The equalities minister, Lynne Featherstone, finally laid the draft Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 before parliament last week.

Originally intended to come into force in April alongside the general public sector equality duty, the draft Regulations will now come into force on the date they are approved by Parliament.

The general equality duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 requires public authorities to have “due regard” to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who don’t.

The aim behind the Regulations laid last week is to “promote the better performance of the equality duty” by requiring public authorities to publish:

  • one or more equality objectives, at least every four years
  • information to demonstrate their compliance with the equality duty, at least annually. This must include information relating to their employees (for authorities with 150 or more staff) and others affected by their policies and practices, such as service users.


The government says that publishing this information will ensure that public authorities are transparent about their performance on equality, which will “drive the better performance of the equality duty without burdening public authorities with unnecessary bureaucratic processes, or the production of superfluous documents.”

With the exception of schools, public authorities will be required to publish relevant information demonstrating their compliance by 31 January 2012, and their first equality objectives by 6 April 2012. Schools will be required to publish both their information and their equality objectives by 6 April 2012.

The government will work closely with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to ensure that clear non-statutory guidance is available to public authorities to help them to comply with these Regulations. It has also said that it will review how the Regulations are working in two years' time.

Although the Equality Duty applies to the whole of Great Britain, Scotland and Wales are able to set their own specific duties. The specific duties in Wales came into force on 6 April 2011 and are much more comprehensive than the ones applicable to England.

In particular the provisions in Wales require public authorities to involve those who represent the interests of people with a protected characteristic when setting equality objectives. Unions can use these duties to ensure they are consulted about the objectives that are set. Specific duties applicable to Scottish public bodies are still being decided.