The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 inserted into the 1995 Act the requirement for the Department to carry out certain specific disability equality duties. In particular, it is required to publish, and periodically review, a Disability Equality Scheme which sets out how it intends to carry out its disability equality duties. DWP and its constituent businesses published its first Disability Equality Schemes on 1 December 2006.
Impact assessing the Department’s policies and services and preparation of the Disability Equality Schemes took some months to complete and involved all of the Department’s businesses. Action plans will take some time to deliver. Identifying expenditure on these activities would be disproportionate to the costs. However some costs are clearly identifiable. These amount to £645,000 and include spending on the central team which co-ordinated and planned publication of the Schemes, the costs of publication and liaison with the businesses. This figure also includes the cost involved in producing Gender Equality Schemes and progress reports on Race Equality Schemes which were published with the Disability Equality Schemes.
There will be ongoing implementation costs to the Department in delivering and reviewing action plans every three years and reporting on progress against the plans on an annual basis.