Government Equalities Office

Last updated
Government Equalities Office Logo.svg
Department overview
FormedOctober 2007
Jurisdiction England
Headquarters London, England
Annual budget£16.7 million in 2019-20 [1]
Minister responsible
Parent department Cabinet Office
Website gov.uk/government/organisations/government-equalities-office

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. The office has lead responsibility for gender equality within the UK government, together with a responsibility to provide advice on all other forms of equality (including age, race, sexual orientation and disability) to other UK government departments. The unit is based at the Cabinet Office. Prior to April 2019, the GEO was led concurrently by Cabinet Secretaries at the Home Office, DFID and DfE. The day-to-day responsibility for policy on these issues was not transferred to GEO when it was created. The Equalities Office currently leads the Discrimination Law Review, which developed the Equality Act 2010 that replaced previous anti-discrimination legislation. The current minister responsible for GEO is Kemi Badenoch, who also serves as Secretary of State for Business and Trade in the Rishi Sunak government.

Contents

Ministers

The Government Equalities Office Ministers are as follows, with cabinet members in bold:

MinisterPortraitOfficePortfolio
The Rt Hon. Kemi Badenoch MP Kemi Badenoch official Cabinet Portrait; 2022 (cropped).jpg Minister for Women and Equalities
Secretary of State for Business and Trade
President of the Board of Trade 		Promoting equality of opportunity for everyone, and reducing negative disparities; strategic oversight of Government’s equality policy, for women, ethnicity and LGBT; sponsorship of the Social Mobility Commission and Equality and Human Rights Commission; overview of the overarching equalities legislative framework, including the Equality Act. [2]
Maria Caulfield MP Official portrait of Maria Caulfield crop 2.jpg Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women Driving women’s policy and the government’s wider priorities for women and girls, including tackling violence against women and girls (with the Minister for Safeguarding); tackling maternal and mental health disparities for minority groups. Supporting improvements to the provision and accessibility of childcare to support working parents; progressing the Worker Protection Bill through Parliament; delivery of the government’s Inclusive Britain Action Plan; sponsorship of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. [3]
Stuart Andrew MP Official portrait of Stuart Andrew crop 2, 2021.jpg Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities Advancing the government’s wider priorities for LGBT equality, including: improving LGBT safety, supporting LGBT people fleeing persecution, tackling LGBT homelessness; preparing and progressing the Conversion Practices Bill through pre-legislative scrutiny and then through Parliament; progressing regulations to enable opposite-sex couples to convert their marriage to a civil partnership; sponsorship of the Social Mobility Commission, supporting work on geographic and socio-economic disparities; overview of the overarching equalities legislative framework, including the Equality Act. [4]

Budget

The budget for the Equalities Office reached £76 million in 2010-11. Following the spending review this is set to decrease each year, to £47.1 million in 2014-15. [5] The budget has continued to decrease year-on-year, with £16.7 million being allocated in 2019-20. [6]

Governance

The GEO has had different forms over the years since its creation. It was created in October 2007 when the Women and Equality Unit, based within the Department for Communities and Local Government was converted into an independent department. Since that time it has had various ministerial sponsors and has been housed within several ministerial departments:

DatesCabinet MinisterUnit status
October 2007–May 2010 Harriet Harman Independent department
May 2010–September 2012 Theresa May Home Office
September 2012–April 2014 Maria Miller Department for Culture, Media and Sport
April–July 2014 Nicky Morgan (for women)

Sajid Javid (for equalities)

July 2014–July 2016 Nicky Morgan Department for Education
July 2016–January 2018 Justine Greening
January–April 2018 Amber Rudd Home Office
April 2018–April 2019 Penny Mordaunt Department for International Development
April 2019–September 2019 Cabinet Office
July–September 2019 Amber Rudd
September 2019-September 2022 Liz Truss
September 2022-October 2022 Nadhim Zahawi
October 2022-present Kemi Badenoch

In November 2018, the GEO announced that the unit would move to be part of the Cabinet Office in April 2019. [7]

The GEO's current director as of November 2018 is Hilary Spencer.

Controversies

In June 2011, it emerged that female staff at the Equalities Office received 7.7% more pay than males on average. The information came to light following a Freedom of Information request by MP Dominic Raab. The enquiry also revealed that almost two thirds of the department's 107 staff were female. Raab criticised the department for double standards, stating "It undermines the credibility of the equality and diversity agenda, if bureaucrats at the government equalities office are preaching about unequal representation and the pay gap, whilst practising reverse". [8] The differences between the genders became marked from 2008 under the leadership of Harriet Harman with the pay gap almost doubling from that time and six out of seven new jobs going to women.[ citation needed ]

In an interview about her role, director Hilary Spencer said:

I offer one-off career chats to people, including many women, who are trying to work out whether they can make the leap to the senior civil service and whether that’s compatible with family life. Interestingly, I have very few conversations with men who wonder whether getting to Deputy Director is compatible with family life. There is still a point when women have children where they tend to take the brunt of the childcare and responsibilities. [9]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Cabinet Office (21 July 2020). "Cabinet Office annual report and accounts 2019 to 2020". GOV.UK. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  2. ↑ "Minister for Women and Equalities". GOV.UK. UK Government. Retrieved 11 March 2024. UKOpenGovernmentLicence.svg Text was copied from this source, which is available under an Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.
  3. ↑ "Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women". GOV.UK. UK Government. Retrieved 11 March 2024. UKOpenGovernmentLicence.svg Text was copied from this source, which is available under an Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.
  4. ↑ "Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities". GOV.UK. UK Government. Retrieved 11 March 2024. UKOpenGovernmentLicence.svg Text was copied from this source, which is available under an Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.
  5. ↑ Government Equalities Office Spending Review settlement
  6. ↑ Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP (29 October 2021). "Government Equalities Office finances". Women and Equalities Committee. House of Commons. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  7. ↑ "Government Equalities Office to join Cabinet Office". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  8. ↑ Hope, Christopher (14 June 2011). "Women paid more than men at Government equality body". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  9. ↑ "Meet the woman in charge of gender and equality policy for the UK | Apolitical". Apolitical. Retrieved 2018-04-23.

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