Equalities and diversity in BHP

Introduction

A major new piece of legislation, The Equalities Act 2010, came into force on lst October 2010. Prior to this Act there were many separate pieces of legislation covering equalities duties. The 2010 Act brought all previous pieces of legislation into one single Act simplifying the law and making it stronger to help tackle discrimination and inequality.

The Equalities Act 2010 has extended the number of protected characteristics covered by an equality duty.

The protected characteristics are now age, disability, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment and marriage and civil partnerships.

Within the Equalities Act 2010 there is a requirement on organisations providing services to the public or a section of the public e.g. BHP, its contractors and residents associations to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

The aim under the 'General' duty is for public bodies to consider the needs of all individuals in their day to day work, in developing policy, in delivering services, and in relation to their own employees.

BHP has a legal duty to publish information on the protected characteristics of its workforce and all those people who are affected by the services we provide e.g. council residents.

Why doesn't BHP publish data on all protected characteristics?

The data published needs to be meaningful, relevant to our organisation and reliable in that we have sufficient data to draw conclusions so that we can produce equality and diversity objectives to improve service delivery within BHP.

Information on pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnerships and religion or belief is relevant to BHP as an employer to ensure that we do not discriminate against staff who for example request maternity leave, or time off to attend a religious festival,  and to ensure that staff are not being treated differently because of their sexual orientation or trans gender status.

In the years to come we should have more complete data on all protected characteristics which will help us to inform opinion about setting new and meaningful equality objectives.

BHP's 6 core objectives: 

1. Ensure our Board, Staff, Contractors, Resident Representatives and Partners understand their obligations to champion equality and diversity
2. ensure that our services are accessible and tailored to meet the needs of our council tenants and leaseholders in Brent
3. improve our engagement with council tenants and leaseholders from diverse backgrounds and those from minority and under-represented groups
4. ensure our services are non-discriminatory by assessing the impact of all policies, procedures, strategies and core services against all protected characteristics
5. improve the collection of data on all protected characteristics for our staff, council tenants and leaseholders to better inform equality objectives in years to come so that we are seen by everyone who comes into contact with us as a fair, transparent and an equitable employer and service provider
6. develop positive partnerships that support stronger service provision and share common equality and diversity principles.

Current news

• Equality Act 2010 at the BHP Board meeting (.pdf, 60Kb)
• BHP Senior Management Team update report (.pdf, 122Kb)

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