Equal Opportunities
The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which amended the Race Relations Act 1976, has important implications for public sector organisations. The amended Race Relations Act, the RRA, outlaws race discrimination in all of our functions, including procurement.
It also gives The Student Loans Company (SLC) and all public sector organisations a clearer, more direct positive legal duty to eliminate discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity and good race relations. In SLC we have extended this to include discrimination on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.
Where a public authority’s function is carried out by an external supplier on its behalf, the local authority remains responsible for meeting the duty. The new duty to promote race equality may also apply indirectly to a private company contracted by a public sector organisation, which may be required by that organisation to fulfill the contract in a way that enables the authority to comply with the duty.
We need to ensure that our suppliers are not operating in a discriminatory way, under the law. If they are found to be doing so we are liable, so we have to ensure that we have considered the equalities implications of the contract, and ensure that our contractors are practicing and promoting equality within their own organisation.
Suppliers (and potential suppliers) need to be aware of the legal duty on public sector organisations, since it has implications for them.
Further guidance is available from Commission for Racial Equality (CRE)