‘Serious overkill’: Allister rounds on eight-month-long equality law investigation

The commission – with a staff of 69 and a budget of about £5.4m – produced an extremely-complicated 9,000-word report this week, sparked by complaints from The Pat Finucane Centre and The Committee for the Administration of Justice.

The story offers a glimpse into the complex web of equality obligations the government faces if it even wants to consider drafting a policy.

It all began back in early 2020, when the Tory government started signalling it was in the process of drawing up a bill concerning the legacy of the Troubles.

The two groups above asked the Northern Ireland Office (NIO, the wing of government which was drawing the bill up) for a copy of an equality screening form it was using as part of its drafting of the new law.

The NIO did not send them a screening form, so they complained to the Equality Commission.

The commission began investigating the matter in February this year.

Its probe concluded this week.

It found that the NIO had been legally-obliged to provide the complainants with such a form, but it had not done so, because it was not ready.

The commission said that, back in 2020 when a draft bill was being mooted, “the proposals weren’t apparently informed by a specific equality assessment”.

It added: “Screening must be taken into account by policy makers before and at the time that a particular decision or policy is being considered, and not afterwards.”

Mr Allister said: “The response to a complaint about the lack of a screening document is seriously overblown.

“To spend eight months and produce a 9,000 word report into the fact that a form wasn’t sent to the Pat Finucane Centre and the Committee for the Administration of Justice is serious overkill.

“Let us not forget that the Equality Commission is funded from the public purse.

“Did the complaint really merit this amount of time and effort?

“There is a duty on government department to follow the law and no one would argue otherwise but the response of the Equality Commission to these complaints is in stark contrast to the disinterest they have shown in other matters.”