The Public Sector Equality Duties: Solihull Council's Information and Objectives

Solihull Council has specific duties under the Equality Act 2010 to publish equality information and objectives. This page explains the background to those duties and provides links to the publications that meet them. 

The Equality Act 2010 identifies the grounds upon which discrimination is unlawful. These are referred to as ‘protected characteristics’ and are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Public authorities, including local councils, have a general duty under the Equality Act 2010 to have 'due regard' to the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Advance equality of opportunity
• Foster good relations between communities.

This ‘general duty’ is supported by two specific duties which demonstrate how public authorities are meeting the general duty. These are: 

• To publish equality information, and
• To publish our equality objectives (which includes addressing any issues or information gaps identified in this published information).

The information duty covers two areas, which we have published in separate reports:

• Our employees
• The services we provide and the people affected by them.

This duty also applies to the three Pupil Referral Units that Solihull Council maintains and for which a separate report has been undertaken.

Our equality information must be updated at least annually. The two main reports were last updated in January 2013.

Our equality objectives must be updated at least every four years.

All these documents are available in the attachments section on the right of this page, together with copies of the January 2012 equality information reports for comparison purposes.

More information on the Public Sector Equality Duty, including the specific duties, can be found in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Equality Act 2010: Technical Guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty - England

If you require a summary of our equality information and objectives in another language, large type, Braille, audio or other format, please contact us.