---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: FW: Inter Faith Network Circular 15/08 - Framework for a Fairer
Future - the Equality Bill
From: "IFNet" <IFNet@...>
Date: Tue, 1 July, 2008 10:15 am
To: "IFNet" <IFNet@...>
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Circular 15/08

27 June 2008

Dear Network contact,



Framework for a Fairer Future - the Equality Bill



The Government published yesterday a document setting out the main
elements which will be included in a new Equality Bill to be introduced in
the next Parliamentary session, together with information on other
initiatives which it will be taking in the equalities field. The document
foreshadows a more detailed paper on the content of the Bill, setting out
the Government's response to its consultation last year on its document
Discrimination Law Review; a Framework for Fairness: Proposals for a
Single Equality Bill for Great Britain.



The main points covered in yesterday's document are:



· The new Equality Bill will consolidate and simplify existing
discrimination legislation. There are currently nine major Acts, around
100 statutory instruments setting out connected rules and regulations and
more than 2,500 pages of guidance and statutory codes of practice.



· The Bill will also introduce a new Equality Duty which will
replace the existing the race, disability and gender equality duties and
will also cover the age, gender reassignment, sexual orientation and
religion or belief. In practical terms, the Duty will require public
bodies to consider how their policies, programmes and services affect
different disadvantaged groups in the community. The Duty will also
require public bodies to tackle discrimination and promote equality
through their purchasing functions. £160 billion is spent each year by
the public sector on private sector contracts. The Government says that it
will be discussing with relevant organisations how the new Duty will work
in practice "especially in relation to religion or belief".



· The Bill will contain powers relating to discrimination on
grounds of age by those providing goods, facilities and services. There
will be further consultation on the design of this legislation and a
transition period before the new legal protections from age discrimination
are implemented.



· There will be measures to improve the transparency on equality
issues in the public and private sector to be able to assess progress in
relation to the gender pay gap; ethnic minority employment; and disability
employment. The document includes statistics on these in relation to
employment in Government departments.




· The scope of positive action to redress disadvantage will be
widened so that employers can take under-representation in their work
force of disadvantaged groups into account when selecting between two
equally qualified candidates. Employers will have greater freedom to
'fast track' or select recruits from under-represented groups, as long as
they are equally suitable and there is no fixed rule that this must be
done in all cases.



· The Bill will extend the use of women only shortlists for the
selection of Parliamentary candidates, due to expire in 2015, to 2030. It
has been decided not to legislate at this stage to allow for all ethnic
minority shortlists as there is no consensus that this is the best
approach.



· The Government will consider with the Commissioner for Public
Appointments whether a specific power to encourage diversity for
appointments within her remit would assist her in the task of ensuring the
public appointments take into account the diversity of the population,
while also maintaining the principle of selection on merit.



· There will be measures to strengthen enforcement processes. The
Bill will allow Employment Tribunals to make wider recommendations in
discrimination cases which will benefit the wider workforce and help to
prevent similar types of discrimination occurring in the future.



· The Government wants to allow discrimination claims to be brought
on combined multiple grounds (and not simply on one ground as now) but
since this is a complex area it is exploring it further, including how the
legislation would work in practice and what the costs and benefits would
be.



· In the light of the current consultation by the Civil Justice
Council the Government will consider the case for introducing for
introducing representative actions in discrimination cases and will
consult on any proposals for reform in this regard.



Over the coming months the Government will be working on preparing the
Bill in consultation with relevant organisations and will be taking
forward a range of work needed to support the new legislation.



A copy of the document can be found at
www.equalities.gov.uk/publications/framework%20fairer%20future.pdf.



Best wishes, Harriet Crabtree



Dr Harriet Crabtree
Director
The Inter Faith Network for the UK
8A Lower Grosvenor Place
London
SW1W 0EN

Tel: 020 7931 7766
Fax: 020 7931 7722

Email: ifnet@...
Web: www.interfaith.org.uk <http://www.interfaith.org.uk/>

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