Welsh Assembly Government`s response to the Equality of Opportunity Committee`s Report on Mainstreaming Equality in the work of the National Assembly for Wales

I welcome this opportunity to respond to the Committee on Equality of Opportunity’s report on mainstreaming equality in the work of the National Assembly. I will concentrate on the recommendations that apply to the Welsh Assembly Government as set out in the Cabinet written statement issued last week. The Deputy Presiding Officer, on behalf of the House Committee, has issued his own written statement addressing the recommendations that fall within his areas of responsibility. The Permanent Secretary has done likewise.

Equality is one of the National Assembly’s core values. Under section 120 of the Government of Wales Act 1998, we have a duty to promote equality of opportunity for all people regardless of gender, age, race, religion and belief, disability or sexual orientation. The Assembly has some significant achievements in promoting equality and tackling discrimination. We now need to make such achievements an every day occurrence by mainstreaming equality into each of the Assembly’s policies and services.

In recent years there has been a change of attitude towards equality. We have moved from seeing equal opportunities as a final thought or gesture, featuring token measures and consideration, to a recognition of the need to build equality into all that we do. The issue of mainstreaming, therefore, stands out as an exciting opportunity, mixed with a great responsibility to make it work. There is important and creative work to be done, but we should not underestimate the great challenge that this will be for the Assembly. Mainstreaming is not an easy notion; it is complex and long term, but we must make it commonplace in our planning, policy-making and delivery. It requires the development of new approaches, fresh ways of looking at policy formulation, implementation and review. Furthermore, it requires the commitment of Members and officials throughout the Assembly, if we are to create an environment where equality and diversity are valued and celebrated.

I welcome the challenge that this report presents. Following the successful development of the Assembly’s second race equality scheme, I am confident that the Assembly can produce a robust mainstreaming strategy that embeds equality into every part of the Assembly’s work. It is timely that I make this oral statement following the unanimous endorsement of the Assembly’s race equality scheme last week. I am sure that much can be learnt from the development of the race equality scheme. For example, the systems and processes contained in the scheme can be used as a starting point for the formation of systems to mainstream equalities in the other strands of gender, sexual orientation, disability, age and religion.

As a first step to delivering a mainstreaming strategy, I plan to establish a task and finish group, which will be made up of Assembly officials and external members. The group will manage the development of the mainstreaming strategy and consider the implementation of the report’s other recommendations. The terms of reference will be published in the next few weeks, following which, external members will be invited to sit on the group.

The mainstreaming review has also prompted the establishment of the Wales equality reference group, which has been set up to ensure that a wide range of equality interests in Wales have the opportunity to learn about the review. The group has already offered to act as a critical friend during the production of the Assembly’s mainstreaming strategy. This service will be invaluable in helping us to ensure that our strategy is robust and deliverable.

To conclude, I thank the Chair of the Committee, Gwenda Thomas, and all members of the Committee on Equality of Opportunity, for delivering this important review, which provoked a wide-ranging debate on 10 November 2004. As I have already stated, mainstreaming is a complex notion, but the benefits of this approach are clear. Mainstreaming equality should lead to a better understanding of the needs of the people of Wales. In turn, this should lead to the development of policies and services that are responsive to those needs and a reduction in inequalities as a clear outcome and achievement.