About this response
The nature of the consultation survey questionnaire for the draft Strategic Plan means that the opportunity to provide meaningful comments on the EHRC’s proposed approach is limited. Given Equally Ours’ unique position representing equality and human rights civil society organisations across the UK, we are submitting this fuller consultation response, building on our response to the survey to set out our views in more detail.
2. Who we are
2.1 Equally Ours is the only UK-wide pan-equality and human rights network on the UK. Our members include Age UK, Mind, the Runnymede Trust, Stonewall, the TUC, Child Poverty Action Group, GIRES, the Traveller Movement, the Fawcett Society, Law Centres Network and Disability Rights UK. We use this unique position and the strength of our shared voice and evidence base to protect and advance people’s equality and human rights in law and practice.
2.2 Our vision is a just and compassionate society, where we are free from harm and can all contribute and flourish, whoever we are, whatever we believe in and whatever we do and don’t have. A society that is equally ours.
2.3 Our mission is to advance people’s equality and human rights in the UK. We do this by:
- connecting people and organisations, and
- using our collective evidence, expertise, strength and influence to create change.
2.4 Our ten-year strategy (2022-2032), Together for social justice, sets out our bold agenda to increase equality and strengthen rights at scale. Our three big issues are law, climate and investment:
- Protecting and improving the law on equality and human rights
- Embedding climate justice into local and national strategies and policy on climate adaptation
- Increasing investment in solutions to the root causes of inequality and rights abuse.
- Further information about our work is available at www.equallyours.org.uk
3. Our relationship with the EHRC
3.1 Since its establishment we have had strong links with the EHRC, strategically through regular meetings between Chairs and Chief Executives and operationally through cooperation on various initiatives, although the frequency of senior-level meetings and of cooperation has reduced in recent years. The EHRC has Observer status at our member policy forum, and attends to provide updates on EHRC activity and to engage in dialogue with civil society on specific projects.
3.2 We believe there is an important opportunity to refresh the relationship we have with the EHRC, based on mutual understanding of, and respect for, our respective roles. We look forward to strengthening our constructive, solutions-focused relationship with the EHRC, being a critical friend when needed, as it takes forward its new Strategic Plan.
4. The EHRC’s role and regulatory model
4.1 The draft Strategic Plan sets out the EHRC’s Vision and Purpose. In our view, the way the organisation’s purpose is articulated – “To safeguard and promote our equality and human rights protections so that everyone gets a fair chance in life” – does not clearly reflect the EHRC’s statutory general duty, in that it can be read as focussing on protecting and raising awareness of the existing framework of legal protections, rather than advocating for advances in protections that would result in a fairer, more equal and rights-respecting society. The EHRC’s equality and diversity and human rights duties both include specific requirements to promote understanding of the importance of those concepts – in our view these important obligations are not sufficiently reflected in the way the EHRC currently describes or delivers its role. These limitations feed through into the way the EHRC appears to understand its role as a regulator, and risk constraining the impact it can have through its proposed strategic approach. While we generally support the approach set out in the EHRC’s regulatory model, we are concerned that the specific proposals in the draft Strategic Plan place insufficient emphasis on the EHRC’s important role influencing standard setting by advocating for stronger legal protections – in particular of rights under UN human rights treaties – and helping to shape standards and policy approaches to improve practice.
4.2 The survey questionnaire asks respondents to rank certain functions of the EHRC – such as providing data and evidence, advising governments and others, providing information and guidance, and enforcement activity – for their current and future effectiveness. We do not consider these questions to be helpful. All the functions listed are core statutory duties of the EHRC, are reflected in its regulatory model, and must be performed in a co-ordinated way if the EHRC is to fulfil its remit. The appropriate emphasis on any part of the regulatory model will depend on the specific issue being addressed, the context and the outcome being sought, but as a general rule we consider that the EHRC will have most impact by building duty bearers’ and public understanding of rights and their value, influencing a strong framework of laws and standards governing behaviour, enabling duty bearers to comply with their obligations well, and ensuring there are accessible mechanisms to secure justice and redress. The EHRC is uniquely-placed to bring together data and evidence to highlight equality and human rights issues, in particular through intersectional analysis, and to use this to assess whether and where progress is being made. Its enforcement powers also have an important role to play, but must be used strategically on the right cases – those that will have strategic impact through clarifying the law and strengthening the law’s effectiveness and impact. This can send a broader message that organisations that fail to comply with equality and human rights law will be held to account. In our view, high-volume non-strategic enforcement is not the most effective or efficient mechanism for driving systemic change.
4.3 We therefore recommend that the EHRC:
- Focusses its efforts and resources on influencing standard setting through laws and regulatory frameworks, on ensuring compliance with standards (including by placing an increased focus on ensuring duty bearers know their duties and how to fulfil them effectively, and on public information and education about the nature and value of equality and human rights), and by advocating for affordable and accessible mechanisms for victims of rights breaches to secure justice and redress.
- Evaluates the impact of, and resources expended on, different types of intervention in order to inform how it should focus its efforts in future.
5. A more open and collaborative EHRC
5.1 The EHRC’s broad mandate and limited resources necessitate it working with and through others to identify its priorities and achieve impact. We would like to see a strong commitment from the EHRC to take a more external-facing and collaborative approach during its next Strategic Plan period, by increasing dialogue and developing relationships with communities experiencing disadvantage and rights breaches and the organisations that represent and advocate for them. The experience of Equally Ours and our members is that such engagement has decreased over recent years. We and our member organisations have a wealth of expertise to contribute and would welcome deeper and more regular engagement with the EHRC to explore how we can inform and contribute to its work, and how it can support civil society to play our own role in driving improvements in law, policy and practice.
5.2 In addition, we would welcome more clarity and consistency in the EHRC’s approach to commissioning and funding civil society-led interventions, partnership working and co-production, and supporting civil society input into influencing opportunities such government consultations and shadow reports to UN treaty bodies.
5.3 We would also like to see a clear articulation of how the EHRC plans to engage and work with legislatures, central and local government, professional and sector bodies, sector regulators, business and trade unions to inform and extend the reach of its work.
5.4 We therefore recommend that:
- The EHRC consults on and publishes a new approach to how it will engage and work with other organisations to enable it to deliver its mandate effectively. This should include specific actions designed to rebuild relationships with organisations of and representing people sharing different protected characteristics.
6. The political and national context
6.1 We recognise that the draft Strategic Plan was published for consultation very shortly after the July general election. However, in our view it fails to acknowledge the challenges and opportunities to making progress on equality and human rights presented by the new government’s agenda. Nor does it explicitly recognise or respond to a number of major developments with significant equality and human rights implications, such as the Covid 19 pandemic, the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Windrush scandal, the cost-of-living crisis and the unequal impact of climate change. It is also important to acknowledge the riots that played out in a number of areas over the summer, which pointed to concerning levels of division, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia.
6.2 The new government has made commitments to strengthen the economy, invest in homes and clean energy, create opportunities for education, skills, apprenticeships and jobs, improve the nation’s health and reduce crime. We would expect to see the EHRC setting out a strategic approach to influencing how the government delivers against these commitments in ways which break down barriers to opportunity and reduce existing inequalities. Only by dismantling systemic disadvantage and structural inequalities can we achieve a society that is more cohesive and resilient to future challenges and emergencies. The EHRC’s role is vital, not only to driving progress towards a more equal and therefore resilient society and economy, but also to ensuring that the equality and human rights principles guide the national response to future emergencies.
6.3 We therefore recommend that the EHRC’s new Strategic Plan should include plans to provide independent, impartial and authoritative advice on:
- how the government delivers against its commitments in ways which break down barriers to opportunity and reduce existing inequalities (see further sections 9 and 10 below)
- how to develop emergency responses using the equality and human rights framework, specifically:
- how inequality and exposure to human rights breaches interact with other factors to create and/or exacerbate the risk of severe impacts during an emergency
- the human rights most at risk during emergencies and how to balance them
- the people and communities most likely to be impacted in an emergency and measures to address the underlying inequalities that cause this.
7. Equality impact assessment
7.1 We are concerned that no analysis of the potential impact of the draft Strategic Plan on different protected characteristic groups has been published. Given ongoing concerns expressed by some groups, in particular disabled people, some ethnic minority groups and trans people, that the EHRC does not adequately recognise and address the equality and human rights challenges they face, it is important that the issues that matter to these communities are visible in its Strategic Plan. This is vital if the EHRC is to rebuild trust and confidence among all those whose rights it exists to protect and promote.
7.2 The EHRC’s remit covers nine protected characteristics and human rights for everyone, across all areas of life. It therefore has a unique role to play in taking a cross-cutting and intersectional approach to analysing and addressing the complex and cumulative nature of discrimination and disadvantage experienced by different groups sharing one or more protected characteristics. It must also recognise the relationship between protected characteristics and socio-economic status and disadvantage if its approach is to reflect the reality of people’s experiences and be effective.
7.3 We recommend that the EHRC:
- Sets out in its new Strategic Plan how it will recognise and respond to intersectional and cross-cutting issues, recognising both the commonalities of experience and specific needs and experiences of discrimination
- Publishes an equality impact assessment setting out how its Strategic Plan will address the challenges faced by people sharing different protected characteristics.
8. Pillar 1: Guardian of equality and human rights protections
8.1 We welcome the proposed focus of Pillar 1 in the draft Strategic Plan on EHRC’s core role as the guardian of equality and human rights protections. However, as we have stated above, its regulatory role extends beyond that of a traditional regulator – as well as upholding the existing legal framework, it must also promote the importance and value of equality and human rights, and advocate for stronger protections to achieve a more equal and rights-respecting society.
8.2 Over recent years our strong legal framework protecting equality and human rights has been under threat. Some provisions of the Equality Act 2010 remain unimplemented, and others have been repealed. There is an ongoing campaign by some groups to amend the definition of “sex” in the Equality Act, which would remove some trans people’s protection from sex discrimination in their legally recognised gender. Brexit resulted in the loss of some protections under the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, and calls to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and leave the European Convention on Human Rights persist in some political quarters. Human rights protections have been eroded piecemeal by, for example, legislation aimed at controlling immigration and limiting public protest.
8.3 The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) are important legislative drivers for ensuring public bodies work to deliver equality and human rights improvements, and are important regulatory levers for the EHRC to help it deliver impact. However, neither have yet met their potential. The PSED is often implemented poorly, with the specific duties in England particularly weak in supporting good compliance, and the aspiration for the HRA to lead to better public services has not been fully realised. As part of its duties to encourage compliance and good practice, the EHRC is well-placed to develop and deliver initiatives to improve awareness and understanding across the public sector, so that those developing and delivering public services do so with these key legal obligations in mind.
8.4 We would like to see specific commitments in the EHRC’s new Strategic Plan to:
- Proactively raise public knowledge and awareness of the nature, importance and value of equality and human rights and support a public dialogue on how they can be fully realised, recognising that equality and human rights are at the heart of how we treat one another and live our lives.
- Advise governments on effective models for incorporating additional rights under UN human rights treaties – such as children’s rights, disabled people’s rights and economic, social and cultural rights – into domestic law, public services and policies.
- Advocate for full implementation of the Equality Act 2010, including commencement of Part 1 (the socio-economic duty) in England as soon as possible.
- Develop and deliver a programme of work to improve access to justice for equality and human rights breaches, including through the provision of affordable and accessible high-quality legal advice, support and representation.
- Advise governments on stronger and more effective specific duties under the PSED, to drive action across the public sector to tackle discrimination and disadvantage and to make this important regulatory tool easier for the EHRC to enforce effectively.
- Work with central and local government and public services to improve the knowledge of staff across the public sector about their equality and human rights obligations.
9. Pillar 2: In-depth impact
9.1 The relationship between the evidence of key inequalities in the Equality and Human Rights Monitor and the proposed priority areas under Pillar 2 of the draft Strategic Plan is not clearly articulated – the rationale for the proposed themes and priorities under Pillar 2 requires more explanation. In our view the EHRC should focus on dismantling the systemic barriers impacting on people’s life chances, capitalising on opportunities to influence the new government’s approach to strengthening the economy and public services.
9.2 As well as barriers to, and inequalities in, economic engagement, we would like to see a greater focus on reducing systemic barriers and structural inequalities in key areas of life that prevent people fulfilling their potential – in education, employment, health and social care, housing, transport and access to justice. We consider that the EHRC can have most impact in these areas by setting equality and human rights standards and catalysing others to act, alongside performing its role as the guardian of equality and human rights protections as we have set out above.
9.3 In this context, we are deeply uncomfortable with the consultation survey questions asking consultees to rank issues affecting different groups on which the EHRC should seek to achieve in-depth impact under the proposed three Pillars over the next three years. This does not give us confidence that the EHRC’s proposed approach is strategic in terms of recognising and responding to the greatest barriers to achieving a fairer, more equal and rights-respecting society for everyone. The criteria for prioritisation set out in the draft Strategic Plan – to focus on areas where it has the sole responsibility to regulate, and where it has opportunities to create positive change – are not, in our view, sufficient to enable the EHRC to operate strategically and have the greatest impact against its statutory remit. The form of the consultation survey risks pitching the needs, experiences of interests of some groups against those of others. Clear criteria for prioritisation, based on a coherent long-term strategy for achieving progress, are needed.
9.4 We therefore recommend that the EHRC
- Sets out the criteria it will use to ensure strategic prioritisation of its work.
10. Theme 1: Work
10.1 We welcome the EHRC’s proposed continued focus on addressing workplace inequalities, given persistent disparities between different groups in access to and treatment at work and pay, and the risk of new developments in technology and working arrangements impacting differently on different groups. While all the proposed priority areas listed under this theme merit attention, we are concerned that the proposals do not amount to a strategic approach that will result in sustained improvements in the systemic and structural inequalities that exist, which we have seen play out in the Covid 19 pandemic and the use of AI in workplace practices to the particular detriment of some groups.
10.2 We believe that the new government’s commitments to create skills, apprenticeships and jobs offers a strategic opportunity for the EHRC to influence how government takes forward these commitments in ways which reduce existing inequalities and open up opportunity for groups currently experiencing disadvantage in the labour market. The EHRC should make the economic case for public investment to be directed towards groups with the greatest employment and pay gaps, and in “soft infrastructure” such as childcare and social care provision that enables economic participation, and for the use of existing levers such as the PSED and social value in public procurement to be strengthened and used consistently to drive improved equality outcomes.
10.3 We therefore recommend that the EHRC’s efforts in this area should focus on:
- Taking strategic opportunities to influence government action to create a strong and resilient economy, in order to reduce structural inequalities experienced by different groups in the labour market, ensuring that equality and human rights outcomes are embedded into the design and evaluation of public investment.
- Ensuring employers and employees are aware of their responsibilities and rights and have access to justice and redress mechanisms.
- Highlighting and working with others to address structural inequalities and systemic barriers facing different groups at work such as pay gaps, occupational segregation and lack of appropriate support for disabled workers, taking a “whole system” approach which considers the role of social attitudes and public policy in the barriers that exist, as well as the role of employers.
11. Theme 2: Participation and Good relations
11.1 We agree that work to enable participation and foster good relations between groups should form part of the EHRC’s strategic approach. However, we believe that these should be treated as separate themes – they each require specific focus on the particular equality and human rights issues that need to be addressed.
11.2 We believe that the participation theme should focus on systemic barriers to economic, social and civic participation – in particular in the enablers of participation such as education and skills, housing, health, social care and transport. This should include consideration of the barriers and opportunities presented by the increasing digitisation of key public and private services and how this can impact differently on different groups. Given the range of sectors and services involved in enabling equal participation, we believe that the EHRC can have greatest impact by working with sector partners to develop sector-specific equality and human rights frameworks that can be used to build capability within services to understand and respond to different user needs and ensure services respect human rights. This work must also recognise and promote the importance of participation in decision-making by those affected; consulting, involving and working with groups often marginalised from the decision-making process – such as children and young people, disabled people and people from Black and racialised minority communities – improves the quality and effectiveness of systems and services.
11.3 We agree that fostering good relations should be a priority for the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s strategy over the next three years. The racism-fuelled riots we saw over the summer provided a sharp reminder of the harm caused to our communities by prejudice and divisive political and public discourse. However, this priority must be approached with great care. Some of our members have lost confidence in the EHRC’s ability to take an approach on “culture war” issues that is impartial, balanced and grounded in equality and human rights principles. In this area it will be particularly important for the EHRC to work openly and transparently with relevant organisations and communities in order to build and maintain trust in its work.
11.4 The EHRC has an important role to play in demonstrating how equality and human rights can guide balanced approaches to contentious issues, in explaining the impact of inequality in inflaming tensions between groups, and in highlighting how increased knowledge and understanding of different groups can support social cohesion. We urge the EHRC to adopt a carefully considered approach, that brings groups and communities together and deepens understanding of one another and our shared humanity, and identifies solutions to shared problems.
11.5 We recommend that EHRC’s work to foster good relations should focus on
- School and public education about equality and human rights and their value, promoting social contact between groups and promoting informed and respectful public discourse on contentious issues.
12. Theme 3: Justice and Balance of rights
12.1 We agree that work to drive action to address systemic disparities and breaches of rights in the criminal justice system should form part of the EHRC’s strategic approach. Should the EHRC decide to prioritise work on race disproportionality in the criminal justice system, our view is that this must include the disproportionate use of force as well as stop and search. We also believe that any work on the welfare and safety of girls in detention should be taken forward as part of broader work on human rights violations experienced by children in detention, rather than considered solely alongside issues facing women.
12.2 However, given the range of other actors in this area, and government commitments to reduce violent crime (including violence against women and girls) and increase confidence in the police and criminal justice, we believe that the EHRC should consider carefully how it can utilise its powers most effectively on these issues.
12.3 We therefore recommend that the EHRC’s work on justice should focus predominantly on:
- Access to justice and redress for equality and human rights breaches, as this is an important aspect of the EHRC’s core role as the guardian of equality and human rights protections. This should include work to ensure the availability of high-quality advice and affordable and accessible dispute resolution and redress mechanisms.
12.4 We believe that EHRC’s important role in using equality and human rights principles to guide approaches to the balancing of competing rights would be more appropriately addressed as part of its work to foster good relations, as set out above.
If you have any questions about this submission, please contact:
Ali Harris, CEO at Equally Ours
Submitted by Equally Ours on behalf of our members:
Signed:
Equally Ours Members:
Age UK
British Institute of Human Rights
Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE)/Just for Kids Law
Disability Rights UK
Discrimination Law Association
End Violence Against Women Coalition
Equality Trust
Fair Play South West
Fawcett Society
Friends, Families and Travellers
Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES)
Humanists UK
Law Centres Network
Maternity Action
Mind
National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO)
Race on the Agenda (ROTA)
Royal National Institute for Deaf People
Royal National Institute of Blind People
Runnymede Trust
Security Women
SignHealth
Stonewall
Trades Union Congress (TUC)
Traveller Movement
UNISON
Women’s Budget Group
Women’s Resource Centre
Associate Members:
Inclusion North