Government says it will not introduce Equality Act's 'socio-economic duty'

The Equality Act was passed by the last Labour Government and much of it was brought into force in October. But parts of it were delayed for later implementation, and some will now not be brought into force at all.

The Equality Act contained a provision that demanded that public bodies consider social and economic disadvantage when allocating resources. It is this socio-economic duty which the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government will not now introduce.

"You can’t make people’s lives better by simply passing a law saying that they should be made better," said May in a recent speech. "That was as ridiculous as it was simplistic and that is why I am announcing today that we are scrapping the socio-economic duty for good."

"It was meant to force public authorities to take into account inequality of outcome when making decisions about their policies. In reality, it would have been just another bureaucratic box to be ticked. It would have meant more time filling in forms and less time focusing on policies that will make a real difference to people’s life chances," she said.

The socio-economic duty said that public authorities should consider issues such as inequality, family background and social disadvantage when allocating resources. The duty had not been expected to come into force until April 2011.

May said that, if introduced, the measure would result in an unfair distribution of public resources.

"At its worst, it could have meant public spending permanently skewed towards certain parts of the country," she said. "Valued public services meant to benefit everyone in the community closed down in some areas and reopened in others. Council services like bin collections and bus routes designed not on the basis of practical need but on this one politically-motivated target."

Public bodies have more responsibilities under equalities law than private ones, said Selwyn Blyth, an employment law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM.

"That extra layer of responsibility is designed to try and make public sector organisations mainstream equality issues into decision-making processes," said Blyth. "In the Equality Act, part of that was this socio-economic duty, which was supposed to oblige the public sector to think about socio-economic disadvantage when allocating funds."

"This decision by the Government, though, is very consistent with the coalition's stated aims to reduce bureaucracy and red tape, particularly in areas like employment and the way people allocate funds," he said. "They said they were going to review legislation and see what they could cut down on, and this is a good example."

Blyth said that the Government is conducting a consultation on how the extra public sector duties under Equality should be implemented.

He said that the Government had already said that it will not introduce other elements of equality laws, such as a presumption in favour of people with characteristics protected by the Equality Act if there is a tie-breaker for a job; and the introduction of equal pay audits for the public and private sector to uncover and publish pay discrepancies between men and women.