The new Equality Bill

The Government Consultation on Specific Duties for the new Equality Bill was launched on 11 June. The Government Equalities Office (GEO) sets out its proposals for how the new single Equality Duty will be underpinned by a range of proposed specific duties. The consultation is open until 30 September.

The Equality Duty will apply to public authorities who are also classed as contracting authorities, but clearly there will be an impact on the businesses and suppliers with whom they engage. This is why we are drawing your attention to this aspect of the consultation.

Public procurement is worth around £175 billion a year and we believe that contracting authorities should consider how they can more consistently use public procurement to help deliver our equality objectives. The consultation outlines the proposed specific duties we think will help to achieve this.

The consultation contains 3 procurement-related proposals. One is for contracting authorities to set out within their equality objectives how they will ensure that equality factors are considered in their procurement activities. The remaining two proposals focus on the use of equality-related award criteria and contract conditions. It also asks about the principle of excluding suppliers who have breached discrimination law, and about the principle of the approach to a possible national equality standard linked to procurement.

They are interested in your views as well as speaking to some businesses in more detail. If you would like to hear more about the procurement aspect of the Equality Bill, or to participate further in this consultation please contact: Jenny.harland@geo.gsi.gov.uk

The Consultation is available at: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/Specific%20Duties%20Consultation%20DocumentWEB.pdf

APA will be responding so please copy us in if you respond directly or feel free to discuss the matter with me personally.

Gareth