Background

The concept of a national equality standard which business could use to demonstrate their equality credentials has been a matter of consideration for some time. Government committed in Framework for a Fairer Future  to working with business, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and others to explore the feasibility of developing an equality scheme for employers who are transparent about reporting their progress on equality.

This feasibility study was completed during 2009. The first stage of the feasibility was a mapping exercise undertaken by Judith James at the University of Swansea. She mapped all known equality related standards and products in Towards Measures of Equality .

A second stage of the feasibility was to assess whether an existing product that was regionally based could be used as a template for a new national product. The research that assessed the pros and cons of this approach was undertaken by Equality North East on behalf of GEO and we are pleased to publish it here. We decided that it was not feasible to recommend any one existing product without unintended consequences of distorting the existing market.

During this period GEO also looked at the current position of equality data collection and publication by the private sector. We think that improving transparency improves knowledge and the recognition of issues and therefore the ability to do something about them. The report by IFF, Private Company Reporting of Workforce Diversity Data indicated that only 8% of large companies (over 250 employees) publish workforce data and what is published is often very basic.

The findings from the two pieces of research were fed into the final stage of the feasibility assessment. EHRC and GEO arranged a series of roundtable discussions (19th and 24th November 2009) with businesses and business organisations, procurement professionals and current equality scheme providers. The results of those round tables can be seen here:

• Thursday 19 November – equality scheme providers
• Tuesday 24 November (am) – business and business representatives
• Tuesday 24 November (pm) – procurement officials

We also asked about a possible standard in the Equality Bill specific duties consultation document. This delivered a wide variety of opinions, but no clear consensus, on the concept and on the potential formal link to the public procurement process. See our full response to the specific duties consultation here: Equality Bill: Making it work Policy proposals for specific duties. Policy Statement .