Equality Act 2010
General Duty to Promote Equality 2011
The Equality Duty is a duty on public bodies and others carrying out public functions. It ensures that public bodies consider the needs of all protected groups and individuals in their day to day work in shaping policy, in delivering services, and in relation to their own employees. The new Equality Duty aims to support good decision-making. It encourages public bodies to understand how different people will be affected by their activities so that policies and services are appropriate and accessible to all and meet different people’s needs
The Equality Duty has three aims. It requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act;
- advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and
- foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
Having due regard to the need to advance equality of opportunity involves considering the need to:
- remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics;
- meet the needs of people with protected characteristics; and
- encourage people with protected characteristics to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is low.
Fostering good relations involves tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people who share a protected characteristic and others.
The Equality Duty also explicitly recognises that disabled people’s needs may be different from those of non-disabled people. Public bodies should therefore take account of disabled people’s impairments when making decisions about policies or services. This might mean making reasonable adjustments or treating disabled people better than non-disabled people in order to meet their needs