Our legal duty
The Equality Act 2010 provides a legal framework to:
- protect the rights of individuals
- advance equality of opportunity for all
- protect individuals from unfair treatment
- promote a fair and more equal society
Under the act it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of the following ‘protected characteristics’:
- age
- gender reassignment
- being married or in a civil partnership
- being pregnant or on maternity leave
- disability
- race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
Our diversity and inclusion policy outlines the different types of discrimination.
Public sector equality duty
The public sector equality duty was created under the Equality Act. As a large public authority we have to consider all individuals when carrying out our day-to-day work including:
- when developing policy
- when delivering services
- in relation to our own employees
The duty also requires that public bodies have due regard to the need to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
- advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
- foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
We comply with the legislation by having due regard for advancing equality in the following ways:
- Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics
- Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people
- Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low
Equalities objectives
Public bodies must publish relevant, proportionate information demonstrating their compliance with the Equality Duty. They must set themselves specific, measurable equality objectives. The equality objectives must be published at least every four years.
Lincolnshire population
Lincolnshire is a large rural county. The latest population predictions from the office for national statistics and data published from the 2021 Census on sex, age, ethnicity and religion there are:
- 768,364 people living in the county
- 51% (391,934) female and 49% (376,430) male residents
- 468,318 residents of working age (15 to 64)
- 4.0% (30,834) of residents from an ethnic minority background. This may be from an Asian, Black, mixed ethnicity or other ethnic background.
- 96.0% (737,532) of residents from a White British (89.2%), Irish (0.4%), Gypsy or Irish Traveller (0.1%), Roma (0.1%) or other white background (6.1%)
- 53.7% (412,588) of residents are Christian, 38.1% (294,198) have no religion, 0.2% (1,824) Buddhist, 0.3% (2,494) Hindu, 0.1% (495) Jewish, 0.7% (5,411) Muslim, 0.1% (681) Sikh and 0.5% (3,783) of residents have other religions or beliefs.
- 6.23% (estimate) of working age adults have a long term condition or physical disability
Our population is getting older as the percentage of people in the older age groups continues to increase.
From the 2011 to the 2021 census for Lincolnshire:
- 8% (54,711) increase in population from 713,653 in 2011
- 0.2% decrease in the proportion of the population aged under 15
- 2.5% decrease in the proportion of the population aged 15 to 64
- 2.7% increase in the proportion of the population aged 65 and over
The diversity of cultures is affected by Brexit where some foreign nationals have returned to their countries of birth. It is likely to be changed again by recent refugee crises.
Lincolnshire data and summaries
There are two main data sites for the Lincolnshire region. Lincolnshire Open Data provides information on wide range of data across a number of different themes including council services. The Lincolnshire Health Intelligence hub provides population demographics including 2021 census summaries and an outline of communities of interest from a health perspective. The site also includes the latest Joint Strategic Needs assessment and the Director of Public Health annual report.