What is the Equality Act?
The Equality Act came into force on 1st October 2010. The Equality Act brought together over 116 separate pieces of legislation into one single Act. Combined, they made up a new Act that provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.
Preventing discrimination: Promoting equality
It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of:
These are called ‘protected characteristics’.
You’re protected from discrimination:
You’re legally protected from discrimination by the Equality Act 2010 Legislation and summarised at Equality and Human Rights Commission website
National Approach: Success or otherwise for the collection and collation of Protected Characteristics information?
Report on the Inequalities data audit: Office for National Statistics (ONS) (March 2018)
This recent ONS report taking a first look at the outcome of an audit of UK inequalities data on the nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act (2010). It highlights the differences in quality and depth of detail. The background to the report was:
Key headlines:
The number of sources listing age and sex as protected characteristics was higher than for those identifying any of the other protected characteristics. This is likely to reflect the fact that age and sex are routinely captured in data collection and are used as standard breakdowns in most statistical releases.
In contrast, some of the other characteristics, for example, sexual orientation and gender reassignment, are not routinely included in data collection, so are listed in fewer of the resources in the audit.
Further work is needed to establish the depth of coverage of the protected characteristics in these sources. While age breakdowns may be provided, they may not cover all age groups, for example, children. Conversely, while characteristics such as sexual identity and gender reassignment may be covered in more depth in the resources that include them, there are fewer resources against which to compare results.
As such, the volume of sources reported shouldn’t necessarily be taken as an indication of better depth or coverage of any given characteristic or theme.
For the majority of the reported sources it was possible to allocate a theme. Of these, just over half of the sources related to the health and well-being theme.
Inequalities data audit: Office for National Statistics (full report)
Slightly less than a quarter of the reported sources were UK-wide, with the remainder covering individual countries or combinations of the countries within the UK.
Around three-quarters were reported to be available at lower levels of geography, for example, broken-down by country, region and so on, and around a quarter were reported to be available at local authority level, though further work is needed to establish which of the protected characteristics are available at these lower levels of geography.
Inequalities data audit: Office for National Statistics (full report)
Around three-quarters of the data sources reported are regular publications, updated at least annually if not more frequently. For the annual releases, data are generally available within a year of the end of the reporting period.
Ad hoc or occasional releases tend to cover more specific pieces of analysis, often on some of the least-covered protected characteristics. The majority of these come from surveys so, as part of the working group, we will look at whether these provide data that can be updated on a more regular basis.
Inequalities data audit: Office for National Statistics (full report)
Each of the records included in the audit is an online resource, though it may be a report or table and users are not necessarily able to access the underlying dataset in all cases.
In many cases, the way in which the data are presented in these online resources enables users to easily access and understand the main supporting information , for example, the source, quality information and the underlying methodology used to generate it. However, there are examples where it is more difficult to access these important pieces of information.
Inequalities data audit: Office for National Statistics (full report)
The audit was intended as a first step towards collaboratively developing a data infrastructure by building on and bringing together what already exists on inequalities. The initial findings reported here have highlighted a number of areas for further work on ethnicity data.
ONS expect that the data on the remaining protected characteristics will similarly highlight the need for further work in these other areas. The priority for ONS is therefore to convene technical working groups consisting of experts from a range of organisations to take forward this work.
These groups will fully explore the existing data sources for all the protected characteristics, including their potential to be used for further analysis, identify where the gaps are and prioritise the areas for further work.
Inequalities data audit: Office for National Statistics (full report)
This highlights the complexity and work to be undertaken to improve at both national and local level the collected and collated information then using this to inform our collective service planning and provision
If you are interested in participating in these groups, please contact inequalities@ons.gov.uk
What is our local understanding in Wirral?
On this webpage we are collating from a range of known sources the local content that will provide a greater insight for our area in relation to the 9 protected characteristics.
The pages will be under review as we seek further opportunities to enhance our local understanding, and from a range of sources, so do please keep calling back to check for any changes and updates.
Protected Characteristics
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Equality and Diversity - Protected Characteristics
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Importantly, estimations of prevalence and incidence of gender dysphoria do not include individuals from the wider Trans community who may experience gender discomfort but do not wish to reassign their gender. A recent GIRES publication estimates that 1% of the UK population experience some level of gender discomfort. In Wirral this translates to an estimate of 3,210 individuals who may be in need of health and other services.
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Estimates of the prevalence and incidence of gender dysphoria and Transsexualism are difficult to quantify due to the lack of robust national data. Commissioning of health services for gender dysphoria has historically been based on the results of a Scottish primary care study published in 1999 which estimated a prevalence of 8.18 per 100,000 population aged over 15 years.
In other research, estimated prevalence was 20 per 100,000, and estimated incidence was 3 per 100,000 aged 15 and over per year presenting for treatment in the UK. These figures were estimated from numbers of those seeking treatment for gender dysphoria at Gender Identity Clinics in the UK, so are thought to be underestimates due to the number of individuals who do not seek medical help in the UK.
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Local Insight our local Mapping Tool
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Given personal sensitivity regarding sexual orientation, limited reliable information is available on the numbers of LGBTQ+, and estimates are likely to under-estimate true numbers.
The 2011 Census did not have a specific question regarding sexual orientation, but found that 466 people (0.18% of the 16+ Borough population) reported being in a same sex Civil Partnership.
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Equality and Diversity - Protected Characteristics
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Public Sector and Equality Duty
A requirement of the Equality Duty 2010 is for the local council to publish information relating to people affected by our policies and decisions. This asks:
You can read more about how the Local Authority carries out its duties across Adult Social Care, children and young people, regeneration, finance and workforce
Next Workforce Equality Report (for 2018/19) expected Winter 2019/20
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