Equality, Diversity and Human Rights

Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 came into effect in October 2010. It condenses nine pieces of legislation into one single Act and replaced the following pieces of legislation: Equal Pay Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relations Act 1976, Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, Equality Act 2006 (Part 2), and the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.

The Act establishes additional anticipatory legal duties for public authorities: The “public sector equality duties” are in two parts referred to as the general duty and the specific duties. The duties are complimentary to each other, in practice this means taking a pro-active approach to meeting all aspects of the Act.

The General Duty requires public authorities, when carrying out their functions (and on other persons when carrying out public functions), to have due regard to:

  • the need to eliminate conduct which the Act prohibits
  • the need to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not
  • The need to foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not.

In addition to the new general public sector equality duty that was brought into force by the UK Government in April 2011, the Act also made provision for Welsh Ministers to be able to make regulations and impose specific equality duties to enable better performance of the general duty by public authorities in Wales. 

The Welsh Government have developed and introduced specific duties for listed public authorities in Wales.  These are set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011 and came into force on 6 April 2011. 

The specific duties in Wales cover:

  • Objectives
  • Strategic Equality Plans
  • Engagement
  • Assessing impact
  • Equality information
  • Employment information
  • Pay differences
  • Staff training
  • Procurement
  • Annual reporting
  • Publishing
  • Welsh Ministers’ reporting
  • Review
  • Accessibility

Human Rights Act 1998

Public authorities also have a duty under the Human Rights Act 1998 requiring them to not act incompatibly with the rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. In the courts the Equality Act 2010 (and all other primary UK legislation) is interpreted in ways that are compatible with the Human Rights Act.

The Human Rights Act is derived from the European Convention on Human Rights and became law in November 1998.  It enabled any person who considers they have been a victim of a human rights violation to challenge a public authority in the courts or tribunals.

The purpose of the Human Rights Act is to support a culture of respect for everyone’s human rights and a feature of everyday life.   The convention rights include:

  • Right to life
  • Prohibition of torture
  • Prohibition of slavery and forced labour
  • Right to liberty and security
  • Right to a fair trial
  • Right to respect for private and family life
  • Freedom of thought
  • Freedom of expression
  • Freedom of assembly and association
  • Right to marry
  • Right to an effective remedy
  • Prohibition of discrimination
  • Restriction on political activity of aliens
  • Protection of property
  • Right to education
  • Right to free elections
  • Abolition of the death penalty

You can find our more about equality and human rights laws by following the links below:

Key Documents and Information

Accessible Information and Communication Support

Information produced by Wrexham County Borough Council is available in English and Welsh and in a range of accessible formats upon request including:

  • Audio – web and CD versions
  • Braille documents
  • British Sign Language DVD
  • Electronic information
  • Easy-read and pictorial documents
  • Large Print (Arial 18+) documents
  • Languages other than English and Welsh

Our customers can choose to conduct their business with the Council in English or in Welsh. For customers who need to communicate with us in other languages we can arrange for a telephone interpreter.

In addition we can arrange a range of face-to-face communication support such as British Sign Language interpreters.

Equality Monitoring

Equality monitoring is the process used to collect and analyse data about people’s backgrounds to help us understand if our equality policies and plans are working and if we are treating people fairly.

The purpose of equality monitoring is to help us to identify equality risks and prevent inequality.  This information also helps us to understand the impact of our decisions on different people.

We gather a range of diversity information from and about our staff and customers because we are required to gather this information to comply with the law.  We gather a range of diversity information including age, disability, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion and belief.  We use this information to improve our services and ensure that we are a fair and inclusive organisation.

recognise that many people may be reluctant to share this type of personal information with us. Whenever we ask our staff or customers for this information we will always make it clear what we will use the information for and we will never disclose it to third parties.

The Stonewall leaflet “What’s it got to do with you?” sets out ten good reasons to share your information (external link).

Equality Impact Assessments

Equality impact assessment (EIA) is the term that describes the process of assessing the possible or likely consequences of a proposed or revised policies or practices.  The Council carries out equality impact assessments to help it advance equality and improve outcomes for people.

An EIA focuses specifically on identifying the different ways that different people might be affected by a proposal.
The Council records completed assessments in a system called "EASI"  – this stands for Equality Assessment System and Index.

As well as looking for ways to reduce negative impact the assessment also provides scope to look for opportunities to create a more positive impact and improve outcomes for people who that are at greater risk of  (or are historically prone to) exclusion, isolation and disadvantage. Equality Impact assessments help us to :

  • Improve services
  • Advance equality, combat discrimination and foster good community relations
  •  Integrate good equality practice across all of our policies and working practices

Further Information

For further information about the Council’s approach to equality,  diversity and human rights email equality@wrexham.gov.uk or telephone the Council’s Equality Manager on 01978 292808

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