Equality impact assessments are not just a ‘nice to have’

What is Equality Impact Assessment?

Equality Impact Assessment is a forward-looking policy check. In the UK, public authorities have a legal obligation under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 to actively consider how their policies and decisions may affect individuals with protected characteristics, known as a legal duty of due regard. This obligation forms part of the Public Sector Equality Duty and applies whenever a public body carries out its functions. An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is a systematic approach that organisations, particularly those in the public sector, deploy to examine whether a policy, decision, or initiative might place certain groups at an unfair disadvantage. This typically entails a focus on sex, age, race, religion or believe, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity which are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. EIAs can also consider non protected characteristics for example experience of chronic illness. While EIAs have a recognised legal basis and are seen as good practice by organisations like the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, technically they are not legally required as a specific process. However, they are an important tool for delivering on the legal duty of due regard in a meaningful way.

What does due regard mean?

To get a practical sense of what “due regard” involves, it helps to look at court decisions. Judges have drawn on earlier cases about the old race, disability, and sex equality duties when interpreting section 149 of the Equality Act, so those cases still guide how public bodies should behave. One of the most important cases is R (Brown) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2008). It set out six principles that show what “due regard” looks like in practice:

• Decision‑makers must understand the duty and the needs it covers. People making the decision need to know what they are responsible for.
• The duty must be considered early and throughout the process. It requires a deliberate, thoughtful approach rather than something done at the end.
• It is not a tick‑box exercise. The duty must be taken seriously, with genuine openness. Even if the duty is not mentioned by name, what matters is whether it was properly considered.
• The duty cannot be passed on to someone else. The organisation making the decision remains responsible for meeting it.
• The duty is ongoing. It applies at every stage, not just once.
• Keeping a record is good practice. Notes or documents showing how equality needs were considered help demonstrate compliance.

What happens in an Equality Impact Assessment?

Acas and Inclusive Employers are amongst the organisations providing guidance on best practice in EIA.  Evidence based in orientation, EIA encourages decision‑takers to be fully informed before acting. This typically involves several steps, broadly speaking:

• Step 1 - screening: determining whether a full assessment is required
• Step 2 - gathering evidence: collecting data, research, and feedback
• Step 3 - analysing impacts: understanding who may be affected and in what ways
• Step 4 - mitigation: modifying the policy/proposed change to minimise negative effects
• Step 5 - documentation: capturing and presenting the conclusions
• Step 6 - monitoring: reviewing the outcomes over time to ensure effectiveness

It is important to have understanding that consultation is an important part of EIA. As outlined in the Acas Managers Guide to Equality Assessments, consultation plays a crucial role in showing that you are meeting your equality obligations, and it must be proportionate and appropriate to the issue at hand. It is important to think carefully about the extent and depth of consultation required. You don’t want to consult excessively on a minor policy, nor do you want to consult too little on a significant one, for example one that has major implications for working lives. Getting the balance right matters. Effective consultation can strengthen your evidence base and supports good organisational practice. Training may be required to do EIA well and a forward-looking employer seeking to have a positive impact on people, business and society will provide that training including for those engaged in work relating to good practice initiatives such as the Athena Swan Charter, the Race Equality Charter and the promotion of Neuro Inclusion.

Why does Equality Impact Assessment Matter?

To reiterate, EIAs help public organisations demonstrate compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) under the Equality Act 2010 by providing clear evidence of due regard to eliminating discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity, and ensuring decisions are fair and inclusive (Pyper, 2013). EIAs play a key role in decision‑making because they help ensure that those making decisions properly understand their legal duty of due regard and the effects their choices may have on individuals and social groups. The law and good practice encourage decision‑makers to understand impacts at multiple levels. Helping to reveal disparities and inequities (Sandhu et al 2015), EIAs enable organisations to spot areas where discrimination or unequal outcomes may occur and minimise or eliminate any negative effects. 

Organisations promoting better organisational practice emphasise that EIAs are not an end in themselves. Better practice in EIA is far more than a tick‑box requirement or way to rationalise decisions that have already been made.  When carried out effectively, EIAs enable organisations to create policies and services and support organisational change that is not only better informed, but also more inclusive (e.g. likely to enhance fairness and improve accessibility), more effective, and less likely to result in unintended discrimination. EIAs help uncover indirect discrimination and broader structural inequalities that arise when a seemingly neutral policy disproportionately disadvantages a protected group. For example, requiring ten years of experience may unintentionally exclude younger applicants who are fully capable of doing the job but, because of their age, cannot yet meet that threshold.

How does Equality Impact Assessment help when redundancies are proposed?

Redundancy is a sensitive HRM process, often generating anxiety and impacting on morale. Consequently, it can also impact on productivity. The impact of redundancy processes can be long lasting and it’s management can shape employees’ views of the organisation long after it ends. 

An EIA helps identify who may be most affected by the proposed selection criteria, such as older or younger workers, people with caring responsibilities, or ethnic minority groups. It checks whether the criteria are impartial, objective, and free from subjective bias. An EIA involves analysing workforce data to spot patterns, including whether certain groups appear more often in the at‑risk pool or whether the redundancy pool reflects the wider workforce. It should also seek to ensure that no one is disadvantaged, including employees on parental leave, long‑term sick leave, or disabled staff who rely on reasonable adjustments. Communication must be inclusive, with consultation processes that accommodate individual needs and keep employees on leave fully informed. Redeployment and alternative roles should be offered transparently and fairly. If the EIA highlights negative impacts, employers should consider adjusting the criteria, offering additional support such as training or redeployment help, and ensuring managers apply the criteria consistently. All decisions and steps taken to minimise disadvantage should be clearly recorded and justified.

To reiterate, a strong, well executed Equality Impact Assessment doesn’t just tick a compliance box. Rather it actively strengthens the organisation. It:

• Reduces the risk of discrimination claims and costly legal challenges
• Builds transparency and trust at a time when people need clarity the most
• Helps the organisation retain a diverse, capable, and future ready workforce

Embedding values like inclusion, fairness, and transparency into every stage of decision‑making ensures choices are not only legally sound but also aligned with the culture an organisation wants to uphold. This approach potentially turns values from abstract statements into practical principles that guide decisions, shape outcomes, and strengthen trust. This is not to say that EIAs are a panacea in the promotion of fairness at work. For example, developmental performance management practices such as regular performance and career development conversations, reviews and mentoring are important too.

Should Equality Impact Assessments be published?

The Equality and Human Rights Commission advises that the results of an EIA must be published ‘within a reasonable period’ of the decision to apply the policy. Acas also advises that EIAs should be published in a way that everyone can understand.  Publishing EIAs strengthens accountability, confidence, and the rigour of decisions. Making them available to everyone shows not just the outcome, but the way an organisation examined fairness, inclusion, and its legal responsibilities while reaching that outcome. It encourages better challenge, scrutiny and oversight as stakeholders can question assumptions or gaps. Stakeholders can, and arguably should, be diverse, thus supporting genuine engagement. EIAs can also be requested under a Freedom of Information request, provided the request is focused and specific.

Are Equality Impact Assessments and Equality Risk Assessments the same thing?

The terms Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Equality Risk Assessments (ERAs) can sometimes be used interchangeably. ERAs can arguably be seen as pertinent to employers’ common law 'duty of care' towards workers and specific rules they must follow under health and safety law supporting active equalities risk oversight. As outlined by Acas, employers must do all they reasonably can to protect workers' health, safety and wellbeing at work. This includes:

• Providing a safe working environment
• Doing risk assessments and taking action based on what they find
• Doing everything they reasonably can to protect workers from discrimination and bullying
• Taking steps to help prevent work-related stress

Examples of how an employer might breach their duty of care, provided by Acas, include:

• Pressuring workers to work excessive hours
• Failing to provide the right training or equipment for carrying out work safely
• Allowing staff to work who are unwell or do not have the right training – they could put themselves or others in danger.

Employer practice in Equality Impact (and Risk) Assessments is under-researched. This needs to be addressed to help in the promotion of socially responsible management and erode the equality diversity and inclusion policy-implementation gap.

Further reading

• Pyper, D (2013) The Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessments (.PDF), Standard Note: SN/BT/6591. House of Commons Library.
• Sandhu, K., & Stephenson, M.-A. (2015). Layers of Inequality - a Human Rights and Equality Impact Assessment of the Public Spending Cuts on Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Women in Coventry. Feminist Review, 109(1), 169-179. (Original work published 2015)

Further guidance on Equality Impact Assessments and the implied duty of care is available at the following links:

• Acas guidance on implied-duties/duty-of-care
• Acas-managers-guide-to-equality-assessments (.PDF)
• Acas risk assessments - Managing work-related stress
• Advance HE Equality impact assessment
• EHRC Assessing impact and the equality duty: an eight step guide
• HMRC equality analysis guidance and template - for programmes, platforms, projects and policies - GOV.UK
• Inclusive Employers Equality Impact Assessment Guidance (.PDF)
• LSE Guidance on how to complete an EIA (.PDF)
• Unite guide to workplace equality assessment (.PDF)
• UKRI Equality impact assessment guidance and template (.PDF)