Equalities Bill which is expected to be introduced in to the next Parliamentary session, starting in November. It is designed to “declutter” our discrimination laws which have built up over the last 40 years. They point out that there are currently nine major pieces of discrimination legislation, around 100 statutory instruments and more than 2,500 pages of guidance and statutory codes of practice. These cover discrimination on grounds of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation and religion or belief. The aim is to clarify legislation and guidance, to help those who benefit from the law and those who need to comply with it.

The aims are to

• Introduce a new Equality Duty on the public sector.
• End age discrimination
• Require transparency
• Extend the scope of positive action
• Strengthen enforcement

This is a step closer towards positive discrimination, enabling employers to favour female or ethnic minority candidates if they are under represented in the workplace and are equally qualified for the job, compared with non disadvantaged applicants.

It will also encourage employers to disclose information about workers salaries, and prevent secrecy clauses within employment contracts which stop employees discussing their salaries with each other.

A comprehensive paper on the content of the Equality Bill will be published soon which will include the Government’s response to the consultation “Discrimination Law Review; A Framework for Fairness: Proposals for a Single Equality Bill for Great Britain” which was carried out last year.