The law, reporting and monitoring
Public Sector Equality Duty
The Equality Act 2010 and supporting legislation set out general and specific duties that all public bodies, like us, must perform. These are known as the Public Sector Equality Duty.
The Act also protects people from discrimination, both in the workplace and in wider society, and sets out the different ways in which it is unlawful to treat someone.
The aims of this are that public bodies should:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act
- advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
- foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
Protected characteristics are qualities that could potentially lead to people being discriminated against. These characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.
Although not included in the Public Sector Equality Duty, we also regard Welsh speakers as a protected characteristic.
Reporting and monitoring
The Equality Act 2010 requires public bodies to prepare and publish one or more objectives that will help them to achieve any of the things mentioned in the three aims of the Equality Duty. The objectives have to be specific and measurable.
Our Equality Objectives
Objective one – our organisation
To create an inclusive, respectful environment where diversity is understood and valued, with a culturally competent workforce that has the skills and knowledge to recognise and challenge discrimination.
Objective two – our service users
To deliver a culturally competent, equitable service to all of those we come into contact with us.
Objective three – our communities
To actively work to improve the confidence of those communities and groups who have least confidence and trust in the police.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission oversees the Act and equality related issues in England and Wales. For more information about monitoring and reporting under the 2010 Act, please visit the Equality and Human Rights Commission website.
We assess all of our policies, processes and projects to make sure that they do not disadvantage any particular group of people.
To help with this, we carry out an equality impact assessment for all new policies, processes and projects. This assessment sets out if any particular group of people will be unfairly impacted and, if so, how we will correct this.