Resource Implications: The following financial and manpower implications were included in the Proposition for the Discrimination Law (P.6/2013), lodged in January 2013. No additional financial or manpower implications have been identified since that date. Policy - The cost of continuing to develop and prepare legislation for further characteristics and making the necessary preparations for the enactment and enforcement of the draft Law is anticipated to be a maximum of £100,000 in each year. Advice, conciliation and enforcement - In 2015, costs are estimated to be £200,000 which includes the full year cost of enforcing the Law via the Tribunal (including Tribunal members pay for additional hearings and the increased usage of the service generally), the advisory services provided by JACS and CAB, and the costs of continuing to develop and prepare legislation for further characteristics. In subsequent years, enforcement and advisory costs are expected to increase slightly as each new protected characteristic is introduced, up to a maximum cost of £300,000 once all of the protected characteristics are in place. The above costs will be met from within resources approved in the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) and carry-forward funds. States Human Resources - There is an expectation that the States will be an exemplar employer. During 2014, data will be collected for the entire States workforce to provide a comprehensive record of the ethnic and racial background of States employees. A comprehensive training programme will be provided to all staff to support non-discriminatory behaviour. States human resources policies will be assessed and re-written to take into account the protected characteristics. Whilst there will be costs associated with these exercises, they will be undertaken as part of the Public Sector Reform programme. The potential cost to the Human Resources Department in defending discrimination complaints made to the Tribunal against the States will be met from within existing resources initially and monitored as further characteristics are introduced. It is difficult to predict the future costs in terms of the Law Officers’ Department time. In addition to the cases which reach the Tribunal and complaints which can be dealt with without reference to the Tribunal, there are likely to be other requests for legal advice on the interpretation of the Law from States Human Resources and other Departments. This advisory work may be expected to be more significant in the first year or so after the Law comes into force and that pattern may be repeated after the Law is extended to cover additional grounds for discrimination. Any costs which cannot be met from existing cash limits, including growth approved in the MTFP 2013-15, will need to be funded by the Council of Ministers from Contingency. Manpower – It is anticipated that the Judicial Greffe (which is responsible for the administration costs of enforcing the draft Law via the Tribunal) will require one additional part-time administrative post, at a maximum of Grade 8, to deal with the additional Tribunal workload and hearings from 2015. One full-time equivalent fixed-term administrative post (at a maximum of Grade 6) is expected to be required to collect data on the States workforce during 2014. The Law Officers’ Department will try to manage the extra work within existing manpower resources; but should the extra work involved exceed that capacity, extra manpower would be requested. |