Technology secretary says legal requirement that protects women, older people and others from workplace discrimination is ‘really important’
Here is an extract, released by CCHQ overnight, from the speech Kemi Badenoch is giving this morning. In it, she explains why she wants to get rid of the public sector equality duty.
There are so many problems [in equalities legislation] to fix. Many of them are currently as a result of the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act.
It is a duty that is subjective ... with no clear rules ... and whatever its intention ... in practice, it has become a minefield that exposes almost every significant public decision to legal challenge.
The duty is a statutory duty on listed public authorities and other bodies carrying out public functions. It ensures that those organisations consider how their functions will affect people with different protected characteristics. These functions include their policies, programmes, and services. The duty supports good decision-making by helping decision-makers understand how their activities affect different people. It also requires public bodies to monitor the actual impact of the things they do. For example, to keep under review how different groups of pupils are performing at school and to identify and take action if some pupils with protected characteristics need more support than others.
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