1. How is the Welsh Government monitoring the implementation of the Equality Act 2010 in Wales? OAQ54657

We work closely with the Equality and Human Rights Commission Wales, who are the regulator of the Equality Act 2010. The commission published sectoral briefings of their latest monitoring exercise earlier in the summer.

Thank you. The Equality Act 2010 requires—and I'm quoting here—that service providers must think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people. In doing this, it says it's a good idea to consider the range of disabilities that your actual or potential service users might have and that you should not wait until a disabled person experiences difficulties using a service. It also says that those to whom the provisions apply are required to take such steps as is reasonable to take to avoid putting disabled people at a substantial disadvantage, where failure to comply with this duty is a form of discrimination. And this reflects the social model of disability, requiring changes to the environment, as well as attitudinal and behavioural changes. And yet, every day, I'm having to write, currently, casework relating to child safeguarding, access to education, exclusions from schools and colleges, access to care and support from social services and access to health services in Wales, and having to repeat the content of this legislation to the same service providers I've repeated it to previously. This is a failure of monitoring. How are we not only going to manage the change to ensure that these public bodies at the top floor understand what this means, but then also monitor to ensure that they actually implement it?

Well, I thank Mark Isherwood for that question, because it is for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to regulate the public sector equality duty, and work was commissioned last year, in 2018, to monitor that compliance. The findings of the exercise, as I said, were published earlier on this year, and, actually, we note in the main finding that none of the public bodies in Wales fully met all of the requirements of the public sector equality duty—the specific duties that were monitored. I'm sure that you have seen the summary of the common issues that have been identified. So, clearly, very significant challenges are there.

I've discussed this with Ruth Coombs, the director of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and I attended an event in July this year. I'm encouraged now that organisations are coming forward and we will back the Equality and Human Rights Commission in taking this seriously, because we are proud that we have got those Welsh-specific duties and we need to make sure that they're implemented. But, I do think that the Member will have been encouraged by, last week, the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services committing herself particularly to those affected by learning disabilities to enable them to lead active and fulfilling lives in caring and stable environments, and I know that the framework that she announced was very much welcomed in terms of the new three-tiered framework for education and training that's going to be developed and will roll out next year.

But also, finally, I'd say that the framework for independent living, 'Action on Disability', is crucial to make sure that we move forward with an action plan that involves all Ministers in this Welsh Government, and, of course, that is to be delivered at local level and by the health sector.

Diolch, Llywydd. I'm sure that the Deputy Minister will agree with me that, when addressing issues in the Equality Act 2010, it's important that the appropriate language is always used. I'm wondering if she shares my concern that there has been an increasing tendency in public discourse to use the terms 'sex' and 'gender' interchangeably. Now, as things stand at present, gender is not a protected characteristic, and I wonder if the Deputy Minister would agree with me that it may be time to update the Equality Act to catch up with the current language. I think the Act, as it stands, refers to people who are transsexual; it doesn't refer specifically to people who are transgender. So, in our view, that Act does need to be modified to accept current good practice. But will the Deputy Minister also agree with me that, in the meantime, it's very important that when referring to discrimination between women and men, public bodies use the term 'sex discrimination' and not 'gender discrimination' because it confuses two separate but very important equality issues?

Well, I appreciate Helen Mary Jones has got a view, as others have, on this issue. I am very content with the advice that we have been given, not just in terms of the Equality Act and how it's been delivered by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, but also by organisations like the Women's Equality Network, who represent women's organisations across Wales, and also by Stonewall Cymru, particularly in terms of their advice in terms of transgender. In fact, not only are we funding Stonewall Cymru, but we are funding them to employ a transgender worker as well. I'm very committed to the outcome of the gender review from Chwarae Teg, which I think has to be the way forward, and certainly the Welsh Government will be reporting soon on our response to that.