Equality Bill to become law following House of Commons approval

The House of Commons approved the Equality Bill last night, which means the controversial legislation could hit the statute book later this week.

Key aspects of the Equality Act 2010 will include:

• A single equality duty (from April 2011): existing equality laws will be consolidated but also extended in certain areas
• A socio-economic duty (from April 2011): public bodies will be under a new duty to consider what action they can take to reduce socio-economic inequalities service users face
• A ban on pre-employment health questionnaires
• Extension of the bans on discrimination by association or based on perception
• Extension of the ban on age discrimination (from April 2012): this will be widened to the provision of services and public functions
• Positive action in recruitment and promotion: employers will be allowed to select someone from an under-represented group when they have a choice between two people as qualified as each other
• A drive towards equal pay transparency: initially this will be on a voluntary basis with employers with 250 or more employees encouraged to publish their pay statistics
• Employees will be able to discuss pay: secrecy clauses in employment contracts will be prohibited
• Diversity through procurement: private sector bodies will have to publish their diversity policies when bidding for contracts, and
• Enhanced powers for tribunals to make recommendations in relation to a range of employment practices.

The majority of the Act’s provisions will come into force in October 2010, while others will be implemented in April 2011.

The Conservative party has said it may decide against introducing some of the legislation if it wins next month’s election.

Stephen Hocking, partner at Beachcroft, said: “The Act emphasises how central equalities considerations are to public service planning and delivery. It will be essential for all public bodies to consider and to document equalities issues in every decision that they take.”

Hocking warned that this will be a challenge for some organisations, particularly where budgets might be tight and tough decisions have to be made. “But the Act makes plain that Parliament considers equality a high priority for all public bodies, and they must treat it as such,” he added.