Application for equality impactassessment “unarguable”
The High Court has dismissed the Fawcett Society’s legal challenge to the Chancellor’s emergency budget.
The Society, which campaigns for equality, claimed the Treasury failed to carry out an equality impact assessment as required by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, s 76A before Chancellor George Osborne’s emergency budget in June. The Society argued that 72% of the £8.1bn spending cuts, which included a cap on housing benefit and a rise in VAT, would be borne by women and therefore the cuts had a “disproportionate” impact on women.
Treasury lawyers conceded that the required equality assessments were not carried out in some areas, and that this was “regrettable”.
Mr Justice Ouseley dismissed the application as “unarguable”, but acknowledged that the impact of the budgetary cuts deserved further scrutiny.
According to the Society’s chief executive, Ceri Goddard, Ouseley J considered such scrutiny best undertaken by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which launched a review last month into the impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review on protected groups.
“There is increased recognition and understanding of the role of equality law generally, and growing demand that women are not forced to bear the brunt of cuts,” Goddard said.
“The issue of women’s rights has inched that little bit closer to its rightful place at the heart of policy making. We hope our case has ensured that neither the government nor any other public body will in future think it appropriate to bypass equality law.”
