GENDER EQUALITY SCHEME

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975, as amended by the Equality Act 2006, places a statutory duty on all public authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to:

· eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment; and

· promote equality of opportunity between men and women.

This is known as the general duty and came into effect on 6 April 2007.

General Duty

As well as having to have due regard to eliminating unlawful discrimination and harassment and to promoting equality of opportunity between men and women, the general duty includes the need to have due regard to eliminating unlawful discrimination and harassment against transsexual people in the fields of employment and vocational training (including further and higher education).

The general duty covers all public authorities, and applies to all their functions including employment, budget setting and procurement, by setting the framework within which the organisation will deliver its services. Meeting the requirements of the general duty is a statutory obligation.

Pay Equality

Our policy over recent years has been to simplify our grading and pay structures, shorten pay bands and rationalise allowances/pay supplements. We have reviewed and evaluated our pay and reward systems and can confirm that there are no Equal Pay issues to investigate - we will, however, continue to monitor and audit our policies and systems to ensure gender pay inequalities do not arise.

Click Here to view the full Gender Equality Scheme Document