Revised Disability Action Plan 2024-2029

The Utility Regulator’s Equality Scheme was approved by the Equality Commission in 2012 and the Disability Action Plan has been reviewed in response to the statutory five-year review requirement set out in the original Equality Scheme.

This scheme was approved by the Equality Commission in 2012 a new scheme has not been developed for Commission approval. The scheme has been revised and amended to ensure that it is up to date to reflect changes that have been made to the organisational structure, functions and contact details. The changes in the proposed Disability Action Plan 2024-2029 are intended to promote and deliver our commitments for the next five years.

Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act places a duty on public authorities to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity and regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between different categories. 

Whilst every care has been taken in the drafting of this document to adhere to best practice in relation to Section 75, the Utility Regulator would very much value the input of its stakeholders and the communities with whom it endeavours to participate.

We aim to promote equality of opportunity between nine categories of persons, namely between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation; between men and women generally; between persons with a disability and persons without; and between persons with dependents and persons without.

As part of this consultation exercise we would like to determine whether any of the nine groups defined above are significantly affected, either positively or negatively, or does the policy under consideration create differential impacts between groups within each Section 75 category? Is this impact adverse or beneficial?

The Utility Regulator is keen to incorporate any recommendations received in this regard into its proposed revised Disability Action Plan 2024-2029 and will respond to contributors indicating what decisions it has made in respect of the consultation.

Responses to this consultation can also be made via Citizen Space.

Additional information

• Your response may be made public by the Utility Regulator. If you do not want all or part of your response or name made public, please state this clearly in the response by marking your response as ‘CONFIDENTIAL’
• If you want other information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the FOIA, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this, it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential
• Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)).

As stated in the GDPR Privacy Statement for consumers and stakeholders, any personal data contained within your response will be deleted once the matter being consulted on has been concluded though the substance of the response may be retained.