Council piloting data collection to meet its Equality Duty

Press Release

24 January 2012

Melton Borough Council will be collecting personal information from customers for one week as part of a pilot scheme.  This follows recent guidance published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on how public authorities can meet their Equality Duty in line with the Equality Act 2010. 

From 30 January 2012 customers making contact with the Council in person or by phone will be asked a few brief questions about their age, gender, sexual orientation and religion.  This information will be used to monitor service delivery and help inform how services could improve to ensure there is fair and equal access for all the Community.

Cllr Pam Posnett – Lead Member for Equalities at Melton Borough Council said:

“I am delighted that the Council are taking a proactive approach to collecting equalities information following the introduction of the Equality Act.  This information will help us build a picture of what services our customers are likely to require.   We are not just being nosey – asking these questions can help us to improve the services we deliver to our Communities. The monitoring will tell us if there are certain groups of people who aren’t using particular services, so we can address this to ensure everyone gets fair and equal access to our services – regardless of their age, disability, gender, race, religion/belief or sexual orientation.  I think this is a really positive step in making services accessible to all and tailored towards the individual needs of each and every customer.” 

The information collected is confidential under Data Protection Legislation and will not be passed onto anyone else or used to check citizenship status or nationality.  Customers will not be obliged to provide the information being requested.   

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