We support the commencement of Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 – the ‘socio-economic duty’. This duty would require certain public authorities to have due regard for how their strategic decision-making about their public function could reduce the inequalities of outcome that result from socio-economic disadvantage. It has already been commenced in Scotland (as the Fairer Scotland Duty) and in Wales, issuing guidance for public bodies on its implementation. It has not yet been commenced in England. The Equality Act doesn’t apply at all in Northern Ireland, so there we support the creation of equivalent legislation.
What we’re doing
We are the only religion or belief organisation that is a full member of Equally Ours, the national coalition of groups interested in equality.
We campaign for socio-economic inclusion as part of our work challenging religious discrimination in school admissions. Many faith schools are their own admissions authorities, which means they can give preference to children from families that share their religion. It leads to segregation not only along religious but also socio-economic lines. Faith school populations are often far from representative of their local communities – for example, they admit far fewer children eligible for free school meals. Among its benefits, it is envisioned that the commencement of the socio-economic duty would lead to local authorities conducting strategic reviews of application processes in state-funded schools, for example by analysing the impact of its campaign to inform parents about the application process, looking particularly at different neighbourhoods.
We support the 1forEquality Campaign, hosted by Just Fair, which calls for the commencement, implementation and enforcement of the socio-economic duty.
In June 2025 we co-signed the 1forEquality Alliance’s submission to the Office for Equality and Opportunity’s Equality Law call for evidence on the subject. The 1forEquality Campaign’s recommendations included taking a holistic approach that addresses combined and cumulative discrimination, using data effectively in decision-making, and working in partnership with people with lived experience of socio-economic disadvantage.
In February 2025, we signed a joint submission to the UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) ahead of its periodic review of the UK. The statement called for the commencement of the socio-ecomonic duty. In 2023, we signed an earlier joint submission to CESCR in advance of its pre-sessional work for its periodic review of the UK. The statement raised concerns about attempts to weaken the Human Rights Act, the erosion of the universality of human rights, and the difficulty people have in accessing their economic, social and cultural rights.
As a consequence, the Committee recommended that the UK ‘enact the outstanding provisions of the Equality Act 2010, in particular part 1 (1), on the public sector duty regarding socioeconomic inequalities’.