The purpose of the Bill:

To ensure everyone has a fair chance in life.  This is important to individuals, for a strong society and a competitive economy. The Equality Bill will promote equality, fight discrimination in all its forms, including age discrimination, and introduce transparency in the workplace which is key to tackling the gender pay gap.

The Bill will promote fairness and equality of opportunity; tackle disadvantage and discrimination; and modernise and strengthen our law to make it fit for the challenges that our society faces today and in the future.

The main elements of the Bill are:

• Banning age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities or services and public functions. Things that benefit older people, such as free bus passes, will still be allowed.
  
• Increasing transparency in the workplace. If inequality remains hidden, we can’t measure it and make progress;
  
• Making Britain fairer through a single equality duty, which will require public bodies to consider the diverse needs and requirements of their workforce, and the communities they serve, when developing employment policies and when planning services;
  
• Extending positive action measures to allow employers to make their organisation or business more representative;
  
• Allowing political parties to use all-women shortlists beyond 2015;
  
• Reducing nine major pieces of legislation, and around 100 statutory instruments into a single Act, making the law more accessible and easier to understand, so that everyone can be clear on their rights and responsibilities.

The Government consulted on these and related proposals in 2007 and published its response in July 2008.  Further consultation on specific issues to be dealt with in regulations is planned.

• The Bill is part of a package of Government measures to improve equality, including:
  
• For the first time, a Government target to close the gender pay gap, included in the Equality public service agreement;
  
• Improved data collection on equality, providing a better evidence base to support future progress;
  
• Ensuring the public sector has due regard to equality when buying goods and services.  Every year £175 billion is spent by the public sector on goods and services supplied by the private sector. This purchasing power can be put to good use to improve equality.
  
• Providing additional funding to support the work being done by trade union equality representatives who help to create a more equal workforce.
  
• Advice and guidance from ACAS, and information on the Business Link website to help employers understand what equality means for their workforce, and to improve working life for everyone.
  
• Work by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which provides advice and guidance on equality issues.
  
• Equality and Human Rights Commission inquiries into the financial and construction sectors. The inquiries will look at the underlying causes of inequalities and consider measures to address discrimination and increase diversity in these sectors. The Commission will make recommendations based on examples of best practice.
  
• Helping to increase the number of ethnic minority women councillors. There are only 149 ethnic minority women councillors in the UK. Better representation will ensure that the voice of ethnic minority women is heard, and local councils better reflect the communities they serve. We have set up a cross-party Taskforce chaired by Baroness Uddin to take this work forward.
  
• Considering how Parliament could be more representative of society as a whole. A Speaker’s Conference has been set up to consider and make recommendations on how to improve the representation of women, disabled people and people from ethnic minority communities in the House of Commons.
  
• Taking steps to understand other forms of inequality, and the role they play in determining people’s chances in life. Factors like family background, educational attainment, where you live, and the sort of job you have can influence your chances in life as well as things like gender, ethnic background, and whether or not you have a disability. We set up the National Equality Panel in 2008, chaired by Professor John Hills of the London School of Economics, to analyse these factors as well as the links between them. By better understanding these links we will be more able to tackle the problems where they exist. The Panel will report in 2009.