Part of Questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 16 July 2019.
Clearly, the Equality Act 2010 provides those specific duties to ensure that we do protect everyone from discrimination and particularly that includes tackling the gender pay gap. It is the responsibility—. The specific duties that are under the Act ensure that we have to look at those specific duties particularly the gender pay gap, but I would also say that that gender pay gap is something in terms of ensuring that we have the data in terms of the gender pay differences, and we have a gender pay action plan. And I think also we have to recognise that there are also pay gaps that we need to address in terms of ethnicity and disability, and we are looking towards ways in which we can address those as well. But it is important that our Wales-specific duties in terms of the equality Act are there to ensure that we do address these issues, that we have equality impact assessments, we have equality in employment information, and we have that published. And I met with all the local authorities last week to stress the importance of that duty and responsibility.