An investigation by the Equality Commission has found that the Northern Ireland Office failed to comply with its equality scheme commitments in relation to its handling of its equality assessment of the policies in the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill (the Legacy Bill). The Commission’s report from the investigation was published today.
In June 2022, the Commission raised concerns with the Northern Ireland Office that it had published its Equality Impact Assessment on its proposed legacy policies for consultation on 16 May 2022, alongside the Legacy Bill, as it was introduced into Westminster at its first reading. The Bill contained the policies that were subject to the equality impact assessment.
Chief Commissioner, Geraldine McGahey said: “Our investigation found that the Northern Ireland Office had failed to comply with its Equality Scheme, as the Legacy Bill was introduced into Parliament at the same time as the Equality Impact Assessment was published for consultation. As the two were published together, it was simply not possible for the Northern Ireland Office to have taken into account the equality assessment of and any consultation responses received on those policies, prior to them being presented in the Bill.
“The Commission is recommending a number of improvements to the Northern Ireland Office’s practices when it is developing policy options that will be legislated for. In particular, the Northern Ireland Office should ensure that the Secretary of State is provided with its equality assessment of the proposals at the appropriate point in the decision-making process, but certainly before the proposals are presented in a Bill before Parliament.
“It is therefore vital that the Equality Scheme processes should be applied and used as an integral part of the Northern Ireland Office’s policy making process, rather than after the policy in question has been developed and the assessment of equality impacts appear as an apparent after thought.
“As our guidance clearly states, a proper equality assessment should be conducted for all policies being reviewed or developed by public authorities and these should be presented to the relevant decision maker, in this case the Secretary of State, to inform decision making,” concluded Ms McGahey.