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."