The Equality Act 2010 requires public bodies such as the LSE to consider equality in policy decision-making. The Act gives protection on the grounds of nine areas – age, disability, gender/sex, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity (including adoption and surrogacy), race, religion and/or belief, gender identify and sexual orientation – which you must test against to ensure that equality has been addressed.
Within the Act lies the Public Sector Equality Duty which consists of two parts:
1 - The general duty to ensure that all public bodies, which carry out a public function pays 'due regard' to three main aims, namely:
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Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
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Advancing equality of opportunity between people who fall within a protected group and those who do not.
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Fostering good relations between people from a protected group and those who are not.
2 - The specific duties, which require us to analyse the effect of any decision, publishing evidence of the analysis and information about how we engage with groups protected under the Act. This is what is known as Equality Analysis.