It is already well-established that public procurement can and should be used to support social policy objectives, including equality. Public authorities should be considering how they can use procurement in this way through their responsibilities under the existing public sector duties to promote race, disability and gender equality. These duties cover all functions of public authorities, including procurement functions.
Public Sector Equality Duties
Under the existing public sector duties, public authorities must tackle discrimination and harassment and promote equality of opportunity in regards to race, disability and gender. Most public authorities must publish schemes and action plans setting out how they approach the duty. The requirement to publish schemes is part of the 'specific duties' which are placed on Scottish public authorities by Scottish Ministers.
The Equality Act 2010 harmonises and simplifies existing equalities legislation by consolidating the 3 existing duties on race, disability and gender into a new single equality duty. This new single equality duty also extends to sexual orientation, religion and belief, age, gender reassignment and pregnancy and maternity. Scottish Ministers will again place 'specific duties' on Scottish public authorities to assist delivery of the single equality duty. Recent consultation on the scope of the new 'specific duties' included a number of proposals on procurement.
The new single equality duty will not come into force until April 2011 at the earliest. Until then, the requirements of the existing race, disability and gender duties will stay in place.
Factors to be considered in relation to equality and procurement
Equality duties apply to public authorities whether a function is carried out by the authority itself or by an external contractor. Equality considerations should therefore be built into the public procurement process. As such:
- public bodies should embed equality in their contract specifications;
- suppliers should be asked to confirm at pre-qualification stage that they comply with legal requirements on equality;
- taking into consideration the size and nature of the supplier's operation, where relevant to the performance of the particular contract in question, contract specifications could make reference to how tenderers deliver equality.
Contact details:
Hazel Malcolm
Scottish Procurement Directorate, Scottish Government
Telephone: 01412425915
Email: hazel.malcolm@scotland.gsi.gov.uk