The Office for Equality and Opportunity is responsible for leading on equality policy including women’s equality, race equality, LGBT+ equality, disability equality, socio-economic equality and the overall framework of equality legislation for the UK.[2] It contains three smaller equalities units within it known as the Disability Unit, the Race Equality Unit and the Women and Equalities Unit.
Since April 2019, the GEO has been permanently based within the Cabinet Office.[5] In October 2024, the GEO was renamed the Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO).[6]
Equalities framework; legislation and policy on women, disability, LGBT+, and race; equality data and analysis; sponsorship of the Equality and Human Rights Commission
Oversight of Disabilty Unit including disability elements in equality legislation; disability policy and benefits; oversight of Health and Safety Executive
Government spokesperson for Equalities in the House of Lords
Budget
The budget for the GEO reached £76 million in 2010-11. Following a spending review this was set to decrease each year, to £47.1 million in 2014-15.[9] The budget continued to decrease year-on-year, with £16.7 million being allocated in 2019-20.[10]
Governance
The OEO has had different forms over the years. 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:
In June 2011, it emerged that female staff at the GEO 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".[11] 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.[12]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
