Government to "call time" on equality impact assessments, says Cameron

The Government is “calling time” on equality impact assessments, the Prime Minister has said.

In a speech to the CBI conference, in which he also announced a clampdown on the “massive growth industry” of judicial review, David Cameron said: “The problem isn’t always the legislation itself, it’s how we interpret it. You get laws gold-plated with reams of pointless reports.

“Take the Equality Act. It’s not a bad piece of legislation. But in government we have taken the letter of this law and gone way beyond it, with equality impact assessments for every decision we make.”

The Prime Minister added: “Let me be very clear. I care about making sure that government policy never marginalises or discriminates. I care about making sure we treat people equally.

“But let’s have the courage to say it, caring about these things does not have to mean churning out reams of bureaucratic nonsense.”

He continued: “We have smart people in Whitehall who consider equalities issues while they’re making the policy. We don’t need all this extra tick-box stuff.

“So I can tell you today we are calling time on equality impact assessments. You no longer have to do them if these issues have been properly considered. That way policy-makers are free to use their judgement and do the right thing to meet the equalities duty rather than wasting their own time and taxpayers’ money.”

What the Prime Minister is proposing in relation to equality impact assessments is not clear, however, given that there is no formal legal requirement to produce them. Guidance published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the public sector equality duty emphasises the importance of informed decision-making, rather than particular processes.

In May this year the Government announced plans to review the public sector equality duty “to establish whether this is the best way to ensure public bodies consider the impact of their decisions on different groups”.

In his speech the Prime Minister also highlighted recent changes to the Government’s guidance on holding consultations.

“When we came to power there had to be a three-month consultation on everything and I mean everything, no matter how big or small,” he claimed.

“So we are saying to Ministers: here’s a revolutionary idea – you decide how long a consultation period this actually needs. If you can get it done properly in a fortnight, great, indeed the Department for Education has already had a consultation done and dusted in two weeks.

“And we are going further, saying: if there is no need for a consultation, then don’t have one.”

David Cameron also vowed to tackle excessive European legislation, which he insisted “holds us up….clogs things up”.

Saying he was determined to change things, the PM said: “Government has been like someone endlessly writing a ‘pros and cons’ list as an excuse not to do anything at all.

“Consultations, impact assessments, audits, reviews, stakeholder management, securing professional buy-in, complying with EU procurement rules, assessing sector feedback this is not how we became one of the most powerful, prosperous nations on earth.

“It’s not how you get things done. As someone once said, if Christopher Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be stuck in the dock.”

In his speech, the Prime Minister said he had worked with “exceptional civil servants who are as creative and enterprising as any entrepreneur and they are as frustrated with a lot of this bureaucratic rubbish as I am”.

But he argued that Whitehall had become “too risk-averse, too willing to say ‘no’ instead of ‘yes’” and it was time for every department to be come a ‘growth department’.

Cameron likened the situation to when the country was at war in the 1940s and Whitehall “underwent a revolution”.

He said: “Normal rules were circumvented. Convention was thrown out. As one historian put it, everything was thrown at the overriding purpose of beating Hitler.

“Well, this country is in the economic equivalent of war today – and we need the same spirit. We need to forget about crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘i’ and we need to throw everything we’ve got at winning in this global race.”