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News from the Equality and Human Rights Commission

Monday 4 November 2024

Welcome to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's latest newsletter.

In this edition you will find a summary of our work in October 2024, including:

• Highlights
  • Statement from our Chief Executive as the Worker Protection Act comes into force
  • Code of Practice consultation launch
  • Wales Impact Report 2023 – 2024
• Advising Parliament and governments
  • Statement on the Employment Rights Bill – second reading
• Legal and regulatory action
  • Statement on Higgs v Farmor’s School case
  • Statement on gender pay gap compliance
• Consultation responses
  • Our response to the proposed fire and rescue services inspection programme and framework for 2025–2027
  • Our response to the proposed policing inspection framework consultation for 2025–2029
  • Our response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Adults with Incapacity Amendment Act
• Human rights
  • Funding available for organisations in Britain to give evidence to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
  • Engaging with international bodies to discuss our human rights work

Highlights

Statement from our Chief Executive as the Worker Protection Act comes into force

The new Worker Protection Act came into force on 26 October 2024. Our Chief Executive John Kirkpatrick said: 

“The Worker Protection Act will introduce new preventative duties for employers regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. We welcome these vital protections coming into force.

“Sexual harassment continues to be widespread and often under-reported. Everyone has a right to feel safe and supported at work. The new preventative duty aims to improve workplace cultures by requiring employers to proactively protect their workers from sexual harassment.

“Employers will need to take reasonable steps to safeguard their workers. We have updated our guidance to ensure they understand their obligations and the kinds of steps they can take.

“We will be monitoring compliance with the new duty and will not hesitate to take enforcement action where necessary.”

Code of Practice consultation 

We have launched a public consultation on our updated Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations. The Code sets out the steps that service providers, public bodies and associations should take to ensure people are not discriminated against. It applies the legal concepts in the Equality Act 2010 to everyday situations, with practical examples to illustrate how the law can be used to protect against discrimination.

The Code has been updated to incorporate our technical guidance on age discrimination (originally published March 2016) and our single sex services guidance (published April 2022).

The updated Code also reflects significant developments in legislation and case law since it was first published in 2011. These developments include case law relating to the definition of disability and the threshold for a philosophical belief to be protected under the Equality Act 2010. 

Our consultation is open to everyone, and we are keen to hear from both organisations and individuals. We particularly want to hear from those who use the Code  on how easy the updated Code is to understand, and whether its interpretation of changes to the law are clearly articulated.

The consultation closes on 3 January 2025.

Wales Impact Report 2023 - 2024

We have published our Wales Impact Report for 2023 – 2024. This annual report sets out the breadth and impact of our work to make Wales a fairer country.

Highlights from our work in Wales over the past year include:

• Challenging race discrimination by supporting legal cases in Wales

• Publishing our state of the nation ‘Equality and Human Rights Monitor: Is Wales Fairer? 2023’ report and helping inform public sector equality objectives

• Public bodies adopting recommendations from our two inquiries into health and social care which will lead to improved data collection and decisions to support the workforce and people who use social care

We hope the report encourages governments and public bodies to focus action on addressing the most pressing inequalities in Wales.

Advising Parliament and governments

Statement on the Employment Rights Bill – Second Reading

We have set out our initial view of the Employment Rights Bill ahead of its second reading in Parliament.

We support the government’s intention to strengthen the rights of workers. Several measures in the Bill and accompanying ‘Next steps to make work pay’ document may help to tackle longstanding issues faced by workers who are at a disadvantage in the labour market, including certain protected characteristic groups. Some provisions in the Bill may also support the UK’s adherence to international employment rights standards to which it has committed.

We understand that the UK government is proposing to consult on many of the outlined changes. We support this approach to ensure any new measures are pragmatic, realistic, and deliverable, not only from an enforcement perspective but for employers too. This will help to remove barriers that place individuals at a disadvantage in the workplace.

Legal and regulatory action

Statement on Higgs v Farmor’s School case

Responding to the Higgs v Farmor’s School legal case, our Chairwoman, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, said:

“This appeal engages both the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act, as well as the relationship between the two. 

“As Britain’s equality regulator and a National Human Rights Institution, we intervened in Higgs v Farmor’s School to provide the Court of Appeal with impartial expert advice on the proper interpretation and application of these two Acts.

“We expect this landmark case will set a precedent for future cases concerning protected beliefs in the workplace, especially where those beliefs intersect with other protected characteristics.

“At the EHRC it is our duty to prevent discrimination and stand up for everyone’s rights. We look forward to the Court’s judgment in this appeal and the clarity it will bring to the law in this area.”  

Statement on gender pay gap compliance

We are pleased to announce that we have reached 100 per cent compliance with gender pay gap reporting for this year (2023-2024).

Only six organisations missed the 4 April deadline this year, and all have subsequently reported their data, or declared themselves out of scope.

This vital data is an important first step on the road to ensuring that workplaces are not discriminating against female staff, and we hope employers use this data not just to be transparent, but to inform the steps they need to take to also close the gender pay gaps within their workforce.

We are confident that we will continue to see full reporting by the end of next year (2024-25), with our effective enforcement methods ensuring that companies continue to provide this vital data.

Consultation responses

Response to proposed fire and rescue service inspection framework and programme 2025-2027

We have responded to His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services’ (HMICFRS) proposed fire and rescue service inspection framework and programme 2025-2027.

We are currently undertaking a sustained programme of work to prevent and address race and sex discrimination in fire services, police and armed forces. This was set up in response to several highly critical independent reports highlighting harassment and victimisation of primarily female and ethnic minority officers.

Our response recommends that the framework should assess:

• How well Fire and Rescue Authorities (FRAs) ensure that Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) advance equality of opportunity for all staff and prevent and tackle discrimination, harassment and victimisation

• If FRSs collect the necessary data to evaluate whether groups within the workforce experience workplace harassment (as defined by Equality Act 2010) or barriers to progression

• If, and how well, FRSs implement measures to further equality of opportunity and tackle and prevent workplace discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  

• How FRSs implement the forthcoming duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

Our response to the proposed policing inspection framework consultation for 2025–2029

We have has responded to His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services’ (HMICFRS) police inspection framework consultation for 2025–2029. 

Our response calls for routine inspections of police forces to always include equality and human rights considerations, particularly when assessing Chief Constables and other senior police figures, to ensure that leaders in the force are giving due regard to their equality and human rights obligations.

Our consultation response also recommends:

• That HMICFRS prioritise the inspection of new and emerging technology, particularly facial recognition technology, to ensure usage of this technology is done transparently and to ensure that the technology is never used to breach equality and human rights law

• That inspections ensure that forces are taking steps to tackle discrimination, harassment and victimisation

• That inspections assess whether police forces are giving due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty, and that they comply with both the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

Our response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Adults with Incapacity Amendment Act

We have written to the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport in response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Adults with Incapacity Amendment Act.

We welcome proposals to change the existing principles of the law, to give priority to an individual’s will before any decisions about their life are taken. We also reiterated that all steps should be taken to consider the individual rights, will and preferences of a person, before considering the views of a third party. This must include ensuring reasonable adjustments are in place, as required by Section 20 of the Equality Act 2010.

We recommend that a solid evidence base, informed by the lived experience of groups such as disabled peoples’ organisations should be developed to inform the Scottish Ministers’ equality impact assessment of any changes to Adults with Incapacity Legislation. This will help Scottish Government compliance under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Human rights

Funding available for organisations in Britain to give evidence to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

We are offering funding of up to £7,500 for multiple civil society organisations in Britain to provide evidence to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The evidence will inform the committee’s examination of the UK’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

We anticipate the evidence session will take place between 10 - 28 February 2025.

For more details on selection criteria and to request an application form, please email: [email protected]

The deadline to submit applications is 11pm on Sunday 1 December 2024. 

Engaging with international bodies to discuss our human rights work

Our Chief Executive, John Kirkpatrick, and Commissioner, Su-Mei Thompson, attended the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) General Assembly in Brussels.

John and Su-Mei discussed our recent work and networked with other National Human Rights Institutions to talk about upcoming priorities and future opportunities to work collaboratively to strengthen regional human rights work.

Earlier in the month, our Commissioner, Kunle Olulode, attended the European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet’s) Annual General Meeting.

This was an opportunity to meet with and learn from other equality bodies, share our most impactful work, and discuss the priorities of Equinet for the next year.

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