(SkyNewswire.com)-- The new single equality body has criticised the government’s plans to reform anti-discrimination law.
The existing disability equality duty, brought in through the Disability Discrimination Act, states that public authorities must pay due regard to the promotion of equality for disabled people in every area of their work.
But campaigners have expressed concerns that the government’s green paper on single equalities legislation would scrap the duty.
Public authorities would instead have to set their own priority objectives.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said: "This has the potential to shunt the concept of equality from the core business of public authorities to the margins.
“While some authorities may adopt truly challenging priorities, the commission is concerned that, based on current performance, some authorities will prioritise only the most obvious functions and will fail to explore how equality on one or more of the protected grounds may be relevant to the full range of its functions."
The commission also said that the government’s plans could mean that issues faced by people with mental health difficulties were no longer a priority for public authorities, and could fail to tackle the low unemployment rates among disabled people in the private sector.
And it called for private sector companies to draw up "self-portraits" of their employment practices and devise "self-improvement plans".
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