HS2 Phase 2a working draft Equality Impact Assessment report

In November 2015 the Secretary of State for Transport announced his decision to bring forward plans for the West Midlands to Crewe section of the HS2 route (known as Phase 2a) to open in 2027, six years ahead of schedule. To obtain the legal powers to build and operate this part of the railway, the Government intends to deposit a hybrid Bill in Parliament by the end of 2017.

As a public body, HS2 Ltd is subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) under the Equality Act 2010. The PSED requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between different people during the design stage, construction and operation of the railway.

HS2 Ltd will develop a formal Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) Report which it intends to publish when the hybrid Bill is deposited. It will contribute towards both enabling and documenting HS2 Ltd’s active fulfilment of its PSED during the design stage of the Proposed Scheme.

In advance of the formal EQIA Report HS2 Ltd has developed a working draft EQIA Report. This presents draft equality information based on the current stage of design of the Proposed Scheme.

It looks at whether HS2 will have a bigger effect, or a different effect, on groups of people because of their age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation, and describes our current understanding of the potential equality effects that may arise. It also explains how we propose to avoid or reduce any adverse equality effects that may occur over the life of the HS2 project.

Responses from the consultation will be considered as the design and assessment is developed and during the production of the formal EQIA Report which we intend to publish when the hybrid Bill is deposited in Parliament.

Events for this consultation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hs2-phase-2a-west-midlands-to-crewe-consultation-information-events-september-to-october-2016

Consultation responses will be published on a publicly accessible website. Individuals’ names, addresses or signatures will not be published. However, please do not include information in your response that could identify you, unless you are happy for it to be made public.

If you do not want any of your response to be published, you should clearly mark it as ‘Confidential’ in the subject line of the email or at the top of your letter. However, please note the following. All information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to disclosure in accordance with access to information regimes - these are, primarily, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Under the FOIA, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals with our confidentiality obligations, amongst other things. In view of this, it would be helpful if you could explain in your response why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information you provide, we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department for Transport or HS2 Ltd.