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Category: Equality

The House of Commons logo.

Women and Equalities Committee inquiry: Sexual harassment in the workplace

15 February 2018

‘More than 40% of women and more than 18% of men have experienced some form of unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace’, says the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC). 

WEC have launched a full  February 2018 inquiry on sexual harassment in the workplace and they are inviting submissions of written evidence.

This inquiry will sit alongside their related inquiry on the Sexual harassment of women and girls in public places.

WEC are inviting written evidence specifically on:

How widespread sexual harassment in the workplace is, and whether this has increased or decreased over time
Who experiences sexual harassment in the workplace, who perpetrates it and what the impact is on different groups
Actions that the Government and employers should be taking to change workplace culture to prevent sexual harassment, give people more confidence to report sexual harassment, and make this issue a higher priority for employers
How workers can be better protected from sexual harassment by clients, customers and other third parties
The effectiveness and accessibility of tribunals and other legal means of redress and what can be done to improve those processes
the advantages and disadvantages of using non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases, including how inappropriate use of such agreements might be tackled.
Find out more on the WEC website.

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The House of Commons logo.

House of Commons Library briefing paper: Rough sleeping (England)

15 February 2018

‘Relationship breakdown is the largest single trigger of rough sleeping, leading to 42% of male rough sleeping’.

This is according to the February 2018 briefing paper (pdf) from the House of Commons Library. This paper provides background information on the problem of rough sleeping in England, and outlines Government policy on this issue.

The paper finds:

The most recent statistics published on 25 January 2018 recorded a 169% increase in the number of people sleeping rough in England since 2010
Among women, 35% slept rough after leaving home to escape domestic violence
Rough sleeping is at its most severe in London.
Read the full report (pdf).

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The House of Commons logo.

Women and Equalities Committee inquiry: Women in Executive Management

15 February 2018

‘There is significant under-representation of women in executive levels’, says the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC).  

As a result, WEC  have launched a follow-up 2017 inquiry into women in executive management.

The committee will build on its recent work on this issue with a one-off evidence session looking at:

How the situation for women in senior roles has changed since the Committee last took evidence
The barriers to women achieving senior positions
The measures being taken by organisations to improve the situation
Effectiveness of Government action to date and what further Government action is needed.
Find out more on the WEC website.

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Human Rights logo

Human Rights Watch report: World Report 2018

13 February 2018

Despite allegations of serious abuse in immigration detention centers, the UK
persisted in not imposing a maximum time limit for immigration detention, and
continued to detain asylum-seeking and migrant children.

This is from the January 2018 report (pdf) from the Human Rights Watch (HRW). World Report 2018 is their 28th annual review of human rights
practices around the globe.

The report summarises key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events from late 2016 through November 2017. 

The report finds: 

Germany over the past year made headlines when the Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to enter its parliament in decades
Despite a strong tradition of protecting civil and political rights, Australia has serious unresolved human rights problems. Australia continued in 2017 to hold asylum seekers who arrived by boat on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and on the island nation of Nauru, where conditions are abysmal
Bahrain’s human rights situation continued to worsen in 2017. Authorities shut down the country’s only independent newspaper and the leading secular-left opposition political society. 
In Bangladesh, civil society groups faced pressure from both state and non-state actors, including death threats and attacks from extremist groups.

Read the full report (pdf).

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McKinsey and Company logo

McKinsey and Company report: Delivering through Diversity

13 February 2018

‘Black women potentially suffer a double burden of bias that keeps them from the uppermost levels of corporate leadership’.

This is according to a January 2018 report (pdf) from McKinsey and Company. This report tackles the business case and provides a perspective on how to take action on inclusion and diversity to impact growth and business performance.

This work sheds light on how companies can use diversity as an enabler of business impact.

It also articulates a clear opportunity for companies to promote inclusion and diversity in senior decision-making roles, and specifically in line roles on executive teams.

The report finds:

The statistically significant correlation between a more diverse leadership team and financial outperformance demonstrated three years ago continues to hold true on an updated, enlarged, and global data set
Companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21% more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation
Companies in the top-quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability
Overall, companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/ cultural diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability than were all other companies in McKinsey and Company’s data set.
Read the full report (pdf).

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The EHRC logo.

Equality and Human Rights Commission report: Fair Opportunities for all – a Strategy to Reduce Pay Gaps in Britain

8 February 2018

What needs to change? The over-representation of women, most ethnic minority groups and disabled people in low-paid, elementary occupations.

This is according to the January 2018 report (pdf) from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. This paper sets out what needs to change and who needs to take action to reduce gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps.

The report finds:

Some elements of pay gaps result from the choices people make about balancing work with other aspects of their lives, though these choices may be dictated or constrained by stereotypes about the roles people, particularly women, are expected to play in society
Part-time work is predominantly low-paid work and therefore the choice to work flexibly inevitably leads to lower pay
The Welsh Government has set clear equality objectives to identify and reduce the causes of employment, skills and pay inequalities
In April 2017, the UK Government introduced gender pay gap reporting for private companies across Great Britain and for public bodies in England
The Scottish and Welsh Governments already required pay gap reporting by public bodies.
Read the full report (pdf).

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house of lords

House of Lord Select Constitution Committee report: European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

31 January 2018

‘We acknowledge the unprecedented nature of the task of converting existing EU law into UK law. But as it stands this Bill is constitutionally unacceptable’, says Baroness Taylor of Bolton on the Lords Constitution Committee’s report (pdf), in January 2018.

Ahead of the second reading of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill in the Upper House, the Select Committee on the Constitution have published a calling on the Government to amend the Bill.

The report finds:

The Bill is not clear exactly what retained EU law will contain; it potentially
captures laws that do not need to be saved and creates duplicate copies of
laws that have already been transposed into domestic law
The Bill fails to give sufficient clarity and guidance to the courts as to how to go about the task of interpreting retained EU law after the UK leaves the European Union
The Bill also seeks, unsuccessfully and erroneously, to perpetuate the
“supremacy” of EU law post-Brexit.
Read the full report (pdf).

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