The extent and effect of equality considerations in the development of UK law and policy in other areas

在英国退出欧盟后的一段时间里，政府将需要考虑在政治和法律的环境发生变化的情况下，英国的平等框架应该是什么样子。它将遇到的一个困难是，国内和国际法律的义务和社会/政治惯例产生了错综复杂的平等义务和惯例。与有宪法的国家不同，我们没有一套明确的书面平等原则，而且平等一般不被理解为具有牢固的宪法地位。尽管法律和其他来源的平等考虑得到了考虑，并且是制定许多其他领域的法律和政策的重要指导原则，但情况仍然如此。这样，平等考虑因素影响到其他领域许多政治和立法活动的最终产品，无论是明确的-例如，2006年《国民保健制度法》第1C条中的健康不平等义务-还是隐含的，以法律设计的方式。本研究的目的是准确调查行政部门在实践中考虑了哪些平等因素，政府立法和司法部门在其他领域的法律和政策制定活动中的作用，以及产生的影响。研究结果将有助于辩论平等保护在英国是否具有根深蒂固的宪法地位，并可能有助于在日益不稳定和不确定的法律的和政治背景下发展保护最低平等框架的案例，在这种背景下，平等权利可能会受到损害，现有的平等法律框架很可能会被大幅修订。与政府行政、立法和司法部门成员（联合王国各民族和地区）进行访谈的形式，选择这些成员是因为他们对广泛部门的法律和政策有了解，了解他们在制定其他领域的法律和政策时考虑到了哪些平等因素，以及产生了哪些影响。我亦会考虑这些资料的现有来源（政府白色文件、立法局议事录、法庭判词）。这三个政府部门共同提出并制定了英国大部分的法律和政策。如果这三个部门都认真对待平等问题，那么联合王国的大部分立法、普通法和政策很可能是在制定时考虑到平等问题的，无论是否具体提到平等问题，这都可能影响到其形式和实质。

In the period following Britain's exit from the EU, the Government will need to consider what Britain's equality framework should look like in a changed political and legal landscape. One difficulty it will encounter is the complicated maze of equality obligations and conventions in this country deriving from domestic and international legal obligations and social/political convention. Unlike countries with a constitutional code, we do not have one clear set of written equality principles and equality is not generally understood to have entrenched or constitutional status. This is despite the fact that equality considerations deriving from law and other sources are taken into account and represent an important guiding principle in the development of many other areas of law and policy. In this way, equality considerations affect the final product of many political and legislative activities in other areas whether explicitly - for example, the health inequalities duty in section 1C of the NHS Act 2006 - or implicitly, in the way the law has been designed.Against this background, the aim of this research is to investigate precisely what equality considerations are taken into account in practice by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government in their law and policy making activities in other areas, and to what effect. The research findings will contribute to the debate about whether equality protections have entrenched or constitutional status in the UK, and may assist in developing the case for protection of a minimum equality framework in an increasingly unstable and uncertain legal and political context in which equality rights are likely to suffer and the existing equality law framework is very likely to be substantially revised.My methodology involves primary research in the form of interviews with members of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government (across the nations and regions of the UK), chosen for their understanding of law and policy in a wide range of sectors, about what equality considerations they take into account when they develop law and policy in other areas, and to what effect. I will also consider existing sources of such information (Government white papers; Hansard; Court judgments). Together, these three branches of government propose and create most of Britain's law and policy. If all three branches take equality considerations seriously, then much of the legislation, common law and policy of the UK is likely to have been created taking equality considerations into account, which is likely to have affected its form and substance whether or not equality is specifically mentioned.