Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many equalities impact assessments her Department completed in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Under the Public Sector Equality Duty, otherwise known as the Duty, all public authorities, including Government departments, are required by law to ensure that they have due regard to certain equality considerations when carrying out their functions. Whilst ‘equality impact assessments’ may be produced, there is no legal requirement for duty assessments to be recorded in a specific format.

We do not centrally monitor assessments in this area but are confident that we are meeting the Duty in our decision-making processes. As a Department, we promote awareness of the Duty, via a number of channels, and the relevant analytical and other tools are available to policy professionals, to help ensure compliance with the Duty.