Cabinet Office
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Harman: Equality essential for Britain age discrimination to be banned
Cabinet Office on behalf of Government Equalities Office
Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, today announced new measures which will be in the Equality Bill, which will streamline and strengthen discrimination legislation, including banning age discrimination, to make Britain a fairer place.
Despite considerable progress, inequality and discrimination still exist: Women are paid on average 12.6% less per hour than men; disabled people are two and a half times more likely to be out of work, and ethnic minorities a fifth less likely to find work; and two thirds of over-fifties feel that they are turned down for a job because they are too old.
Framework for a Fairer Future - the Equality Bill outlines further steps to tackle this inequality, including:
End age discrimination
The Equality Bill will include powers to ban all unjustified discrimination against older people, such as denying them medical treatment1. Things that help older people, such as free bus passes, will still be allowed.
Public bodies will also have a new legal duty to eliminate age discrimination and promote equality.
There will be a transitional period to allow organisations time to adjust. Work is already underway, and the Government will consult on provisions to bring the new law into force more quickly in sectors, which are ready to comply.
Increase transparency and ban 'gagging clauses'
Inequality cannot be tackled if it is hidden. Transparency is essential to eradicate discrimination:
* The Equality Bill will ban 'gagging clauses' so that work colleagues can compare wages and challenge employers who unlawfully pay them less. Nearly a quarter2 of employers ban their staff talking about their wages, with women more likely to be in the dark about colleagues' pay than men.
* Public authorities will report on important inequalities like gender pay, disability employment and ethnic minority employment.
* At the moment Employment Tribunals can only make judgments work for the individual who brought the case. The Bill will allow tribunals to make recommendations which will benefit everybody in the workforce and stop similar types of discrimination happening again.
* £160billion is spent every year by the public sector on British businesses - Government will look at how public procurement can be used to deliver transparency and change.
* The Equality and Human Rights Commission will conduct a series of inquiries in sectors where there is clear inequality, for example the gender pay gap in financial services is 41.5% compared with the national figure of 12.6%.
* Businesses will be challenged through the development of an equality "kite-mark" to report on the gender pay gap in their organisation and their employment of disabled and ethnic minority staff.
* The Government will work with the CBI and Unions to collect evidence on the effectiveness of equal pay job evaluation audits.
The Government expects business increasingly to regard reporting on their progress on equality as an important part of explaining to investors and others the prospects for the company. It will review progress on transparency and its contribution to the achievement of equality outcomes, and in light of this, consider over the next five years, using existing legislation for greater transparency in company reporting on equality.
Positive Action for women, and other under-represented groups
Employers will get the right to address under-representation, for example:
* Under-representation of ethnic minorities in the police;
* Local authorities which want to promote more women to higher positions or to recruit more black, Asian and ethnic minority candidates.
This will allow employers to take under-representation into account when deciding between two equally qualified candidates, and so allow workforces to better reflect society.
The CBI, TUC and Equality and Human Rights Commission support positive action. Recognised business benefits of a diverse workforce include attracting new business, understanding customers' needs, and filling skills gaps. This will be entirely permissive, rather than compulsory, and will help organisations such as police forces which want to increase the number of ethnic minority officers to better reflect the local community.
New equality duty on the public sector
Public authorities already have a duty to consider how their spending decisions, employment practices and service delivery affect people whatever their race, disability or gender, which has created a positive culture change. The Bill will replace this with a new streamlined and strengthened equality duty which will also include age and sexual orientation.
This means that public bodies will need to consider how services affect a wide range of different people. For example a library may provide IT training specifically for older people, or a police authority may provide an emergency mobile phone text service for deaf people.
Ms Harman said:
"This is an important milestone on the road to a fair and equal society. Fairness is important for every individual, for our society, and for our economy.
"We have made progress on tackling unfairness against women and black and Asian people and people with disabilities. But we want to do more. This is why we're introducing the Equality Bill, which will streamline and strengthen the law.
"Fairness is important for the rights of individuals, for our society to be peaceful and at ease with itself, and for our economy to be effective.
"Equality is not just right in principle, but is necessary for Britain to be a modern and thriving economy; diversity makes us outward facing and helps us compete in the global economy."
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
"From the outset, unions have fought hard for fairness at work and today's Bill is an important landmark on that journey. It is also a testament to the hard work and commitment shown by Harriet Harman towards delivering equality.
"Britain's workforce is unrecognisable from previous generations when equality legislation was first introduced. This timely Equalities Bill should therefore help the workers of today and tomorrow to reach their potential.
"The TUC will now work with Government to ensure that the proposals in this Bill make a real difference to people's working lives throughout the UK."
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said:
"In an ageing society, the way we ensure older people are treated with respect is one of the most important issues we face. Unfair age discrimination has no place in our society, or in health and social care services. We have already started a campaign to make sure older people are treated with dignity in all care settings, and are investing £520 million to transform adult social care. This will increase the numbers of people who receive a direct payment or personal budget, giving older people and others greater choice and control over their care. However, there is still more to be done. I look forward to working with charities, social care providers and the NHS to end unfair age discrimination in healthcare."
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell said:
"More and more of us are living longer, and increasingly we have big ambitions for later life. All sections of society need to adapt to these new realities and the public and private sectors will need to take people's needs into account. This Bill takes us closer towards a Britain where all people have the opportunity to participate fully in society - and are seen first for what they can contribute, not their age or their disability, for example. "
In addition to the Equality Bill and its linked package of measures, the Government will do further work on whether the law can be toughened to give redress to people who suffer discrimination on combined multiple grounds, for example by a black woman, or an older man. It is also considering whether there is a case for representative actions, which would allow bodies such as trade unions or the Equality and Human Rights Commission to take one claim to court on behalf of a number of individuals.
The Equality Bill will make it easier for people and businesses to know their rights and their obligations. It will be written in plain English and will replace nine major pieces of legislation and around 100 other measures, spanning forty years, from the 1970 Equal Pay Act through to the 2005 Disability Discrimination Act.
At the current rate of progress it will be:
2085: Gender pay gap closes
2100: Black Asian and ethnic minority employment rate reflects population
2080: Parliament to have equal numbers of men and women MPs
Probably never: Disabled people get the same job prospects.
The Government is committed to reduce disadvantage and promote equality and opportunity for all. In the last year, it has established the new Government Equalities Office, set up the Equality and Human Rights Commission, agreed an ambitious Public Service Agreement target on equality, and set up the National Equality Taskforce.
A comprehensive paper on the content of the Equality Bill will be published later this summer, which will include the response to the Discrimination Law Review: A Framework for Fairness consultation.
The Bill is expected to be introduced in the next Parliamentary session, which starts in December.
'Blueprint for a Fairer Future - The Equality Bill' can be downloaded at http://www.equalities.gov.uk
Notes for editors
* Harriet Harman made an Oral Statement on Thursday 26th June 2008.
* The Equality Bill will replace the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, much of the Equality Act 2006, the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, and the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 (all as subsequently amended), plus other ancillary pieces of legislation.
* The Government Equalities Office is responsible for the Government's overall strategy, legislation and priorities on equality issues. It was established in July 2007. The Office also has direct responsibility for policy on gender equality, sexual orientation, and for integrating work on race and religion or belief into the overall equality framework. http://www.equalities.gov.uk
* The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006, which took over the responsibilities of the Commission for Racial Equality, Disability Rights Commission, and Equal Opportunities Commission as well as taking on new responsibilities for sexual orientation, religion or belief, age and human rights. It is the independent advocate for equality and human rights in Britain. It aims to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people, and promote human rights.
* The National Equality Taskforce will consist of leading academics and experts, and will bring cutting-edge research and thinking on all equality matters to the heart of Government.
* Age discrimination is already banned in the workplace.
1 The details of the new age discrimination ban will be set out in secondary legislation made under the Equality Bill. The Government will set out a timetable for further public consultation.
2 According to the former Equal Opportunities Commission in 2004.
