Conservative Leader Proposes Ending Equality Duty for Public Bodies
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will announce plans to abolish rules that require public bodies such as schools and hospitals to promote equality when making decisions. She will deliver this message in a speech scheduled for Tuesday.
The party describes this move as the initial phase of a broader initiative to "restore common sense." Badenoch will contend that the Public Sector Equality Duty has been exploited to advance "dangerous and divisive agendas."
She will further state that the duty has "become a minefield that exposes almost every significant public decision to legal challenge."
Meanwhile, the Labour government is preparing to introduce a new equality and diversity strategy focused primarily on increasing recruitment and progression of working-class individuals within the civil service.
Badenoch's remarks follow the murder of Henry Nowak and subsequent police response, which have intensified scrutiny of equality policies and legislation.
The Conservative Party aims to differentiate its stance from Labour, which has strengthened equality protections, and Reform UK, which advocates for the complete repeal of the Equality Act.
Overview of the Public Sector Equality Duty
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), applicable in England, Scotland, and Wales, mandates that public bodies and entities performing public functions eliminate unlawful discrimination.
It also requires public authorities to "advance equality of opportunity between people who share and people who do not share a relevant protected characteristic." Protected characteristics include age, disability, race, pregnancy, sex, and sexual orientation.
Government guidance advises that the duty should "always be applied in a proportionate way" based on case circumstances and cautions against an "overly bureaucratic and burdensome approach."
The duty was established in 2010 as part of the Equality Act, which consolidated earlier anti-discrimination laws such as the Equal Pay Act and the Disability Discrimination Act.
Since its enactment, both organisations and individuals have had the ability to pursue legal action against public bodies for non-compliance with the duty.
Legal Cases Involving the Duty
In 2011, the High Court ruled that Somerset and Gloucestershire County Councils failed to comply with the duty when attempting to withdraw funding from over 20 libraries.
In 2012, a court found that Devon County Council did not fulfill its duty when setting fees paid to private care homes. Approximately 100 care home owners contended that the fees were insufficient to cover costs and initiated legal proceedings, arguing the council had not adequately considered the impact on vulnerable residents.
In 2020, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission determined that the Home Office had breached the duty concerning the impact of its "hostile environment" policies on members of the Windrush generation.
Conservative Criticism of the Duty
Prior to Badenoch's speech, the Conservative Party criticized the duty as the "legal foundation that has allowed identity politics, DEI [Diversity, Equality and Inclusion] bureaucracy and ideological box-ticking to spread across public services."
The party cited examples such as the Bank of England's removal of Winston Churchill from banknotes and police training advising officers not to treat individuals identically.
In her speech, Badenoch is expected to declare:
"We are going to scrap this duty altogether. We do not need to replace it. We need to explain to people that they should do their jobs."
Responses from Equality Bodies and Political Parties
A spokesperson for the Equality and Human Rights Commission stated:
"The purpose of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is to make sure public authorities think about how they promote equality throughout their day-to-day business.
"The PSED is not a barrier to these organisations doing the job the public expects them to do.
"It's there to help them make good decisions, based on an understanding of the impact those decisions have on everyone that they affect."
Reform UK criticized Badenoch's proposal as "classic Conservative politics: too little, too late, and nowhere near enough."
Liberal Democrat Women and Equalities Spokesperson Marie Goldman MP described the speech as "a desperate attempt to fan the flames of culture war politics from a Conservative party completely out of ideas."
She added:
"Instead of exploiting division, the Conservatives should focus on coming up with ideas to fix an NHS and economy that they left in tatters."
Labour's Upcoming Equality Strategy
Details of the Labour government's new strategy are expected soon. The government indicated it will place a "major, explicit emphasis on socio-economic background as a primary driver of unequal opportunity."
A government press release stated the strategy aims to address the "over-representation of people from more well-off backgrounds" in the civil service.
It also intends to ensure that "people from working class and regional backgrounds do not feel they need to alter their behaviour, accents or language to fit in with the civil service."
