Equality North East conference
Newcastle racecourse
Speech by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs
Vera Baird QC MP
Thank you for that welcome. I was delighted to accept Liz’s (Liz Reay, Chief Executive of Equality North East) invitation. That was not only to spend an extra day at home in the North East, this week, but to take my second opportunity publicly to praise and support Equality North East, after speaking at the North East Equality Awards Ceremony 3 years ago.
Equality North East has been delivering the “Networking for Change” project for a year. It is funded by DCLG [Department for Communities and Local Govermment] but that runs out in March so this is a good time to take stock and look to the future. The aim was to network to identify and tackle barriers to employment facing people from minority groups and it has been extremely successful. It has set up networks covering each of the six strands and attracted a membership of more than 300 people.
In my view, the north-east is in the lead in regional engagement with equalities issues across all the strands. You should not underestimate the impact you are having. I want to pay tribute to two people who have been key in this. The first is the Kevin Rowan, head of the Regional TUC, without whose support the cause of equalities in employment would be the poorer. The second is Barbara Roche who, when she was Minister for Women and Equalities at the Cabinet Office and at ODPM, “mothered” the two reports which led to the establishment of the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights which will come on stream in October. I am pleased that both are here, today, to join me on the panel session, which follows.
As Trevor Phillips, Chair of the new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, writes in the foreword to the report “Fairness and Freedom”:
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Even in the most tolerant of societies, some things should always remain intolerable.”
“If each of us drew a list of features….which have no place in a fair free” – and I add, in the public sphere, secular – “society, most would ….include crushing disregard for the rights of older or disabled people…… others the complacency that consigns women and men to pre-ordained roles in life and the prejudice that confines some to society’s dustbin purely because of the colour of their skin.”
It is an “aspiration of the British people to live in a society that is free and fair and which provides for each individual to realise his or her potential to the fullest.”
This organisation used to be called Fairplay North East and though that sounds old fashioned now, I think that it summed up that aim.
“For good historical reasons, much of recent generations effort to make Britain fairer has been focussed on stopping individuals and institutions to discriminate against people on specific grounds – gender ethnicity and disability” and later “sexual orientation, religion and belief transgender and age and we expect the disadvantages facing other groups like carers to become significant in the years ahead.”
We have made progress, especially in the last ten years, but it is patchy.
I apply what he goes on to say as if to my own family and count that, at the earliest, it will not be my daughter or grand-daughter or great grand-daughter but my great, great, great grand-daughter who may see a House of Commons with equal numbers of men and women MPs. I add that it is at about the same time, on present trends, that there will first be equal pay for women with men.
Opening work opportunities up to disabled people is slow.
“There is far wider recognition of the diversity of identities which enrich our society, yet bullying and hate crime against lesbians and gay men and conflict arising from differences of belief and culture still stand high on the public agenda.”
His words impressed themselves on me.
Now, additionally because it is increasingly clear that a fairer more equal society will be a more productive one, providing, economically, better for us all, it is time to make the case for equality in positive terms.
Recently there have been a number of changes in equality legislation which have moved from outlawing discrimination towards promoting equality. Notable are the introduction of positive promotional equalities duties on public authorities and the creation of the new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights following the passage of the Equalities Act 2006. When I was a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights we helped to ensure that there was a human rights element to the Commission. This is close to my heart. Human rights are integral here. The human rights approach to the concept of equality is deeper and broader than freedom from discrimination. It underpins that with the concept of equal respect for the dignity of each individual, by setting minimum standards to which they are all entitled, whoever they are. Adding the human rights aspect to the Commission was an additional step towards a positive approach to equalities.
The Commission is, of course, independent of government. It will take on the role of the three existing Commissions and champion, for the first time at this high level, the cause against the other three strands of discrimination. This combined Commission will allow equality to be considered in all its complexities. When an older Hindu woman is discriminated against it should not be her responsibility to allege on what ground she has suffered. We must develop cross-strand strategies, addressing overlapping and multiple forms of discrimination. It may be that the Commission will not be organised along strands. It may structure itself functionally so that one part of it carries out major inquiries into systemic discrimination, another deals with enforcement day to day and another gives accessible advice and support to individuals. It will also have a major task of promoting awareness of equality and human rights. It is hard to change culture by using the law. A case requires the coincidence of someone being wronged, who has the stamina and, sometimes, the cash to take a case on and to win. Often such victories are specific and piecemeal and are not fully propagated and rarely become understood by the public. The Commission can drive forward more broadly, a culture of equalities.
But it is early days for the Commission and international experience suggests that if were to be established badly a unified Commission can be a step backwards. It can serve as an excuse for weakening resources, can dilute levels of expertise and create, in practice, a hierarchy of grounds.
Of course we have a hierarchy of grounds at present, in law. Some strands are subject to specific positive duties of promotion by public authorities and some strands are not. It is unlawful to discriminate in the delivery of goods and services on grounds of race but not on grounds of age. To ensure that it is unlawful so to discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation will be very contested, as recent experience has shown.
So there are still the tasks to do of ensuring that the Commission is set up well and that it has the powers it needs to ensure the equal dignity of all people against discrimination. I feel confident now that the new Equality legislation to flow from the Discrimination Law Review will be as comprehensive as possible and will come into force in time to help the Commission, which will take time to bed in, to springboard into effectiveness in the relatively short term future.
Yesterday, when Trevor Phillips launched “Fairness and Freedom”, the headlines were that - notwithstanding the biggest package of rights ever for working mothers, with maternity leave improved and maternity pay to double, new rights to flexible working, childcare provision and childcare support - the most discriminated against people in the workplace are working mothers. That was not surprising to many of us.
But the report, of course, goes far, far beyond that snap headline. It is about much more than that. Its production involved blue-sky thinking that can provide a future philosophy for the Commission. It also highlights practical steps to greater equality, including to define equality and build a consensus on equality; to measure progress – which we have been poor at doing – and to be transparent about the progress we are making and where we are not; then to target and focus action on specific and persistent equalities and, importantly for government departments like mine, to use public procurement to commission positively.
Again, I am impressed.
It is important that government departments should be in the vanguard of taking these steps. My department is committed to ensuring that there is no discrimination in employment opportunities or in how we serve the public. We must publish a gender equality strategy by April and we have race and disability strategies already, but we aim to go further and produce an overall equality strategy, as soon as we can, to promote equality, holistically.
We have a good foundation of supportive networks to help staff to achieve their potential. There is a Disability Network, the Faith Forum, Rainbow for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff, PROUD, the network for Black and Minority Ethnic staff, the Women’s Issues Network and a group to support staff who have caring responsibilities. So we have a strong foundation from which to look outward and ensure that our services are delivered fairly. Our business is the delivery of justice. We must ensure fair access to justice for all. It is something we take very seriously.
We work at it with action plans specific to each business area and geographical region. In the north east we already run a number of initiatives including an independent advisory group allowing direct contact between minority groups and all the criminal justice agencies in Durham; a magistrates court recruitment event targeted at the BME community, to encourage more black and minority ethnic people to see themselves as potential magistrates and we have multi-faith Court Chaplains. We have arranged for the Blind Society for North Tyneside to come to assess our Court buildings in Tyneside for accessibility, enabling us to make improvements where required, ensuring we can make visits to courts as easy as possible for those who are visually impaired.
So, here is a snapshot of the future, with the Commission, backed by strong legislation and a forward philosophy and government departments with integrated staff and an outward vision to match. That brings me back to you and your highly successful networks.
It is beginning to be a truism that there are many places to which the public authorities cannot reach and where we need to resource, support and empower the more independent, better-trusted and accessible Third Sector to push an agenda through to the roots of our society.
So government can do all of the things I have set out, but we will always need you. We can build opportunity for all, fair treatment for everyone and then, together and only together, we can achieve our major aspiration – Equality for All.
Thank you