Disability Equality Duty

On 4 December 2006 the Disability Equality Duty came into force.

The Disability Equality Duty (DED) represents a real opportunity for the public sector to address the inequalities that millions of disabled people face in their day-to-day lives and in their chances for the future.

The DED is made up of two components – a general duty and specific duties.

The general duty

The general duty recognises that disability equality is not an added extra and should be usual in all areas of public bodies' work. The general duty requires every public authority when carrying out their functions to give due regard and the need to:

• promote equality of opportunity for disabled people
• eliminate unlawful discrimination
• eliminate disability-related harassment  
• promote positive attitudes towards disabled people
• encourage participation by disabled people in public life
• take steps to meet disabled peoples needs, even if this requires more favourable treatment

The specific duties

The specific duties require listed public authorities to publish disability equality schemes that set out how they will carry out their general duty, monitor, and report on progress and how they have involved disabled people in developing their scheme. The ODI is responsible for keeping the list of public authorities up to date.

Annual Reports

Each year following publication of a schemes, an annual report needs to be produced. The report should contain a summary of the steps the authority has taken to fulfil the duty, the results of the information gathering exercise it has undertaken and how the information gathered has been used.

Secretary of State Reports

Key Secretaries of State are also required to publish a report, the first one being no later than December 2008, setting out progress towards disability equality across their policy sectors and proposals for co-ordination of future work by relevant public authorities to bring about further progress. Subsequent reports will need to be published every three years.

The Secretary of State reports are a unique aspect of the DED. It is intended to prompt a high level strategic approach to address inequalities that cut across organisational boundaries.

In common with other elements of the duty, the ODI is supporting departments that fall under the requirement.

The central government departments are:

• Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
• Children, Schools and Families
• Communities and Local Government
• Culture, Media and Sport
• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Health
• Home Department
• Innovation, Universities and Skills
• Justice
• Transport
• Work and Pensions

ODI also supports the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Government in production of their reports.

Disability Equality Duty Secretary of State Reports: Getting Started

Guidance for Departments

This guidance is intended to supplement the Statutory Code of Practice produced by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) .

Read the Guidance for departments:

• Guidance for departments PDF, (53KB, 7 Pages)
• Guidance for departments RTF (531KB, 7 Pages)

Guidance

To help civil servants understand the obligations of the DED, the ODI produced `Disability equality: a priority for all' guidance.

• Disability equality: a priority for all - PDF (377KB, 28 pages)
• Disability equality: a priority for all - RTF (205KB, 20 pages)

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has guidance for public bodies and disabled people on their website. Find out more n the Equality and Human Rights Commission website (links to EHRC website).

Compliance

The Disability Rights Commission was subsumed into the Equality and Human Rights Commission (links to the EHRC website) in October 2007 and they now have responsibility for enforcing the legislation.

Page last reviewed: 03 November 2008