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News from the Equality and Human Rights Commission
Tuesday 5 August 2025 |
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Welcome to the latest newsletter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. In this edition, you will find a summary of our work in July 2025, including: |
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| Highlights | | Appointment of new EHRC Chair confirmed | | The Minister for Women and Equalities has confirmed the appointment of Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson as the next Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Dr Stephenson will take up the post from 1 December 2025, when Baroness Falkner’s extended term comes to an end. |
| | Read more about the next Chair of the EHRC | | Annual report and accounts for 2024-25 | | We have published our annual report and accounts for the 2024-25 financial year, ending 31 March 2025.
The annual report and accounts were submitted to the Minister for Women and Equalities, who laid them before Parliament on 21 July 2025.
The breadth and impact of the work done in the final year of the 2022 to 2025 strategic plan is set out in this report – the last annual report of Baroness Kishwer Falkner’s term as Chairwoman. | | | Read our annual report | | Talks with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights | | We welcomed Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, during his UK visit in July.
The productive conversation included discussions on tackling child poverty, protecting the right to protest, the balance of rights under equality law and addressing migration challenges.
The Commissioner’s statement, published on 8 July, reflects many of these shared priorities and highlights our common goal: protecting human rights and ensuring dignity, fairness and equality for everyone. | | | Read the Commissioner’s human rights statement | | Chairwoman addresses Chartered Management Institute on inclusion in the workplace | | Earlier this month, our Chairwoman addressed the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), highlighting our work to promote inclusive workplace practices through practical guidance.
The Chairwoman outlined our guidance for employers on supporting staff experiencing menopause symptoms, accessible hybrid working for disabled employees, and previous work co-produced with CMI to help employers address gender pay gaps.
She also discussed our role in implementing important legislative changes such as the new duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment and the work in our new strategic plan to tackle harassment and discrimination in uniformed services. | | | Read our work on gender pay reporting | | | Read our sexual harassment technical guidance for employers | | Meetings and engagements | | Through July we continued to meet with individuals and organisations to gather insight and secure impact under our strategic plan for 2025 to 2028.
As part of our work with government and other regulators to ensure AI systems comply with the Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act 1998, our Deputy Chief Executive, Penny Hobman, attended a regulators’ roundtable at 10 Downing Street about the UK government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan aims.
Discussing our work with industry leaders in Scotland, our Chairwoman attended a summer reception hosted by the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government, Joe Griffin, held at Scotland House London.
We have continued to engage with MPs on the Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations. We have received over 50,000 responses to our public consultation. Thank you to everyone who submitted their views - we are now working at pace to review the responses and to use the findings to update the Code. | | | Learn more about our regulatory work on AI | | | Read more about our work in Scotland | | | Read more about our work on the Code of Practice | |
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| Advising Parliament and governments | | Scotland restraint and seclusion in schools consultation: our response | | We recently submitted our response to the Scottish Parliament’s consultation on the general principles of the Restraint and Seclusion (Scotland) Bill. We highlighted some of our previous work on this issue, including: our engagement with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (CYPCS) and the Scottish Government which led to the Scottish Government agreeing to produce human rights-based guidance on restraint and seclusion our human rights framework for restraint our inquiry into the use of restraint in schools in England and Wales. We have recommended amending the Bill to ensure that our framework is the basis for future Scottish Government guidance. | | | Read our consultation response on restraint | |
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