Newsletter – Spring 10

1. Newsletter – Spring 10 The Equality Bill – what’s in it for us? The Equality Bill will, for the first time in England, Scotland and Wales, introduce a duty on public bodies to promote equality on grounds of sexual orientation and extend the duty to promote equality on grounds of gender reassignment. It also extends protection from discrimination by association across all equality grounds. It builds upon the existing equality duties on gender, race and disability, to additionally cover age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and, explicitly, gender reassignment. The new duty will require higher education institutions (HEIs) such as Imperial College and other public bodies to have “due regard” to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation on the listed grounds; to advance equality of opportunity for the listed groups; and to foster good relations between groups. These are positive duties - not just a duty to eradicate discrimination but an active duty to increase equality in society. It would also apply to private bodies delivering a public function and to the procurement processes that our HEIs use. The Equality Bill is now in its final stages – it has completed its passage through the Lords and will, we hope, be concluded in the Commons before the general election is announced. A duty to promote equality for LGBT people is new and gives the College the potential to ensure our staff and student LGBT populations receive the full benefits the Bill sets out to achieve. The Equality Bill will take us a step closer to our long term aim of mainstreaming LGBT equality – that is ensure the needs and respects of LGBT workers (and students) are actively considered in planning and positive steps taken to build and embed equity.