Jane Hutt, Deputy Minister and Chief Whip
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
Today, I am publishing the consultation A More Equal Wales – Commencing the Socio-economic Duty. This marks a crucial step in our work to safeguard equality and human rights in Wales.
The consultation will seek the views on our proposal to commence Part 1, Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 – the socio-economic duty. It asks which public bodies should be captured by the duty and how the duty is delivered.
The purpose of the duty is to ensure specified public bodies, when making strategic decisions, such as deciding priorities and setting objectives, consider (undertake an assessment) how their decisions might help to reduce the inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage.
The responses to the consultation will inform guidance to ensure the socio-economic duty works for those public bodies to which it applies and delivers for the people of Wales.
Commencing the duty gives us an opportunity to do things differently in Wales, putting tackling inequality at the heart of strategic decision-making. This will build on the good work public bodies are already doing to tackle inequality.
The consultation aligns with our White Paper A More Equal Wales: Strengthening Social Partnership, which was launched earlier this month to strengthen our social partnership arrangements and will lead to legislation to put our social partnership approach in statute.
The consultation will close on 17 January 2020.