Equality
The question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she plans to publish a (a) summary of responses and (b) response to the Equality law call for evidence, published on 7 April 2025, for the measures not covered by the Consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting: government response, of 25 March 2026; and what the status is of the socio-economic duty proposal.
Answered by Seema Malhotra
This Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, no matter their background, can thrive. Therefore, as set out in our response to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s Module 2 report, we agree with the recommendation that commencement of the socio-economic duty could drive the routine consideration of the impact decisions might have on those most at risk in an emergency.
The Government is giving careful consideration to responses to the equality law call for evidence as we consider next steps. We will publish a summary of responses and a Government response in due course on: https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/equality-law-call-for-evidence.
The socio-economic duty will require specified public bodies to actively consider how their strategic decisions might help to reduce the inequalities of outcome associated with socio-economic disadvantage.
We are now taking forward work to make sure that commencement of the duty in England is as effective as possible.
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