About us
Equalities
HM Treasury is the UK’s finance and economics ministry, responsible for setting overall fiscal and economic policy. The Treasury is committed to diversity through exercising its functions and as an employer. The Equality Act requires decisions by public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations with protected groups. This means that the decision maker must have appropriate information when making final decisions.
Equality in policy-making
When advising ministers, officials assess whether there will be an impact on protected groups and consider options that might mitigate negative outcomes. It is Treasury policy to consider potential impact on protected groups and appropriate mitigating actions - this feeds into advice to decision-makers to consider when making decisions.
It is not proportionate for the Treasury, in exercising its functions, to duplicate the responsibilities of other departments by assessing equality impact outside its core responsibilities. Discharging its responsibilities inevitably leads the Treasury to work with departments and to help develop their policy framework. In the area of public finance, the Treasury decides overall budgets whereas departments decide how to spend their budgets. Departments have the responsibility to consider the impact on equalities for decisions on how budgets are spent. For some spending policy areas, in particular welfare, the Treasury has a greater policy making responsibility.
Equality as an employer
As an employer, the Treasury continues to promote equality of opportunity in all employment and management processes in order to make the workforce more representative of the community it serves and to attract and retain talented employees from diverse communities. The Treasury publishes regular information on the diversity of its work force.
Information on diversity and equality is also published in the department’s Annual Report. Historic equality data on the Treasury’s work force is available below:
- Single Equality Scheme 2009-11 (National Archives website)
- Disability Equality Scheme (2006, National Archives website)
- Gender equality scheme (2007, National Archives website)
Further detailed information about the Treasury’s workforce and how it compares to other government departments is available on The Office for National Statistics (ONS) website.
