Equality Bill
12:00 pm
Sarah Spencer: What both sets of duties should provide is a catalyst that requires the public bodies to take into account the need to achieve these outcomes. They are so important, relative to the old system of anti-discrimination which rested on remedies. These duties put the responsibility on to the service provider to look at the question of whether we are delivering equality. Until this socio-economic clause was included, the question would have been whether we were delivering equality on grounds of race, gender and so on, but it now includes that additional dimension so that service providers have to ask themselves that question. That should act as a catalyst to them to do what we would all expect them to do anyway, which is to ensure that they are providing a fair service to everyone, but it is a provision which requires them to ask themselves that. What is particularly important is that it requires them to look at the evidence and then have a proportionate response to it. It should be a driver of actions.