Equality Act 2010: Public Sector Equality Duty what do I need to know?

Specific DutiesSection 153 of the Act gives Ministers powers toimpose specific duties on certain public bodies toenable them to perform the Equality Duty moreeffectively.A policy review paper outlining draft specific dutiesfor English public bodies and the non-devolvedfunctions of Great Britain wide bodies was publishedon 17 March 2011. The draft specific duties focus onreducing burdens and bureaucracy on public bodies,moving away from a process-driven approach to afocus on transparency. This will free up public bodiesto do what is appropriate in their circumstances,to take responsibility for their own performance,and to be held to account by the public, shiftingthe approach to give a focus on performance,not process. The policy review paper is availableat: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/110317%20Public%20sector%20Equality%20Duty%20-%20Policy%20review%20paper.pdf.Further sources of informationThe Equality and Human Rights Commission isthe statutory body established to help eliminatediscrimination and reduce inequality. It will producea statutory Code of Practice on the Equality Dutylater in 2011, explaining the law in more detail. Itwill also produce practical guidance on how publicbodies can comply with the Equality Duty andachieve good practice:www.equalityhumanrights.com0845 604 6610General information about the Government’sequality strategy and legislation is available from theGovernment Equalities Offce at:www.equalities.gov.uk0303 444 1204The specific duties applying to relevant Welshpublic bodies came into force on 6 April 2011.Further information can be found atwww.assemblywales.org. The specific dutiesapplying to relevant Scottish public bodies arecurrently being considered by the ScottishGovernment.10