Civic Participation
Equality is at the heart of this Coalition
Government. We will work with people, businesses, local
communities, public services, the voluntary sector and others to
empower them to enact change. Our aim is to drive for real,
sustainable change and transparency to build a fairer and equal
society.
We want a fair society where everybody has the
opportunity to progress as far as their talents will take them, not
one in which people’s chances are driven by where they come from,
how others see them, or who their parents are.
Our democratic structures and communities are
stronger and more effective if all voices are included and everyone
has the chance to shape and influence the decisions that affect
them.
Women, people from ethnic minorities and
disabled people are under-represented in elected office and
appointments to public boards. Please see below for details of our
work to address under-representation in public life.
We are also aware that lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender (LGB and T) people are under-represented in public
and political life. For more details of what the Government is
doing for LGB and T equality, please click here http://www.equalities.gov.uk/what_we_do/sexual_orientation.aspx
Access to Elected Office
The Government’s Equality Strategy includes a
commitment to ‘provide extra support to tackle the particular
obstacles faced by disabled people who want to become MPs,
councillors or other elected officials’.
As the
Speakers Conference established there are no official figures
for the number of disabled MPs. However, the number of MPs
with a declared disability is very low compared to the proportion
of the population as a whole.
We have worked closely with Equality 2025,
disability organisations, political parties and other partner
organisations in a spirit of co production to evidence and identify
barriers to disabled people’s participation in political life.
We will be developing a strategy to deliver this commitment
following a public
consultation, which will run from 16 February to 11 May
2011.
Please see below for other versions of the document:
Diversity of Public Appointments
There are currently around 12,000 appointments
made to the boards of UK public bodies. Government is
committed to promoting greater participation in public life and
will work with getting more people from business, communities and
the voluntary sector to achieve a fairer and more equal
society.
As of 31 March 2009
- Women held just over a third (32.6%) of public appointments,
despite making up half the population.
- Disabled people made up just 3.5% of appointees, even though
14% of the working age population has a disability. Of these,
around 37% were women.
- Ethnic minorities held less than 6.9% of posts, despite making
up nearly 11% of the population. Of these, around 38% were
women.
The Government has set itself the aspiration
that by the end of the Parliament at least half (50%) of all new
appointments being made to the boards of public bodies will be
women.
The Government’s aspiration for women on
public boards is part of its broader commitment to diversity and to
increase the numbers of people from all underrepresented groups on
our public boards. These appointments will continue to be
made on merit and the Government will step up its efforts to
attract suitably qualified people from all backgrounds to positions
on public boards. To find out more about public appointments
click
here
Diversity in Political Representation
Government Commitment
While this Parliament is the most
representative ever, with still only 144 women MPs out of a total
of 650 (22.2%) and 4 women cabinet ministers out of 23, we are
aware that we still have a long way to go in order to make the very
best use of diverse talent in political life. To achieve
this, we must continue to make progress in line with the
recommendations of the cross-party
Speakers Conference and its Final
Report.
The Government considers that our democratic
structures and communities are stronger and more effective if all
voices are included and everyone has the chance to shape and
influence the decisions that affect them.
Cross-Party Speaker’s Conference / Equality Act
2010
This Government wants to tackle the barriers
preventing under-represented groups from participating in political
life. Collecting diversity data would provide a better
insight into where effort needs to be targeted to increase
numbers.
One of the recommendations of the cross-party
Speaker’s Conference was that political parties should be required
to publish details of their candidate selections. As a result of
this recommendation, section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 makes it
possible to require registered political parties to publish
anonymised data relating to the diversity of their candidate
selections at a particular election. The Act contains a power
to make regulations which will need to be the subject of
consultation. The Government is considering how to take
forward this provision and will make an announcement in due
course.
The Equality Act 2010 will extend the use of
women-only electoral shortlists to 2030, together with a provision
allowing the use of such shortlists to be extended beyond 2030 by
an order by a Minister. The provisions will also allow for
some places to be reserved on electoral shortlists for those
potential candidates with other protected characteristics.
Political parties will also be able to take
voluntary positive action to address inequality in the
representation of people elected into political office. They will
be able to take a range of steps to encourage involvement among
under-represented groups and the creation of dedication committees
exclusively for those with a specific protected characteristic.
Repeal of section 141 of the Mental Health Act
1983
The Government intends to repeal Section 141
of the Mental Health Act 1983 whereby mentally ill MPs sectioned
for more than six months will no longer be disqualified from
Parliament. With the launch of a £400 million strategy to
improve the care for those with depression or stress through better
counselling and therapy services, this step is part of a plan to
end the stigma attached to mental illness.
Police Reform and Social Responsibility
Bill
The Government is putting in place measures to
reform policing with the proposed introduction of elected Police
and Crime Commissioners for each force area in England and Wales
(except London) in May 2012. As part of the commitment to
reduce bureaucracy and increase democratic accountability so that
the police can fight crime and focus on what matters to the
public. The Home Office and GEO are working together to
identify activities which will encourage a wide range of diverse
candidates to stand for election as police and crime commissioners.
We will engage with a diverse range of stakeholders and communities
to ensure that we raise awareness of the proposed reform and
consider their views in developing policy. It should be noted that
this work is dependent on the outcome of the new
Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill which should
complete its passage through Parliament later this year.
BAME Women Councillors Taskforce
Set up in 2008 the remit of the Taskforce was
to consider practical ways and take action to increase awareness
through outreach activities; build confidence and skills; encourage
more BAME women to step forward to become local councillors;
improve the culture of political parties; and reduce disadvantage
and stereotyping from within and outside the Black, Asian and
minority ethnic communities.
Of the 20,000 councillors only around 149 are
black, Asian or minority ethnic women, which account for 1% of
seats in England.
The taskforce work programme ended in March
2010 culminating with a graduation ceremony in the House of
Commons, hosted by Lynne Featherstone, in June 2010 for
participants on both the taskforce mentoring scheme and the
Community Leadership Course.