“Scrapping EIAs will lead to policy being developed in a vacuum, potentially in breach of the Equalities Duty, and ultimately to the detriment of vulnerable groups, whose interests will go ignored,” said Jo Davies, a policy and campaigns officer at the charity, in an opinion piece for CSW.
David Cameron said in a speech to the CBI last month: “Caring about [equality] does not have to mean churning out reams of bureaucratic nonsense.”
The coalition is “calling time on Equality Impact Assessments,” he said. “You no longer have to do them if these issues have been properly considered. That way policy-makers are free to use their judgement and do the right thing to meet the equalities duty, rather than wasting their own time and taxpayers’ money.”
He also said that the government will reduce the time limit for people to bring judicial reviews, and charge more for people to launch them.
The coalition will reduce the minimum time for consultations to two weeks, Cameron said, adding: “If there is no need for a consultation, then don’t have one.”