[Earl Piggott-Smith]

Ehammond Wrote:In early September, we'll be publishing the next in our series of policy briefings. Number 12 will look at the role that scrutiny can play in influencing, examining and using equality impact assessments in its work.

EIAs are now carried out on a regular basis in local authorities, and in partner organisations, whenever major policy changes are planned. However, in many places they are viewed as an add-on, retrospective process, not a means by which thinking about equality can be "mainstreamed" into substantive policy-making. As such, councils and their partners risk making decisions which, which they may not be prima facie illegal under the Equality Act, still unnecessarily disadvantage certain sections of the community.

The briefing will look at the role that scrutiny can play in emphasing the importance of equality in policy-making.

I know that there are some good examples in a number of authorities of scrutiny reviews which touch on this issue, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to ask if any of you have any other examples or thoughts on the matter that I can feed in.

Hi Ed, we have had discussions about the role of EIA during scrutiny discussions on planned budget changes - it would be helpful if your briefing could provide guidance to members about how they should look at the information as part of their scrutiny role and in particular the level of detail they should expect to see - but without creating too much work for the officers involved