In its new Report, Levelling Up and equality: a new
framework for change, the House of Commons Women
and Equalities Committee continues to argue that the Government
must create a new Cabinet level Secretary of State for
Equalities and Levelling Up.
The inquiry looked at the structures and mechanisms in place to
support the Government Equalities Office in fulfilling its
responsibilities.
The Committee warns that hard-won progress on important equality
issues could fall by the wayside as long as the additional role
of Women and Equalities Minister is given to Secretaries of State
with all-encompassing, non-complementary 'day jobs'. A new
full-time Cabinet post should drive implementation of the
much-vaunted Levelling Up agenda and a new pan-equalities
strategy, backed up by annual Action Plans with tangible
objectives, focusing on issues faced by people with protected
characteristics recognised in the Equality Act 2010. Levelling Up
and well-established, long-standing equality issues should be
treated as complementary, high priority agendas, or the
Government risks regression on equal rights after decades of
progress, the Committee argues.
The Report concludes that lessons must be learned from the
unequal effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Government’s
response to the crisis, from which witnesses to the inquiry
believed the Government Equalities Office, and wider Cabinet
Office Equality Hub, was largely missing.
The Committee calls for a refreshed approach to engaging with
stakeholders on a range of sensitive and important issues,
drawing on lessons learned from Gender Recognition Act reform and
communication of the findings of the Commission of Race and
Ethnic Disparities. The Government should invite the Equality and
Human Rights Commission to lead a programme of stakeholder
engagement with an aim of better understanding varied
perspectives on the most difficult balanced rights debates.
The Report expresses the Committee’s deep disappointment with the
Government’s engagement with its scrutiny, clearly demonstrated
by the failure of Government ministers to attend oral evidence
sessions.
Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, Rt Hon , said:
“Just this week, the Minister for Women and Equalities was unable
to attend Women and Equalities questions in the chamber because
of conflicting commitments as the new Foreign Secretary. It is
obvious that the current setup of Cabinet leaves no space or time
to really address inequality in the UK. By effectively treating
the role of Women and Equalities Minister as a side-hustle, the
Government is demonstrating its lack of willingness to invest
energy in creating change. It's 2021, and high time that the role
is given the heft and resource needed to address important,
long-established equality issues.
"The Government's 'levelling up' agenda must not be at the
expense of tackling wider inequality, and the new role should
address longstanding issues such as race and sexual orientation
with the same importance it affords to geographical inequality.
The Government must recognise the inequalities laid bare by the
pandemic, and see this as a turning point to demonstrate its
willingness to tackle them."
ENDS
As part of the inquiry, YouGov conducted a public awareness
survey*, which found that:
· 93% of respondents could not name as the
current Women and Equalities Minister.
· 59% of respondents had not heard of the GEO; only 2% had both
heard of the GEO and knew a lot about its work.
· 76% of respondents had not heard of the Equality Hub; only 1%
had both heard of the Equality Hub and knew a lot about its work.
· 67% had not heard anything about the Government’s work to
address equalities issues during the pandemic.
*Representative sample of 1,750 adults across Great Britain on
19/20 May 2021
The Report's key recommendations include:
· Increased transparency regarding the staffing and funding of
the existing 'Equality Hub', which consists of the Government
Equalities Office, Race Disparity Unit, Disability Unit and,
since April 2021, the Social Mobility Commission. Despite
existing since 2019, the Hub's structure and objectives remain
unclear.
· The Government must engage effectively with Parliamentary
scrutiny. The Report calls out the then Minister for Women and
current Minister for Equality for non-attendance at Committee
evidence sessions, 'despite three months' notice and six proposed
alternative dates', which the Report finds to be 'deeply
disappointing and unacceptable'.
· The publication, by the Equality Hub, of a new
cross-departmental pan-equalities strategy by the end of the
first quarter of 2022. While the Committee welcomes the
Government's commitment to tackling socio-economic and
geographical inequalities via its Equality Data Programme, this
should be an opportunity to address the full range of factors
that drive inequality, including protected characteristics such
as race and sexual orientation.
· The Equality Hub must be held accountable by publishing annual
Action Plans which detail which specific and measurable steps it
will take to meet strategic targets.
· The Equality Hub should conduct a review of the Government’s
communications on sensitive and balanced rights issues, and
should prioritise stakeholder engagement.
· Anticipating, recognising and mitigating inequalities
exacerbated by the pandemic must be included in the Terms of
Reference for the statutory covid-19 public inquiry, and equality
issues should be fully considered at the earliest opportunity in
future emergency responses.
