Con-Dems 'playing games' over gender assessment

Louise Nousratpour
Monday August 23, 2010
Morning Star

The Fawcett Society has accused the government of "playing games" over delays to its demand for a gender assessment on the Budget.

Filing legal papers at the High Court on Monday, the Treasury argued that it could not respond to the request until September 20 due to staff being on holiday.

The original date agreed was August 31.

Anna Bird of the Fawcett Society said the Treasury's argument "smacks of game playing."

She added: "It is fairly cut and dry - either they have done an equality assessment or they haven't."

Under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Gender Equality Duty, the government must carry out a gender impact assessment on its policies to ensure they are not discriminatory.

The society believes that the emergency Budget cuts are having a disproportionate impact on women and therefore breach equality laws.

Earlier this month, the group filed papers with the High Court seeking a judicial review of the Budget after its request for a copy of the gender impact assessment was ignored by the Treasury.

Ms Bird warned yesterday that the Treasury's "delaying tactics will have serious consequences" for equality and women in particular.

"The Budget decisions are being implemented right here, right now. The longer the measures are in place, the harder they become to repeal," she said.

Even a top-line assessment of Budget measures shows that 72 per cent of cuts will be met from women's income as opposed to 28 per cent from men's, the society calculated.

And women will be worst affected by the cuts to public services as they make up 65 per cent of public-sector workers.

Representing the Fawcett Society, Samantha Mangwana of Russell Jones & Walker solicitors warned of the "widespread ignorance" among ministers and local authorities about equality laws and how to implement them.

"The case law is crystal clear," she said earlier this month when she filed the High Court papers on behalf of the group.

"Firstly, an equality impact assessment must be conducted before policy decisions are taken. Secondly, where an assessment reveals a risk of discrimination, urgent action must be taken to address those risks."

Minority groups challenge cuts' racial bias

Louise Nousratpour, Equalities Reporter
Thursday Augus 5, 2010
The Morning Star

A coalition of black and ethnic minority groups is to launch legal action against the government's "potentially illegal" spending cuts.

Cuts and job losses in the public sector could result in these communities facing unfair losses of essential front-line services in both the state and voluntary sectors, campaigners warned on Wednesday.

The cuts were also likely to lead to "unfair and huge redundancies and sackings" of black and ethnic minority public workers, they said.

The coalition, including Operation Black Vote (OBV) and the 1990 Trust, has written to ministers reminding them of their legal duty to complete a full race equality impact assessment on the looming budget reduction.

At the same time, it said it was seeking "advice and support" from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in launching legal action against any breaches of the Equalities Act 2010.

It emerged on Wednesday that Home Secretary Theresa May had written to her Cabinet colleagues back in June outlining the legal requirement to evaluate and consult black and ethnic minority communities before wielding the axe.

1990 Trust chairman David Weaver said that ministers had failed to heed clear warnings that they would not only be breaking the law but also run the risk of worsening race inequality.

"We see no alternative but to initiate a judicial review," he said.

Mr Weaver stressed that this would not only be a test of government credentials around equality but also the solidarity of BME communities to effectively work together to demand justice and hold Westminster to account.

The women's campaigning group Fawcett Society has already filed papers with the High Court seeking a judicial review of the cuts.
louise@peoples-press.com

Coalition scraps law for domestic abuse victims

Louise Nousratpour
Wednesday August 4, 2010
The Morning Star

A scheme to help people escape domestic abuse by banning violent partners from the family home is to be abandoned by Equalities Minister Theresa May due to government cuts.

Under the previous Labour government's "go orders," police would have been given power to remove violent partners from their homes for up to two weeks.

The domestic violence protection orders, which passed into law in April, would have given victims the chance to seek help and break the cycle of violence.

The scheme was to encourage police to take a pro-active approach to domestic violence and was aimed at improving conviction rates.

Almost 750,000 incidents are reported to the police every year, yet fewer than a third of them result in criminal charges.

But according to reports on Wednesday, Ms May wants to scrap the orders, which were to be rolled out across England and Wales next year.

The Home Secretary insisted that she had made the decision following pressure from the government to slash £2.5 billion from the Home Office's annual budget.

Wednesday's revelations followed a leaked letter from Ms May to George Osborne on Tuesday, in which the Equalities Minister warned the Chancellor that his spending cuts could be in breach of equality laws.

Ms May wrote "there is a real risk of successful legal challenge" by ethnic minorities groups, women, the disabled and elderly people.

Anna Bird of Fawcett Society, which has already filed a legal challenge, said the letter revealed that ministers were aware of legal requirements to assess the impact of spending cuts on different groups.

"Despite repeated requests, the Treasury have not provided any evidence that any such an assessment took place," she noted.

"The Fawcett Society filed papers last week with the High Court seeking a judicial review of the government's recent Budget."

The group argued that even a top-line assessment of the Budget measures showed 72 per cent of cuts will be met from women's income as many of the cuts are to the benefits that more women than men rely on.

Also, women make up the majority of public-sector workers whose jobs and pensions are under threat.

HSBC bank wig-wigs brag of super-profits

Louise Nousratpour
Monday August 2, 2010
The Morning Star (frontpage)

Banking giant HSBC has boasted that it had more than doubled half-year profits to £7.2 billion - prompting demands for a windfall tax and the nationalisation of the banking system.

The British-based group's super-profits roared 121 per cent ahead in the first six months of this year as bad debts plunged to their lowest level since the financial crisis.

In Britain, where HSBC cut 4,600 jobs last year, profits totalled £1.3 billion, an increase of 26 per cent. The bank has also set aside £6.2bn in staff pay, bonuses and benefits for the first half of the year - up 7 per cent on a year earlier.

Left campaigners said that the recent super-profits announced by the corporate sector confirmed that we are not "all in this together," as Prime Minister David Cameron keeps telling the nation, with big business flourishing while Chancellor George Osborne "robs ordinary people of £6bn in austerity measures."

Left Economics Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher said: "The eye-watering figures from HSBC reinforce the fact that the corporate sector has had a good recession.

"We are seeing the same phenomenon whether it's BT, British Gas or the banks - corporate profitability restored to or above pre-recession levels, while the recession they barely felt is used as an excuse to cut jobs, suppress wages and raise prices."

Mr Fisher warned that a "stark class warfare" was being waged by the Con-Dem government and "its corporate pals who were given £25bn in tax breaks in the last Budget.

"The reality is that the government still holds over £850bn in bank assets.

"There is no need for a single job to be cut or for a penny to be taken away from a single public service."

Communist Party of Britain general secretary Rob Griffiths renewed the labour movement's demand for a windfall tax on all super profits and for the banking sector to be brought in-house to plug the deficit and fund public services.

"Banks were kept afloat because the government and the Bank of England pumped £1.3 trillion into Britain's financial system, yet the working class are being forced to pay the cost of the crisis while the fat cats grow fatter on their ill-gotten gains," he added.

Britain's other major banks are due to report their results later this week. Part-nationalised Lloyds is forecast to report £800 million in profits, while the 83 per cent state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is expected to post interim profits of around £200 million.

Labour leadership frontrunners David and Ed Miliband have both called for the recently introduced banking levy to be doubled.

David Miliband told a south London party meeting on Sunday that the tax, expected to raise £2bn a year from banks, was "incredibly small."