16 December 2010

Stephen Chamberlain
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Division
Welsh Assembly Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

Dear Mr Chamberlain

RE: Consultation on the draft Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011

The Welsh NHS Confederation welcomes the opportunity to respond to the consultation. We understand that statutory NHS organisations in Wales will be providing their own individual responses as will be the NHS Centre for Equality and Human Rights.

In general, we support the purpose of these new specific equality duties, that is to improve performance of the general duty by the public sector. We welcome the fact that the proposed duties have been developed to be proportionate in design, relevant to need, transparent in approach and tailored to guide relevant Welsh public authorities towards better performance of the general duty. We also support the ambition to better meet the needs of the citizens of Wales relying on the services provided to them by the public sector.

Specifically, we recognise the need for organisational equality objectives but would recommend that these are focussed and referenced in most organisational corporate documents.

In relation to the proposed requirement as to how public authorities should collect and report data in respect of pay differences, we recognise the need to report this information, but believe that statutory organisations should be free to determine how this is achieved in a transparent and timely manner. We also agree that statutory organisations should be able to determine how often they review their equality objectives.

We support the proposal to replace the 150 employee level for imposing employment related reporting duties in favour of a duty that protects personal information and confidence in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

We fully support the need for public authorities to collect data about their employees in relation to recruitment, training, disciplinary, pay and other HR issues to inform employer related objectives. Equality impact assessments undertaken as part of the development of new All Wales HR policies have supported the need for a co-ordinated approach to this.

If you have any queries regarding the content of this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01656 643800.

Yours sincerely

Kate Watkins

Acting Director