Agreement Reached in the Multi-Party Negotiations - Transitional ...

75. - (1) A public authority shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern
Ireland have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity-
(a) between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group,
age, marital status or sexual orientation;
(b) between men and women generally;
(c) between persons with a disability and persons without; and
(d) between persons with dependants and persons without.
(2) Without prejudice to its obligations under subsection (1), a public authority
shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland have regard to
the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different
religious belief, political opinion or racial group.
Schedule 9 makes provision for the enforcement of the duties under this
section. Although Schedule 9 and the use of equality schemes establish
‘appropriate arrangements’ for the promotion of equality of opportunity under
section 75(1), they are largely silent on appropriate arrangements for the
promotion of ‘good relations’.
6.3.1 Equality Schemes
Each public authority must have an equality scheme in place, as both a statement of its
commitment to the statutory duties, and a plan for performance on the duties. Public
authorities must assess the equality impact of their policies and publish the outcome. If
assessment shows a possible ‘adverse impact’ on any group, it must consider how this
might be reduced, and how an alternative policy might lessen any adverse impact the policy
may have. The public authority must also show that it considered how any alternative
policies might better achieve the promotion of equality of opportunity. 116
6.4 Section 75 and Women
Public authorities must have due regard to promoting equality across a range of groups
and between ‘men and women generally’. A distinction is made with regard to women and
the listed categories (women are obviously represented in these categories as well: e.g.
disability - 41% men, 59% women; age - 59% of those over 60 are women, 64% of those
over 74 are women). 117 The distinction, however, becomes blurred when bodies covered
by the legislation frequently refer to the ‘nine’ categories. Do women then become oneninth
without exploration of the factors underpinning discrimination against 50% of the
population and consequently failure to introduce appropriate measures? For example, the
Justice Northern Ireland Act 2002 states: ‘The section 75 duty requires bodies to “have
regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity” between the nine section 75
categories (religious belief, political opinion, race or ethnic group, age, marital status, sexual
orientation, gender, disability and dependency).’ This usage is common across many
documents. Also worth noting is that the Section 75 duty requires ‘due regard’, not merely
‘regard’ as quoted by the 2002 Act and which the Equality Commission deems a weaker
commitment – an example of how the intention becomes diluted when the legislation is
drawn up.
Does this formula aid or inhibit equality vis-à-vis different groups of women (as noted
below the gender pay gap is greater for particular women)? Do women face the double
116 At 31 March 2002, the Equality Commission had approved 95% of draft equality schemes of NI
authorities and 63% of equality schemes of public authorities. Ibid.
117 See statistics at www.genderequalityni.gov.uk
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