General Duties

General equality duties originate from equalities legislation about race; disability; gender; age; sexuality; religion and/or belief.  These duties provide the mechanism by which we can test whether or not we are meeting the fundamental cornerstones of equality law.

The purpose of the duties is to help us address institutional and systematic inequalities that some groups face.  These duties relate to our policies, procedures and practices towards both customers and employees.  The general public duties are listed below in more detail.

Race:

•  eliminate unlawful discrimination 
•  promote equality of opportunity
•  promote good relations between people of different racial groups.

Disability:

•  promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people
•  eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Act
   eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is related to their disabilities
•  promote positive attitudes towards disabled people
•  encourage participation by disabled people in public life
•  take steps to take account of disabled peoples' disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled people more favourably than other people