Open Letter: Implement the Socio-Economic Duty Now
The 2024 King’s Speech is the first of the new government’s, and reported to focus on “Inclusive Growth.” That’s why a key part of it should include enacting the socio-economic duty, finally bringing the last part of the Equality Act 2010 into force and requiring public bodies to focus on the inequalities that result from differences in occupation, education, place of residence or social class.
As part of 1ForEquality, we’ve written an open letter to the new Prime Minister and the Minister for Women and Equalities to fulfil their manifesto committments and enact the socio-economic duty as one of their first acts in government.
The full text of the letter is as follow:
Including implementation of the socio-economic duty (SED) in the King’s Speech
CC: Joint Ministers for Women and Equalities (The Rt Hon Anneliese Dodds MP and The Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP)
Dear Prime Minister,
We would firstly like to congratulate you on your election victory and hope that we can build a constructive working relationship with you and your cabinet colleagues during your time in government.
We are writing to you on behalf of the 1ForEquality campaign group. We are a coalition of nine organisations, who have come together with the stated aim of urging the UK Government to put in place the socio-economic duty (SED) by commencing Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010. Earlier this year we met with your cabinet colleague, Anneliese Dodds, to discuss what meaningful implementation of the duty should look like, and would like to reconfirm our offer to support you in your aim to deliver effective commencement of the SED.
The Labour Party designed the duty to alleviate inequality by placing a legal responsibility on public bodies to pay due regard to how they can reduce inequalities of outcome, caused by socio-economic disadvantage, when making strategic decisions.
We were delighted that the Labour Party committed to adopting the socio-economic duty in its manifesto under ‘breaking down barriers to opportunity’. We know that this is the fourth of your five missions to rebuild Britain.
We believe that it is paramount to include enactment of the SED in your upcoming King’s Speech as this will lay down an important marker that your government is fully committed to tackling socio-economic inequalities from day one.
We believe that, implemented effectively, the SED is an important tool for mitigating against the worst impacts of over a decade of austerity and has the potential to ensure that those already socioeconomically disadvantaged aren’t further disadvantaged by strategic decision making.
We would also like to set-up a meeting with you to discuss the SED and its implementation in further detail. We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
The 1ForEquality Campaign Group
- Amnesty International UK
- Compassion in Politics
- Equality Trust
- Equally Ours
- Just Fair
- Resolve Poverty
- Royal College of Physicians
- Shelter
- Thrive Teesside
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