Government Equalities Office
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| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | October 2007 |
| Jurisdiction | England |
| Headquarters | London, England |
| Annual budget | £65 million in 2011-12 |
| Minister responsible |
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| Website | gov.uk/government/organisations/government-equalities-office |
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is part of the Department for Education (DfE) of HM Government. It was created in October 2007 when the Women and Equality Unit, based within the Department for Communities and Local Government was converted into an independent department. The department was subsequently merged into the Home Office, before transferring to the DCMS on 4 September 2012 following a Cabinet reshuffle. In July 2014, it was transferred to the Department for Education in that Cabinet reshuffle.
It has lead responsibility for gender equality within the UK government, together with a responsibility to provide advice on all other forms of equality (including age, race, sexual orientation and disability) to other UK government departments. The day-to-day responsibility for policy on these issues was not transferred to GEO when it was created.
The Equalities Office currently leads the Discrimination Law Review, which developed the Equality Act 2010 that replaced previous anti-discrimination legislation.
The Government Equalities Office Ministers are as follows:
The budget for the Equalities Office reached £76 million in 2010-11. Following the spending review this is set to decrease each year, to £47.1 million in 2014-15.
In June 2011 it emerged that female staff at the Equalities Office received 7.7% more pay then males on average. The information came to light following a Freedom of Information request by MP Dominic Raab. The enquiry also revealed that almost two thirds of the department's 107 staff were female. Raab criticised the department for double standards, stating "It undermines the credibility of the equality and diversity agenda, if bureaucrats at the government equalities office are preaching about unequal representation and the pay gap, whilst practising reverse". The differences between the genders became marked from 2008 under the leadership of Harriet Harman with the pay gap almost doubling from that time and six out of seven new jobs going to women.
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