4 governments and employment equality - a comparison of delivery 2021

In the last year, differing approaches to managing the impact of the pandemic taken across the UK by central government and the three devolved administrations, offered data sets which allowed a degree of compare and contrast with how different approaches could deliver different outcomes. It seemed that a similar compare and contrast in examining employment data sets on protected characteristics of government employees could have value in assisting transparency and accountability on how well government eliminates discrimination and delivers measurable equality. This research report provides that comparison.

What became clear in the course of the research is the inherent flaw in the evolution of what has turned out to be 4 different approaches to delivering equality across the UK using 4 different models within a largely similar broad legal framework. The reality is that it is simply not possible to establish clearly and easily which part of the fragmented system is delivering employment equality faster, more effectively or even if at all. It is instead possible to argue that the 4 different approaches help disguise the too slow progress in dismantling discrimination across the UK and, by extension, serve to sustain and disguise the continuation of institutional discrimination across the governments in the UK.