Supposed financial benefits of the Equality Act will be far outweighed by costs, a report published by a think-tank has said.
Statistician Nigel Williams asserts that instead of bringing in savings of £65 million a year, the Equality Act will actually cost £10m a year.
Mr Williams analysed the previous Government’s impact assessment of the Equality Act for his report, which was published by think-tank Civitas.
Imaginary
He commented that with “a little scrutiny”, the “balance of benefits over costs vanishes very rapidly”.
Mr Williams’ report cautioned that the benefits assumed by the impact assessment “requires that no employers be put off recruiting by the weight of regulations”.
And he warned that even the ideological benefits were “debatable at best”.
He said the costs of the Equality Act “far outweigh the benefits, which are largely imaginary” and remarked: “The financial benefits simply do not exist.”
Ludicrous
The Home Office, which is in charge of the Government Equalities Office, said it did not “accept the Civitas assessment”.
In January last year, MPs attacked expensive equality assessments which are part of the Equality Act. Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, described them as “ludicrous and pointless” and Dominic Raab, MP for Esher and Walton, called them “divisive”.
The Equality Act consolidates previous legislation, including the controversial Sexual Orientation Regulations 2007.
The Regulations have been used to target faith-based adoption agencies and Christian-run B&Bs.