Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what estimate she has made of the regulatory cost of producing Equality Impact Assessments; and whether the Government plans to take steps to reduce the compliance cost of producing them.

Where a public body decides to undertake an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) to fulfill its Public Sector Equality Duty obligations, this would be funded as part of the organisation’s administrative budget. EIAs are well embedded in Government policy making and are not considered an additional cost but part of mainstream administrative functions.

In fact, EIAs are likely overall to reduce costs for public bodies, because the entailed analysis and discussion, by highlighting any equality issues greatly reduces the risk of subsequent litigation for alleged law breaches resulting from the particular policy.