The Equality Act 2006, which comes into force on the 6 April 2007, places a statutory duty upon public authorities when carrying out their public duties. Public sector authorities must have due regard of the need to

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment.
• Promote equality of opportunity between men and women and to prohibit sex discrimination in the exercise of public functions. This is known as the Gender Equality Duty (GED)

Instead of depending on individuals making complaints about sex discrimination, the duty places the legal responsibility on the authorities themselves to demonstrate that they treat men and women fairly. As a result, public sector organisations will need to carry out a review of every aspect of their employment practices and processes. For example, job adverts must be shown in places where they will be seen by both genders, training and promotion must be offered on an equal basis and dismissal procedures must not actively discriminate against either gender. In particular, public bodies are required to:

• Produce and publish an equality scheme stating their gender equality targets and how they plan to meet them. Gender equality schemes will need to be reviewed at least every three years.
• Monitor and review their progress against their targets.
• Devise, publish and regularly review an equal pay policy stating how they plan to deal with promotion, development and career segregation.
• Carry out and publish gender impact assessments of all legislation and major changes in policy and procedure and publish findings.

Private sector employers need to be aware of the knock on effect of these changes even though no duty is imposed upon them. If a private sector organisation supplies goods and services to a public body, or subcontracts local authority services, those public bodies are likely to insist on similar gender equality provisions in tender negotiations. A private sector organisation’s gender equality compliance is likely to be as important a requirement in dealings with public bodies as their capability to perform the job in question.