SECTION 1 of The Equality Act 2010 introduced a socio-economic duty on public bodies, requiring them to make decisions, “in a way that is designed to reduce the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage.” After the 2010 election, the Cameron government decided not to bring the socio-economic duty into force.
As part of the ‘1ForEquality’ campaign, a number of organisations, including the Equality Trust, Shelter, and the Royal College of Physicians, have written an open letter to the Prime Minister, calling on the new government to fulfil its manifesto committments and enact the socio-economic duty as one of its first acts in government.
The open letter, dated 15 July, reads as follows:
Dear Prime Minister,
We would firstly like to congratulate you on your election victory and hope that we can build a constructive working relationship with you and your cabinet colleagues during your time in government.
We are writing to you on behalf of the 1ForEquality campaign group. We are a coalition of nine organisations, who have come together with the stated aim of urging the UK Government to put in place the socio-economic duty (SED) by commencing Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010. Earlier this year we met with your cabinet colleague, Anneliese Dodds, to discuss what meaningful implementation of the duty should look like, and would like to reconfirm our offer to support you in your aim to deliver effective commencement of the SED.
The Labour Party designed the duty to alleviate inequality by placing a legal responsibility on public bodies to pay due regard to how they can reduce inequalities of outcome, caused by socio-economic disadvantage, when making strategic decisions.
We were delighted that the Labour Party committed to adopting the socio-economic duty in its manifesto under ‘breaking down barriers to opportunity’. We know that this is the fourth of your five missions to rebuild Britain.
We believe that it is paramount to include enactment of the SED in your upcoming King’s Speech as this will lay down an important marker that your government is fully committed to tackling socio-economic inequalities from day one.
We believe that, implemented effectively, the SED is an important tool for mitigating against the worst impacts of over a decade of austerity and has the potential to ensure that those already socioeconomically disadvantaged aren’t further disadvantaged by strategic decision making.
We would also like to set-up a meeting with you to discuss the SED and its implementation in further detail. We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
The 1ForEquality Campaign Group
The campaign group includes; Amnesty International UK, Compassion in Politics, Equality Trust, Equally Ours, Just Fair, Resolve Poverty, Royal College of Physicians, Shelter, and Thrive Teesside.
In 2018 the Scottish Parliament enacted the Fairer Scotland Duty, which is the name given to the socio-economic duty in Scotland, and the Welsh Senned followed in 2021. A number of local councils in the UK have adopted some of the key policies of the socio-economic duty.
* More information on the 1ForEquality campaign here.
* Source: Equality Trust