Minutes of the 57th meeting of the Board of the Equality and Human
Rights Commission
held on 31 March 2015 at the Commission’s London Office,
Fleetbank House, 2-6 Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8JX
Attending:
Commissioners
Onora O’Neill (Chair)
Ann Beynon
Laura Carstensen
Mark Hammond
Chris Holmes
Susan Johnson
Kaliani Lyle (by video conference)
Lorna McGregor (items 7-12)
Sarah Veale
Caroline Waters
Officers
Colin Douglas, Director, “Is Britain Fairer?”
Melanie Field, Director, Corporate Affairs
Jayne Hardwick (items 1-5), Programme Director, Human Rights
Rebecca Hilsenrath, Chief Legal Officer
Curtis Juman, Chief Resources Officer
Richard Mabbitt, Board Secretary
Alastair Pringle, National Director, Scotland (by video conference)
Marc Verlot, Director Research and Intelligence
Ben Wilson, Director of Communications
Observers
Rob Greig, Disability Committee
George Perfitt, Digital and Internal Communications Officer
David Ware, GEO (items 6-15)
Apologies
Commissioner Evelyn Asante-Mensah
Commissioner Swaran Singh
Kate Bennett, National Director, Wales
1
1.
Venue information, attendance and apologies
1.1
The Chair welcomed attendees and noted Evelyn Asante-Mensah’s
and Swaran Singh’s apologies for absence. David Ware was
observing the meeting on behalf of the Government Equalities Office.
Rob Greig was observing as part of his Disability Committee member
induction. George Perfitt, newly appointed Digital and Internal
Communications Officer, was also observing.
2.
Declarations of interest:
2.1
The Board reviewed the Register of Commissioners’ Interests, which
had recently been updated by Commissioners. Board members felt
that it would be timely to review the format and supporting guidance
for declarations of interest, and for declarations of gifts and hospitality.
They felt that there were risks around inconsistent completion of the
register, and asked for reconsideration of the headings under which
interests were currently declared in future updates. Action: Melanie
Field to consider revisions to declarations process and guidance as
part of the wider review of the Governance Framework
2.2
For the purposes of the present meeting, no interests additional to
those noted in the Register of Commissioners’ Interests were
declared.
3.
Minutes of the previous meeting
3.1
The minutes of the Board’s 56th meeting of 26 February 2015 (EHRC
57.01) were agreed as a correct record and signed off by the Chair.
4.
Matters arising from the minutes of previous meetings
4.1
The Board reviewed the log of action points (EHRC 57.02) and was
content with progress overall.
4.2
Laura Carstensen and Rebecca Hilsenrath gave an update on the
investigation into the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) (minute
55/4.2). The working relationship with the MPS remained positive, and
the evidence-gathering stage of the investigation was well under way.
For administrative reasons (e.g. fairness at work and disciplinary
cases not being held centrally) the MPS was experiencing difficulties
meeting deadlines for providing evidence to the investigation. The
Commission’s investigation team was monitoring the situation and at
its last meeting with MPS had agreed a revised schedule and
2
measures to facilitate the provision of material to the inquiry. The
evidence-gathering process was by its nature iterative, and a phased
approach was proving helpful. Thus far, around 70 individual
submissions to the investigation had been made. Fairness at work
advisers to the MPS had also made contact with the Commission. A
meeting with the National Black Police Association was scheduled for
April and other stakeholder meetings were planned. A head of
investigation had been appointed, with the next stage of the
investigation being to assess written information in detail and oral
evidence hearings to probe emerging themes further. The Board
noted Stonewall’s interest in the investigation, and suggested
contacting an organisation such as the Gay Police Association.
4.3
Overall, the Board was content with the progress of the investigation.
It noted the need for the Commission to balance the constructive
relationship that had been established with MPS with the need to
preserve its ability to exercise its statutory powers.
4.4
On NHRI reaccreditation, the Board noted positive feedback about the
Commission’s work from David Langtry and Murray Hunt at the
Commission’s joint seminar with FCO on 5 March. Board members
also noted the wide coverage and largely positive reaction to the
Commission’s statement on the future of the Human Rights Act, and
expressions of support for the Commission’s position following
criticism in one newspaper.
4.5
Other actions had been completed, were in hand or would be
addressed under later agenda items.
5.
“Is Britain Fairer?2015”
5.1
The Board reflected on its pre-meeting briefing and discussion on IBF.
Board members remained content with the broad approach being
taken by the IBF team, the measurement framework that had been
developed, the structure of the proposed Evidence Papers and the
review’s evidence sources. Board members noted the issues
emerging from IBF evidence and discussions with stakeholders.
5.2
Board members supported the Commissioner Working Group’s view
that delivering the report for publication in October was achievable but
challenging. The distractions of an election period and a new
government along with diffuse ministerial and departmental
responsibilities for many IBF-related issues posed particular risks to
timely buy-in by Departments. The Commission had already sought to
3
engage Departments and would continue to seek their support to
mitigate this risk. But it also needed to make clear that the publication
deadline was non-negotiable. The Board agreed that if, in the
absence of timely input, the Commission felt compelled to publish
without full departmental sign off it would do so.
5.3
Board members agreed that the publication would be a very
significant output, but that the work that would spring from the report’s
robust and comprehensive data would be ongoing. The Chair thanked
the IBF team for its earlier briefing, and re-iterated the Board’s
support for the high priority being given to the IBF project.
6.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR) Strategy
6.1
Sarah Veale (Chair of the Commissioner Working Group (CWG) on
treaty monitoring) introduced paper EHRC 57.03. This laid out in
detail the proposed strategy for the Commission’s work on ICESCR,
including 'thematic areas of focus' for inclusion in the Commission's
submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic Social and
Cultural rights (UN-CESCR).
6.2
The Commissioner Working Group, in response to Board feedback at
its last meeting, had reviewed its proposals and now additionally set
out:
6.3
a)
potential options ranked against the prioritisation criteria in the
Commission’s Treaty Monitoring Strategy;
b)
further discussion of a proposed more focussed approach to the
adequate standard of living theme;
c)
clarification of how the submission would present qualified
rights;
d)
an outline shadow submission to UN-CESCR on the UK’s
implementation of ICESCR.
The Board felt the additional information was helpful, and noted that
a)
no new funding was being sought for additional work (the Board
noted the links to existing work by the Commission and other
parties);
4
b)
the scope of the proposed section on an adequate standard of
living had been narrowed significantly, and now would be taken
alongside the right to social security (where the Commission
had a strong evidence base) rather than attempting to integrate
with other ESC rights.
c)
‘adequate standard of living’ was contextual to the UK rather
than an abstract standard for all states;
d)
Other UK NHRIs would be giving prominence to the right to an
adequate standard of living, and even if the Commission did not
address it at this stage, it would be the subject of later scrutiny
and there was a reputational risk of not having addressed it
adequately initially.
6.4
The Board was content with the proposals for themes to include in
and exclude from the Commission’s ICESCR submission. It was
content that adequate standard of living be included as the lead topic.
Action: Sarah Veale and Rebecca Hilsenrath to take forward,
sharing the final submission with the Board in July before its
submission to UN- CESCR on 31 July. The Chair noted the Board’s
appreciation of CWG members’ and lead officer Jeremy Bloom’s work
on taking this project forward.
7.
Chairs’ and Chief Executive’s updates
7.1
The Board noted the log of Chair’s and Chief Executive’s activities set
out in EHRC Info Paper 57.02 with no comments.
7.2
Disability Commissioner Chris Holmes:
a)
provided an update on the Disability Committee, which had held
a productive meeting and engagement event with Wales
Stakeholders in Cardiff on 27 March. This was the first of the
Disability Committee’s stakeholder events, with further sessions
planned in Manchester (July) and Glasgow (September);
b)
outlined progress on the Commission’s sport programme. Good
outcomes had been generated with Premiership Rugby on
increasing access to the sport for Black and Minority Ethnic
groups, and women and girls. Good progress on increasing
participation in and access to cricket was also being made with
5
the England and Wales Cricket Board, and discussions
continued with football bodies.
c)
highlighted the forthcoming House of Lords ad hoc PostLegislative Scrutiny Committee Inquiry on the impact on
disabled people of the Equality Act 2010. This Inquiry,
commencing in June, would consider if the public and private
sectors were fulfilling statutory obligations to enable disabled
people to participate fully in society with dignity and respect.
Disability Committee members had felt that the Commission
was well placed to inform the Inquiry. The Board agreed that
this Inquiry (and potentially other scheduled House of Lord ad
hoc inquiries on the built environment; on sexual violence in
conflict zones; and on social mobility) could be significantly
enhanced by the Commission’s input. Action: Chris Holmes
and Melanie Field to arrange for Disability Committee’s input to
the Commission’s response to the Inquiry.
7.3
Wales Commissioner Ann Beynon welcomed the Disability
Committee’s engagement with the Wales Committee and Welsh
stakeholders. The Wales Committee had met on 25 February and
draft minutes would be circulated shortly for information. The meeting
had discussed possible changes to the devolution settlement, in
advance of publication of the St. David’s Day Declaration on 27
February. The Committee had provided some positive feedback on
the draft statutory committee governance arrangements. Like other
Wales Committee meetings, this one held in Merthyr Tydfil had been
useful in flagging geographical issues, in this case difficulties faced by
separated parents within Merthyr’s sizable Polish community in
accessing appropriate benefits.
7.4
The Board noted the draft minutes of the Scotland Committee
meeting of 18 February. Scotland Commissioner Kaliani Lyle noted
that the Committee’s informal meeting, which would include
discussion of practical arrangements in support of the clarified
governance arrangements for the Commission’s statutory
committees, had been postponed until 20 April. She also noted
positive feedback form a range of organisations on the Commission’s
role and positioning.
7.5
Laura Carstensen, Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee
(ARAC), asked the Board to confirm the composition of the
Committee, in the light of new Commissioners arriving and some
6
Commissioners now less than a year away from the end of their
terms. The Board agreed ARAC’s composition as follows:
Chair
Commissioner member
Commissioner member
Independent member
Independent member
Laura Carstensen (current interim chair);
Ann Beynon (in post)
Susan Johnson (new).
Dean Parker (in post)
Roger Dunshea (in post)
The Board felt it would be advisable to identify a replacement for Ann
Beynon early to ensure a smooth transition when her term as
Commissioner expired in March 2016. Action: Onora O’Neill and
Mark Hammond: to identify interested Commissioner candidates.
7.6
Caroline Waters, as Chair of the Human Resources and
Remuneration Committee (HRRC), provided an update on areas
under the Committee’s remit. The high-level findings of the cultural
survey had been disseminated to staff, and work was underway to
build on the vision of an ideal culture across the organisation. The Job
Evaluation exercise was substantively complete, with relevant staff
and managers due to be notified on 2 April. The Committee was
satisfied overall with the Commission’s direction of travel on human
resources and remuneration policy and practice.
7.7
The Board agreed to delegate to the HRRC Chair final sign-off of the
Commission’s equality objectives, incorporating some late
amendments agreed with the Trade Union Side. The Board noted that
these amendments comprised increasing the targets for disabled staff
at Levels 4 and 5 over a four-year period; and improving the
proportion of BME staff at Level 5 and above to match the BME
proportion of all staff over a four year period. The Board noted that the
objectives had originally been set when the Commission was
significantly larger and that the next iteration of the Commission’s
equality objectives would be developed alongside its Strategic Plan
and Business Plan. Action: Caroline Waters and Curtis Juman to
sign off and arrange for publication of the equality objectives.
8.
Communications update
8.1
Ben Wilson updated the Board on external media coverage, including:
a)
widespread and positive coverage of the report on religion or
belief in the workplace and service delivery, both in mainstream
and faith based publications;
7
b)
reaction to the Commission’s letter to the Joint Committee on
Human Rights (JCHR) on the implications of potential reform or
repeal of the Human Rights Act. The one instance of negative
reporting was not unexpected. Board members remained
content that the contents of the letter were accurate, measured
and in keeping with the Commission’s statutory functions, and
noted the significant expressions of support and positive
reaction to the Commission’s clarified position on this issue;
c)
sympathetic reporting in The Observer of the Commission’s
highlighting of low levels of inclusion and accessibility at
Premiership football grounds, in the light of recent broadcasting
rights deals;
d)
positive reporting of the Commission’s research into prejudicebased bullying in schools in Scotland.
8.2 Internally, work was in train around communicating the Great Place
outcomes of the Commission’s culture survey. Improvements were
being made to the Commission’s intranet, and ongoing improvements
to the website were being rolled out.
8.3
Ben Wilson highlighted the Government’s pre-election guidance for
Departments and arm’s length bodies that had been sent separately
to Commissioners. The Board was content that some communications
outputs were being delayed because of the rules on the protected
period, and others (that fell outside the rules) because effective
dissemination was unlikely in the busy pre-election and immediate
post-election periods.
8.4
The Board discussed the implications for the Commission’s
intelligence-gathering of having lost its helpline service, and the
possibilities of using the website to help fill this gap. The Board
discussed the role of individual Commissioners’ Twitter Accounts (and
other social media channels). Currently the Commission saw
individuals’ tweets as supplementary channels for its messages.
Commissioners who tweeted, or made other interventions on social
media, needed to be mindful of the ethos of these channels, with the
individual’s role as a Commissioner not always being easily
perceptible from their other roles in an open source environment. Retweeting @EHRC tweets was unlikely to be problematic in this
respect and was encouraged. Communications officers were available
8
to advise Commissioners as required. A collective Board Twitter
account might be a further option.
8.5
The Chair thanked Ben Wilson for the update and asked him to
consider the points raised in discussion by Commissioners. Action:
Ben Wilson and Caroline Waters to have Board comments in mind
when reviewing the ongoing implementation of the Commission’s
Communication Strategy.
9.
Resource, Performance and Risk reports
9.1
Resource, Performance and Risk Reports for Period 10 (EHRC
57.04) and Period 11 (EHRC 57.05) had been circulated to the Board.
Curtis Juman flagged key points.
9.2
Programme deliverables and people and organisational development
outcomes had been underpinned by sound financial performance. At
the end of February the Commission’s spend and forecast was within
financial controls. The Commission was seeking approval to carry
forward to 2015/16. The £0.5 million discretionary programme funding
underspend related to delayed ministerial approval of funding bids.
Approval from DCMS had been received to use the £0.3m core
programme underspend in support of the Cardiff office move and for
additional leavers under the voluntary exit scheme.
9.2
Reviewing the reports, the Board noted that:
a)
the 70% target success rate for litigation (met this period) was
an indicative figure, and did not of itself show the difference the
Commission was making in terms of the impact of landmark
cases (such as Moore and Coates v DCLG). It asked for a
further breakdown for information, initially on a quarterly basis.
Action: Rebecca Hilsenrath.
b)
the Commission’s website was now running at 2.1 million
unique visitors, and costing around £45K to run.
c)
The redeployment process was complete. Job evaluation of 61
roles had resulted in six being upgraded.
That the use of interims was still high but decreasing, and each
interim appointment needed to be demonstrably strategic.
Interim appointments to the Corporate Law team had been
made in the light of the review of the Commission’s Legal
d)
9
directorate when the long term future of these posts had been
uncertain.
e)
contracts had been finalised for the new Cardiff office and IT
infrastructure upgrade.
9.3 The Board remained content that the Commission was on track
materially to deliver its Business Plan within overall financial controls.
The Period 12 end of year report would be circulated to the Board in
April.
10.
Strategic Risk Register
10.1 Curtis Juman introduced the Strategic Risk Register. The Board was
content that strategic risks were well-documented, and appropriate
mitigation was in place. The Board was pleased with how the
Commission’s risk management approach had improved over the last
12 months.
11.
Information and routine decision papers
11.1 The Board noted the update on the Commission’s External
Engagement Strategy (EHRC Info Paper 57.03) with no comments
11.2 The Board was content with progress on the review of the
Governance Framework as set out in EHRC Info Paper 57.04.
12.
Any other business
12.1 The Board was concerned that the DCMS Permanent Secretary’s
letter of 27 March to all DCMS arm’s length bodies, which nominally
related to controls on political lobbying or lobbying for funding, was
worded in such a way that it might be read to interfere with the
Commission carrying out its statutory functions. Action: Mark
Hammond to seek urgent clarification.
[Post-meeting note: the Private Secretary to the DCMS Permanent
Secretary provided written clarification that the intention of the letter
was to ensure that Arm’s Length Bodies do not spend taxpayers’
money on political lobbying or lobbying for funding, and confirmed that
it did not prevent the Commission carrying out its statutory functions.]
12.2 The Board noted that with the Board now up to complement, and with
members based geographically wider, updated video-conferencing
10
facilities would be likely to facilitate meetings and save travel costs
and Commissioners’ time, especially for shorter meetings (typically
ARAC meetings) and bilaterals.
12.3 The Board welcomed the appointment of Melanie Field as Executive
Director Strategy and Policy from 1 April.
12.4 With no other business being raised for discussion by Board
members, the Chair closed the meeting, reminding attendees that the
next meeting would take place on 28 May 2015.
Agreed by the Board at its meeting of 28 May 2015 and signed by the
Chair:
11