Wednesday 17 November 2010

Quangos cull: Equality and Human Rights Commission faces major overhaul | Society | guardian.co.uk

Quangos cull: Equality and Human Rights Commission faces major overhaul

EHRC will not be scrapped but will face substantial reforms and will have to prove it is properly using taxpayers' money

Trevor Phillips for Media 100 Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Photograph: Graham Turner

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) faces a major overhaul – and a longer wait after the government confirmed it will not be scrapped but will face substantial reforms and will have to prove it is properly using taxpayers' money.

In addition, the National Women's Commission will be abolished and its functions brought into the Government Equalities Office (GEO). Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, told parliament that it would be "childish" to assume that the abolition of a commission meant that the government was no longer committed to the issues it handled.

The EHRC is now in the hands of the government and awaiting some indication of how it will be reformed. Those decisions are understood to hinge on next week's spending review, how much the GEO is allocated and how much of that it in turn allocates to the commission. It has already taken a 15% funding cut this year.

The GEO said in a statement today that the EHRC would be "radically" reformed" and stripped of some responsibilities.

It said: "The EHRC's work will be refocused on its core functions of regulating equality and anti-discrimination law in Great Britain, of fulfilling EU equality requirements and of being a National Human Rights Institution. As part of our drive to increase the accountability of public services to ministers, and to parliament, ministers are considering the scope for transferring some of EHRC's functions and services to government departments or contracting with private or voluntary sector bodies to undertake them.

"In light of the commission's history of poor financial control, we propose to strengthen requirements around financial and management controls to ensure that government and parliament can better hold EHRC to account for its performance and how it spends taxpayers' money."

There is no mention in the statement of the commission's original responsibility to promote social cohesion and good community relationships, which is likely to be one of the aspects it could be stripped of.

The EHRC has had a troubled beginning, with a string of high-profile resignations from its board last year in disputes over the leadership of its chair Trevor Phillips. Phillips was seen as close to New Labour, and many questioned whether he could survive the controversy around his role and the change in government.

The body also had its accounts for 2008-09 qualified in July by the National Audit Office, which said it had breached rules on pay rises for permanent staff and badly managed money and its finance director left earlier this year.

A spokesman for the commission said: "We are pleased the government has recognised the valuable role the commission will continue to play as an independent regulator of equality and human rights in Great Britain."

Nearly 30 leading women's groups signed a letter urging the home secretary to reverse her decision to scrap the Women's National Commission.

"It is hard to imagine how the government will be able to achieve its commitments to popular inclusivity and gender equality in such an efficient way and for the same minimal funds," the letter says.

"Its closure will leave a huge gap in democratic input into government on behalf of women." It is signed by people representing rights groups including Amnesty International, the Fawcett Society, ActionAid UK and the British Institute of Human Rights.

's comment

Comments in chronological order (Total 13 comments)

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  •  Kerrygold

    14 October 2010 3:04PM

    The EHRC will simply give the favoured staff genorous retirement packages worth up to £100K each. After a month it will then rehire them as consultants.
    They have done it before, they will do it again.

  •  Bonnie

    14 October 2010 4:10PM

    And which is the 1st quango they get rid of in the GEO? One that representas women.

    Wonder how interested the Tories really are in 'replenishing the stock'* of women in public life?

    *Ask Brooks Newmark

  •  hilltop

    14 October 2010 4:28PM

    Just when disabled people are to be bullied onto Job Seekers Allowence, just when the jobs market, which continues to discriminate against disabled people, is at its most dire, the chance of support and advice will be reduced.

    While I am unimpressed with the EHRC's record on helping disabled people get into work, they are the main agency for changing employer's attitudes.

    Cut and cut again is a policy which will hurt disabled people very badly.

  •  PurpleMage

    14 October 2010 11:47PM

    We don`t need "special" equality treatment for women these days we need equality for EVERYONE - speaking of which why do we still have a minister for "women and equality"...surely equality for women is just equality...or is it more important than equality for the rest of us?

    Women are certainly in a far, far better position than the disabled folk who are going to be re-classed as able by the stroke of a pen of an ATOS monkey.

  •  AbolishEHRC

    15 October 2010 12:18AM

    EHRC staff do very little for their money. They have a lot of cases against them in the Employment Tribunals by their own staff, for racism, sexism, and disability discrimination. The audit report on them showed EHRC employed a lot of their old friends as consultants, giving them fat fees - that was one reason why they went over budget. They also gave severance pay to staff from CRE and then re-hired the same staff on bigger salaries. Since they don't respect public money, the people working there don't deserve their jobs.

  •  noeconomist

    15 October 2010 8:46AM

    It just makes me laugh that an Equality commission has four Baronesses listed on it's website as commissioners and the Women's National Organisation is chaired by a Baroness. Unelected peers have no place in an equal society!

  •  GooglyBear

    15 October 2010 8:48AM

    There are mixed views on the EHRC but it just produced a detailed 700 page report on fairness in britain. However it may have been run, it is of benefit to Britain. I read about the report at www.equalitylaw.co.uk

  •  DavidJMoon

    15 October 2010 11:27AM

    "EHRC staff do very little for their money. They have a lot of cases against them in the Employment Tribunals by their own staff, for racism, sexism, and disability discrimination."
    - AbolishEHRC
    15 October 2010 12:18AM

    Indeed. What the EHRC is really about, is exemplified by its high profile persecution of political parties it does not like - a mission it carries out on behalf of the anti-British State. Will this 'function' be taken away from them? I think not.

  •  ProvisionalName

    15 October 2010 11:53AM

    At a time when hundreds of thousands of people are about to be sacked, further muzzling the organisation best placed to challenge discriminatory dismissals and unfair treatment resulting from the Westminster edict to cut costs come what may is a shrewd but predictable way for the government to minimise legal challenges to its actions.

    There is already considerable evidence that women and disabled people have been and will continue to be hit harder by job losses and unfair treatment in the job market , but further weakening the EHRC will leave such people with even less support to challenge the unfair treatment to which they have been subjected by their employers. We most certainly are not ALL IN IT TOGETHER.

  •  loislaneleeds

    15 October 2010 3:49PM

    Probably the biggest saving to be made would be relocation to more modest offices. Not obvious to me why they are located in a plush building co-located with city lawyers and accountants. I had a meeting at EHRC this year - I've lived in flats smaller than the ladies' loos! Always sorry to see people lose their jobs but this time they done it to themselves with their blatant disregard for accounting for their spending.

  •  Monitor2010

    16 October 2010 12:22AM

    EHRC staff do very little for their money. They have a lot of cases against them in the Employment Tribunals by their own staff, for racism, sexism, and disability discrimination. The audit report on them showed EHRC employed a lot of their old friends as consultants, giving them fat fees - that was one reason why they went over budget. They also gave severance pay to staff from CRE and then re-hired the same staff on bigger salaries. Since they don't respect public money, the people working there don't deserve their jobs.

    Sounds like a statement for dismissal of Mr Trevor Phillips, Chair of the EHRC.

    After all, isn't that what your employer would do given such failure?

    My guess is that the gutless political masters will give Mr Phillips a peerage!

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