Equalities issues
We are opposed to discrimination in any form and our elected members and members of staff work to ensure that everyone in the communities we serve have access to and benefit from the full range of services, regardless of their individual circumstances or backgrounds. We are committed to doing all we can to respect the diverse nature of those who live in, work in and visit the county borough.
The different areas covered by our legal requirements, called “protected characteristics” and other, wider equalities, human rights and language strands are covered in detail in our Strategic Equality Plan. What these are is shown in the list below.
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Gypsies and travellers
- Human Rights
- Linguistic skills
- Marital status
- Nationality
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
- Welsh language
Our Equalities statement covers all the groups that we have a legal duty to consider.
“This Council recognises that people have different needs, requirements and goals and we will work actively against all forms of discrimination by promoting good relations and mutual respect within and between our communities, residents, elected members, job applicants and workforce.
We will also work to create equal access for everyone to our services, irrespective of ethnic origin, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, gender reassignment, religious beliefs or non-belief, use of Welsh, BSL or any other language, nationality, responsibility for any dependents or any other reason which cannot be shown to be justified.”
There is a wide range of legislation and employment regulations we have to consider when making decisions. In Wales, the two most important pieces of legislation are the Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011 and the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011. There are also strong links with Hate Crime and Incidents work under the Community Cohesion banner.