Legal equality duty for public services should be scrapped, says Badenoch

Legal equality duty for public services should be scrapped, says Badenoch1 hour agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePA MediaRules requiring public bodies such as schools and hospitals to promote equality when making decisions should be scrapped, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will say in a speech on Tuesday. In what the party says is the first step in a wider programme to "restore common sense", Badenoch will argue that the Public Sector Equality Duty has been used to promote "dangerous and divisive agendas".She will say it has "become a minefield that exposes almost every significant public decision to legal challenge".The Labour government, meanwhile, is promising a new equality and diversity strategy with a primary focus on getting working class people joining and progressing in the civil service.Civil service interns must be working class, government saysDiversity backlash: Is 'masculine energy' coming to the UK?Badenoch's speech comes after the murder of Henry Nowak and the police's response fuelled questions about equality policies and laws. The Conservatives are trying to forge a distinct response from both Labour, who have strengthened equality protections, and Reform UK, who want to go further than the Tories and scrap the Equality Act altogether.The Public Sector Equality Duty, which applies in England, Scotland and Wales, requires public bodies and bodies carrying out public functions to eliminate unlawful discrimination. It also states that public authorities should "advance equality of opportunity between people who share and people who do not share a relevant protected characteristic". Protected characteristics include age, disability, race, pregnancy, sex and sexual orientation. Government guidance says the duty should "always be applied in a proportionate way" depending on the circumstances of the case and that organisations should avoid an "overly bureaucratic and burden...