A big thank you to all of you who signed ROTA’s petition on the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and for supporting our campaign to save the PSED.
The independent Steering Group of the PSED review published its recommendations on 6thSeptember. Your voice and support has ensured there are no recommendations to remove the Public Sector Equality Duty. This is great news but we have not won yet!
The Steering Group has recommended that the government explore alternate means to judicial review to resolve disputes relating to the Equality Duty. The government has now launched a consultation: ‘Judicial Review: Proposals for Further Reform’. By removing or limiting the option of Judicial Review the right to enforce the Equality Duty will be severely weakened.
Furthermore, the recommendations seriously undermine the ‘specific duty’ to publish equality information, which exists to ensure transparency and demonstrate that public authorities are complying with the Equality Duty.
The campaign to save and strengthen the effectiveness of the Equality Duty must continue. We will contact you with what comes next in our campaign to save and strengthen the Equality Duty. Once again thank you for your support!
See here for recommendations of the review, the ministerial statement, and the NatCen qualitative research that informed the review.
See here for ‘Judicial Review: Proposals for Further Reform’.