You may have read about the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012, which came into force on 27 May 2012. However, it should be noted that these only apply to public authorities as listed in the schedule to the regulations.

The Equality Act 2010 (The "Act") introduced an 'equality duty' under section 149, which requires all public authorities to pay due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations. The Act also enables specific duties to be created to help public authorities meet the requirements of the 'equality duty'.

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 now prescribes these specific duties which public authorities are required to meet, including:

  • The requirement for listed public authorities with more than 150 employees to publish a report explaining their progress in making the 'equality duty' integral to the exercise of its functions by 30 April 2013;
  • The requirement for listed public authorities with more than 150 employees to publish gender pay gap information before the 30 April 2013 and subsequently within every 2 years after the last report was published. Those public authorities must also publish a statement containing their policy and occupational segregation between gender, disability and minority racial groups before 30 April 2013 and every four years thereafter;
  • The requirement for listed public authorities to publish a set of equality outcomes which it considers enables it to perform the 'equality duty'. A report of the progress being made must also be published by 30 April 2015; and
  • The requirement that listed public authorities assess the impact of any new policy or practice against the 'equality duty' and publish the results of any such assessment.

Please click here to view the regulations.

© MacRoberts 2012

Disclaimer

The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Recipients should not act on the basis of the information in this e-update without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.