Public sector

The public sector equality duties imposed important and onerous burdens on public authorities. In carrying out all of their functions they had to have due regard to the statutory equality needs. The question was whether the duties had been carried out in substance by the persons responsible for the decisions in question rather than whether a document referred to as an equality impact assessment (EIA) had been produced.

Carrying out an EIA was not an invariable necessity for conformity with the public sector equality duty but nor (conversely) was evidence that an EIA had been produced, evidence that “due regard” had been given to the statutory equality needs. The substance of the analysis was the key.