The Council has considered the remarks made at the Discussion on 28 April 2009 (Reporter, p. 720) of the Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on a religion and belief equality policy.
The Council notes the remarks made by Mr D. Goode about the need to conduct equality impact assessments and has received the following comments from the Head of Equality and Diversity.
Although the previous Equality and Diversity team did not have the capacity to conduct equality impact assessments (EqIAs) as required by legislation, three EqIAs have been commissioned by the Human Resources Division from Schneider~Ross on the areas of Recruitment, Student Admissions, and Student Attainment. These will be published in draft form in June 2009 on the Division's website, and will also at that time be submitted to the relevant University committees for consideration of the findings and recommendations.
Since the end of 2008, the newly appointed Equality and Diversity team has had the expertise to conduct EqIAs in house and as a result, procedures - which will involve trade union consultation - and a framework to undertake EqIAs are being developed by the team to commence in the next academical year.
The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 5, p. 826) for the approval of the religion and belief equality policy as set out in the Joint Report.