The equalities minister, Lynne Featherstone, has launched a consultation on how to make public sector organisations more transparent as part of their obligations under the Equality Duty which is planned to come into force in April 2011.

The minister has stated that, under the new duty, the steps taken by public bodies to reduce inequality would become more transparent because the amount of information they had to publish would increase.

The coalition says this will make them more accountable to the people who actually fund and use their services 'rather than civil servants in Whitehall'.

Following its introduction, she says that people will be able to see exactly what public sector organisations are doing to tackle inequality. This fits with the government agenda to “put taxpayers in control of holding public bodies to account”.

Using Conservative language the Lib Dem MP also said that the new approach will mark the “end to top down targets and box ticking bureaucracy with public bodies focussing on red tape rather than results”.

Instead, the government will require public bodies to publish data on their equality results in their services and their workforce “empowering the public by giving them the information they need to hold organisations to account”.

The public sector Equality Duty will replace three separate duties that require government departments, local authorities and other public bodies to take into account gender, race and disability equality both as employers and when making policy decisions and delivering services. The duty simplifies this requirement as well as extending it to fully cover age, religion and belief, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.

The public sector Equality Duty is part of the Equality Act 2010, which was introduced by and passed under the Labour government and is due to come into force in April 2011. It will cover a range of public bodies, including government departments, local authorities, schools, police authorities and NHS trusts. A full list of bodies is included in the consultation document.

The consultation closes on 10 November 2010.

To access the document, go to: http://equalities.gov.uk/news/specific_duties_consultation.aspx