About the Public Sector Equality Duties
The General Equality Duty
The Equality Act 2010 replaced the previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act.
A key measure included within the Act was the introduction of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) which came into force on 5 April 2011 and which is referred to as the General Equality Duty.
The General Equality Duty has three aims. It requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:
eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act;
advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and
foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
The duty to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination also covers marriage and civil partnership. The Equality Act also gives Ministers the power to impose specific duties through regulations. The specific duties are legal requirements designed to help those public bodies covered by the specific duties meet the general duty.
Following a government consultation, the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 were been laid before Parliament for approval, and came into force on 10 September 2011.
The specific duties for Scotland were laid before the Scottish Parliament on 21 March 2012 and came into force on 27 May 2012.
The specific duties for Wales were approved by the National Assembly for Wales and commenced on 6 April 2011.
These regulations will promote the better performance of the equality duty by requiring the publication of:
equality objectives, at least every four years
information to demonstrate their compliance with the equality duty, at least annually
The Scottish Specific Equality Duties
The Scottish Specific duties were created by secondary legislation in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012. These specific duties came into force on 27 May 2012. The purpose of the specific duties in Scotland is to help those authorities listed in the Regulations in their performance of the general equality duty.
Duty to report on mainstreaming the equality duty
Duty to publish equality outcomes and report progress
Duty to assess and review policies and practices
Duty to gather and use employee information
Duty to publish gender pay gap information
Duty to publish statements on equal pay, etc
Duty to consider award criteria and conditions in relation to public procurement
Duty to publish in a manner that is accessible, etc
Duty of the Scottish Ministers to publish proposals to enable better performance
For detailed information on the Scottish Specific Equality Duties, please see the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Technical Guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty: Scotland.
These duties are currently under review by Scottish Government.
PSED Portal
CRER’s PSED Portal is a directory of documents published by Scottish public bodies under the Public Sector Equality Duties (PSED). Within the Portal, you can access an archive of all PSED documentation published by Scotland’s listed public bodies since 2017, alongside links to their equality policies and any relevant equalities contacts.
Please note: this Portal is not meant to provide any authoritative statement of the law or evaluate any organisation’s compliance or noncompliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Research
CRER regularly publishes research on the performance of the Public Sector Equality Duties. For previous research, visit our publications page. Our latest research is available to download here: