These pages do not apply outside Great Britain.
WARNING: The PSED pages on this website have not yet been updated for the Equality and Human Rights Commission's Technical Guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty (link to EHRC), issued in January 2013. More: Guidance and Codes of Practice: Technical guidance.
At the heart of the PSED is the 'general duty' (see below General duty). This requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to -
as regards disability and various other grounds including race and gender. There have been numerous cases on the duty, mainly on what it means to have 'due regard'.
The 'general duty' is is supported by 'specific duties' (see below Specific duties).
The PSED is in addition to the authority's obligations under the normal Equality Act rules, for example on provision of services, public functions and employment. The PSED applies more widely than these other rules (see below What is covered), but focuses on the process of making decisions. The PSED requires that appropriate consideration be given to the need to advance equal opportunity for disabled people etc (see What is 'due regard'?). The PSED does not say that authorities must not discriminate, or must make reasonable adjustments etc - that is the role of other Equality Act provisions: see below Remember the rest of the Equality Act.
There has just been a review of the PSED. This was published in September 2013.
The Minister, Lynne Featherstone, summarised the aim of the duty:
"Just as with previous race, disability and gender equality legislation, the duty aims to ensure that the consideration of issues of equality forms part of the day-to-day routine of decision making and the operational delivery of public bodies."
Lynne Featherstone, Minister for Equalities, 11th July 2011 (link to Hansard).
So the aim is the same as the previous Disability Equality Duty, which the PSED replaces (below History). Organisations across the public sector - including hospitals, local and central government, schools and colleges - are required to be proactive in advancing disability equality, and indeed other forms of equality.
The idea is that disability should be 'mainstreamed'. Disabled people and disability equality should be taken into account from the outset, rather than focusing on individualised responses to specific disabled people. Mainstreaming should help identify from the start unnecessary barriers to equal participation for disabled people, as well as encouraging authorities to take 'positive action' measures where permitted.
The general duty, ie. to have 'due regard', applies to most public bodies, for example central and local government, schools, universites, hospitals and the police. Private companies and voluntary sector organisations are also subject to the general duty so far as they perform a public function. See PSED: General Duty: What bodies are covered by the general duty?. The specific duties are somewhat more limited but should cover most major public bodies.
In the main, the general duty applies to all functions of public bodies, as well as the public functions of private bodies. Some examples include (but are not limited to):
Like the Disability Equality Duty before it, the Public Sector Equality Duty has two parts. First there is the 'general duty'. In broad terms, this obliges public authorities to have due regard to the need to:
The courts have taken the approach the general duty is an important duty which public authorities need to observe, and there are numerous cases in which authorities have been taken to task for failing to do so. For more, see PSED: General Duty.
The second part of the Public Sector Equality Duty is the 'specific' duties. These are designed to support performance of the general duty, and are set out in regulations.
Before April 2011 the 'specific duties' required authorities to produce equality schemes. Those rules no longer apply.
The purpose of the [specific duty] regulations is to help public bodies in the better performance of the equality duty - we should not lose sight of that key point