Equality

Under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, we are required to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity between:

persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation;
men and women generally;
persons with a disability and persons without; and
persons with dependants and persons without.

We are also required to have regard to the promotion of good relations between people of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group. Our Equality Scheme, which has been approved by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, sets out how we propose to fulfil the duties.

As part of our duty we also:

consult as an integral part of the policy making process;
conduct and publish the results of Equality Impact Assessments; and
report annually to the Equality Commission on the progress made towards implementing the Section 75 duties - Annual Progress Reports.

Our screening report details all the policies that we have screened. The report is updated regularly and published annually.

The screening exercises listed did not identify any adverse or differential impacts for Section 75 groups. As a result, they have been screened out from further equality action. A list of the policies considered and screened out are set out in our Policy framework. Policy screening templates and details of policies which were subject to full consultation under normal procedures are available by contacting susan.lavery@uregni.gov.uk.

Further equality documents and publications can be downloaded below: