DRC: Green Paper on Single Equalities Act ‘fails to measure up’

The Green Paper on the future framework for single equalities legislation fails to remedy deficiencies in existing anti-discrimination law, the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) says today.

And proposals for unifying equality legislation fail to strengthen legal penalties for businesses and employers who do not take discrimination seriously.

With less than four months to go before the existing equality commissions covering race, gender and disability merge to form the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), the DRC also says the new body would be stymied at birth without an effective streamlining of existing legislation into a credible framework.

Responding to the Green Paper today, DRC Chief Executive Bob Niven said:

“The Green Paper fails to measure up – either to the remit it was set or the reality of continued inequality and discrimination in Britain today.

“With serial non-compliance by many businesses and employers with major planks of existing legislation there is an acute need for stronger legal enforcement when the law is not being observed. We also want more direction from the courts to create good practice.

“Watering down new duties on the public sector to tackle endemic inequality is hardly a step forward - for people facing disability, gender or racial discrimination.”

Though wide-ranging, the DRC’s criticism of the green paper rests on:

• the failure to consider new ways of enforcing anti-discrimination law to deal with the extensive failure of businesses to comply with the law;

• the failure of the Green Paper to simplify the legal process to make it easier for people discriminated against to have their claims heard. Likewise for effective legal measures against persistent discrimination;

• the threatened dilution of recently enacted duties on public sector bodies to promote disability, race and gender equality;

• the continued exclusion of ships and planes from equal access legislation, with the result that disabled people will continue to receive unfair treatment.


The factors underlining the DRC’s criticism of the Green Paper's deficiencies are:

• legal duties on service providers to ensure fair treatment to disabled people are not being met. For example, recent research found that half of all disabled customers were unhappy with services provided by the hospitality sector;

• few goods and services discrimination claims have been brought to court – only 10 individuals a year have taken cases not supported by the DRC. This compares to thousands of legal cases about employment. Research shows that the major reason for fewer cases is because of the expense and complexity of the court process;

• the removal of the requirement for public bodies to produce a written equality scheme would have serious repercussions on the CEHR’s ability to show that a public body had failed to meet its duties and thereby weaken the enforcement of equality laws in the public sector;

• the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 exemption of ships and planes from its provisions leaves a major gap in legislation. 30% of all transport-related calls to the DRC Helpline involve air services. Despite the introduction of new rights under an EU regulation, the DRC believes the DDA needs amending to give full protection to disabled passengers.

ENDS
Note to Editors
The DRC is an independent statutory body responsible for tackling disability discrimination. We aim to bring about equality of opportunity and increased participation for the 10 million people in Britain who have rights under the Disability Discrimination Act.