The UK Government has finally published an important piece of new legislation on Monday 27th April. Although just like any new legislation it will probably be modified during it’s journey through the Parliamentary proceedings. It does promise however to be one of the most important bills in the current governments history particularly with reference to equality and discrimination issues.

The bill is known as the Single Equality Bill

 To understand the huge scope of this bill , just take a look at some of the acts that will be replaced by the Single Equality Bill.

1970 Equal Pay Act

Race Relations Act 1976

Sex Discrimination Act 1975

1995 Disability Discrimination Act

Equality Act 2006

These are in fact just a sample of the various legislation that will be superceded by this bill. Although most of the UK governments current legislation on discrimination will still apply. There is no doubt that our equality laws will be greatly changed by the bill, primarily in public sector responsibilities,  especially due to the increased scope of this new bill .

Public bodies will have a bigger role to play ensuring that this legislation is implemented. As the biggest single employer within the UK, then this perhaps essential to pave the way for the rest of corporate Britain to follow.

It will perhaps concern many people that such wide ranging responsibilities are placed on the public sector. Even on single requirement – ” Using Public procurement to improve equality”, could have costly and far reaching impact on public finances without some solid guidance and frameworks for the public bodies to follow.

 If the public body for instance went down the route of trying to implement improvements in working practices as a prerequirement of contractors,  this is bound to have some cost implications  . If the private sectors has to implement costly procedures or processes to work for the public sector the logical conclusion will be for higher costs, likely to be passed onto the Public body.

Another simple rule, that many organisations will be worried about – that secrecy clauses in employment contracts will be banned. Although it could be said that these are essential changes to remove inequalities in gender pay for instance.

Whatever the issue, one thing is for clear – the complex legal requirements placed on all sectors may be confusing. If you would like to know more about this new equality bill

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