These pages do not apply outside the United Kingdom.

Disability Equality Duty (DED)

The DED seeks to build disability equality into the culture of public authorities. Introduced by DDA 2005, the duty came into force on 4th December 2006. This page gives a broad overview of the disability equality duty - for more detail see www.dotheduty.org.

Aim of the DED

The disability equality duty requires organisations across the public sector (including hospitals, local and central government, schools and colleges) to be proactive in ensuring that disabled people are treated fairly.

The idea is to include disabled people and disability equality into everything from the outset, rather than focusing on individualised responses to specific disabled people. This should help identify from the start unnecessary barriers to equal participation by disabled users of services, as well as current and potential employees.

The general duty
Every public authority shall in carrying out its functions have due regard to:

the need to eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the DDA;

the need to eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is related to their disabilities;

the need to promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons;

the need to take steps to take account of disabled persons' disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons;

the need to promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons; and

the need to encourage participation by disabled persons in public life.

General duty

The DED has two parts, the general duty and specific duties.

The 'general duty' obliges the public authority to 'have due regard to' a list of six considerations, such as the need to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. See box for the full list.

Specific duties

Many public authorities are also subject to the 'specific duties'. These set a practical framework for making real improvements in disability equality in relation to the general duty. At the heart of the specific duties is the obligation to produce a Disability Equality Scheme, and to involve disabled people in doing so. Except for some educational establishments, public authorities had to publish their first Disability Equality Scheme by 4th December 2006. Essential elements of a scheme are:

a statement on how disabled people have been involved in developing the scheme ('involvement' is more active than just consultation);
an action plan, setting out steps the authority will take to comply with the general duty;
methods for assessing the impact of the activities of the authority on disability equality;
arrangements for gathering information about the authority's performance on disability equality; and
details of how the public authority is going to use the information gathered, in particular in reviewing the effectiveness of its action plan and preparing subsequent schemes.

Within three years from publication of the scheme, the authority must take the steps in its action plan and put into effect the arrangements for gathering and using information. There is an exception where this would be unreasonable or impracticable.

An authority must publish annual reports on the implementation of the scheme, in particular on steps taken under the action plan, the results of information gathering and what use has been made of the information. The scheme itself must be reviewed and revised every three years.

There are also three-yearly reports, mostly by Ministers, covering the authorities within a particular policy sector such as health or education.

What bodies are covered?

The general duty applies to any public authority, including both those which are subject to the specific duties (see below) and those which are not. There are just a few specific exceptions such as Parliament, the Security Service and decisions of a judge.

Private companies and voluntary sector organisations are also subject to the general duty where they perform a public function. For example, a private company which has contracted with the Home Office to run a prison will be subject to the general duty, though not in relation to private activities it also undertakes such as providing security guards for supermarkets. Even where a contractor is not performing a public function, public authorities need to build disability considerations into the procurement process. (Chapter 5 of DED Statutory Code of Practice for England and Wales).

The specific duties, including the obligation to draw up a Disability Equality Scheme, apply to a long list of public authorities. Examples include county councils and London Borough Councils, government departments, the armed forces (except regarding employment), police, and NHS primary care trusts. Examples of public authorities not covered by the specific duties include parish, town or community councils.

What if I think an authority is not complying?

The disability equality duty is not aimed at giving individual rights. Those are to be found in the other parts of the DDA (see below). An interested individual or group might bring a judicial review claim to the High Court for breach of the general duty, but this will not usually be an attractive option. The specific duties are enforced by the Disability Rights Commission (or soon the Commission for Equality and Human Rights), which can serve an enforcement notice. Also, depending on their role, audit and inspection bodies may need to assess whether authorities are complying with the DED.

However, there are steps which an individual can take as regards the DED. The Disability Rights Commission has issued a Disability Equality Duty Disabled People's Toolkit - see Disabled people and the duty (on DRC website). This has standard letters that an individual can use to ask further questions of public authorities they have an interest in, where the authority does not seem to be meeting its general or specific duties under the DED. One letter, for example, is for use if you think a public authority's Action Plan does not include the right actions. The Toolkit also says that if you completely exhaust the formal complaints procedure of the public authority and are still not satisfied with their progress in meeting the DED, you may wish to consider forwarding full details to the Disability Rights Commission Helpline. The DRC would conduct an initial assessment of the enquiry and consider whether to investigate further.

As regards stammering, an issue may be that the public authority has simply failed to take it into account. See my Guidelines for service providers for some ideas on removing barriers for people who stammer - and bear in mind that the DED also covers employment.

Whilst it is hoped that the DED will have a significant effect, an individual's main rights against public authorities remain those given by other parts of the DDA, on employment, provision of services, and education. Separate rules which came into effect on 4th December 2006 also give individual rights in respect of public authority functions even where these do not involve provision of services.

Northern Ireland

The DED does not apply in Northern Ireland, where even before 2006 there were positive obligations on public authorities.

Race and gender

A race equality duty has been in force for some years (www.cre.gov.uk), and a gender equality duty came into effect in April 2007 (www.eoc.org.uk/genderduty). Public authorities may have a 'Single Equality Scheme' combining their race and disability equality schemes, and incorporate gender into this from Spring 2007.

Proposed changes

The Green Paper on proposals for a Single Equality Bill envisages major changes to the disability equality duty. More on changes to DED..

Links

www.dotheduty.org, the Disability Rights Commission's minisite has the Statutory Codes of Practice and a large amount of additional guidance, including Disabled people and the duty with information aimed at disabled people.
TUC Advice for Unions on the 2006 Public Sector Disability Equality Duty (revised edition June 2006)
Public authorities to have greater duties in future (on BSA website) lists opportunities for BSA and for people who stammer.
For DDA 2005 which inserts the DED as a new Part 5A into DDA 1995, see my Disability Discrimination Act 2005 page.
For rules on Disability Equality Schemes, see The Disability Discrimination (Public Authorities)(Statutory Duties) Regulations 2005: www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20052966.htm.

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