17 February 2006 11:47

The Equality Act has gained royal assent, paving the way for a new ‘one-stop shop’ for advice on employers’ and individuals’ rights and duties under discrimination law.

Under the Act, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) will bring together the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission from October 2007.

The Commission for Racial Equality will join in 2009, putting expertise on equality, diversity and human rights all in one place.

The CEHR will be required to produce a regular ‘equality health check’ for the UK and to work with individuals, communities, businesses and public services to find new, more effective ways to combat discrimination.

The Act also introduces a new gender duty, which will require public bodies to take account of the different needs of men and women to ensure equality of opportunity when preparing policies or providing services.

Meg Munn, deputy minister for women and equality, said the Equality Act marked a transformation in the way modern Britain tackles discrimination.

“The CEHR will be a powerful body dedicated to fighting discrimination, prejudice and inequality and promoting fairness for everyone,” she said.

Arguments still remain over whether a single equality Act should be created to support the work of the CEHR.

The public sector is pressing for a single equality Act to bring all the present discrimination law together to ensure that all the groups covered by the CEHR have the same degree of protection from discrimination.

However, the CBI said employers would strongly oppose the creation of a single Act.

Neil Bentley, the CBI’s head of public services and diversity and a member of the CEHR taskforce, said: “Rushing towards a single equality Act could be an attempt to rush through a one-size-fits-all approach, with all rights and duties raised to the highest common denominator.”

See Hear on Saturday 28 January 2006, at 12pm on BBC 2, carries a profile of Helga Stevens. Their website says:

Helga Stevens is a woman of many talents – barrister, member of the Flemish Parliament, wife and mother. She’s also a prominent member of the European Union of the Deaf. She’s achieved a lot in her young life, but there’s more to come. In our extended profile, we find out what makes this extraordinary woman tick.

It is known that Hansard via Parliament’s website is not immediately accessible for your average citizen.

To counteract this, a group of e-democracy activitists have put together a a new website theyworkforyou.com

It allows you to search for your MP, lists debates in an accessible format including a search function, and encourages interaction via asking for contributions to their jargon dictionary, and more importantly allowing comments on their website, directly linked to debates and written answers. Each MP’s speech comes with a photo, and comments run alongside in the margin.

The site is also available in RSS.

Unfortunately, coverage does not cover the Lords or Committees; and one hopes that the website will extend to this.

Deaf access to MPs could be improved, and one would hope that such a website would provide an invaluable resource. In addition, that Deaf people start making use of the website, so that they can push Deaf political issues in the mainstream and thus have an influence on law making. Don’t just read about it on this blawg, start making use of it!

An article on the new website can be found in the Guardian.