Making fair financial decisions

Advice and Guidance

Who is this page for?

  • Public sector

Which countries is it relevant to?

    • England flag icon

      England

    • |
    • Scotland flag icon

      Scotland

    • |
    • Wales flag icon

      Wales

The equality duty requires public authorities to demonstrate that they are making financial decisions in a fair, transparent and accountable way, considering the needs and the rights of different members of their community.

This is achieved through assessing the impact that changes to policies and practices could have on different protected groups. 

The duty does not prevent public authorities from making difficult decisions such as reorganisations and relocations, redundancies, and service reductions, nor does it stop public authorities from making decisions which may impact on one group more than another group.

We have issued guidance to assist public authorities leaders and decision-makers to make sure that the process followed to assess the impact on equality of financial proposals is robust, and the impact financial proposals could have on protected groups is thoroughly considered before any decisions are arrived at.

Guidance on Making Fair Financial Decisions

Assessment of HM Treasury (S.31)

Using its unique powers, the Commission conducted a section 31 Assessment of the extent to which HM Treasury met its legal obligations to consider the impact of Spending Review decisions on protected groups. For an update on the work please see our follow-up report.

Last updated: 19 Feb 2019

Further information

If you think you might have been treated unfairly and want further advice, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service.

Phone: 0808 800 0082
Textphone: 0808 800 0084

You can email using the contact form on the EASS website.

Also available through the website are BSL interpretation, web chat services and a contact us form.

Post:
FREEPOST
EASS HELPLINE
FPN6521

Opening hours:

9am to 7pm Monday to Friday
10am to 2pm Saturday
closed on Sundays and Bank Holidays

Alternatively, you can visit our advice and guidance page.