Professor Angela O'Hagan:

It is a perennial question. Recently, the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls made a recommendation that intersectional gender budgeting be put on a statutory footing. The response from EBAG at that time was that we already have legislation which is not being properly or fully implemented. The public sector equality duty requires that and should be seen as both enabling platforms and a compliance mechanism for equality or gender budgeting. A judgment set out in a judicial review in 2010 relating to the UK Government was very clear that the budget process should be part of the public sector equality duty requirements. The OECD has recommended a legislative footing. A number of other countries around the world, like Canada, and sub-national governments such as the autonomous community of Andalusia and some of the other Spanish autonomous communities have introduced a legislative footing. One of the reasons given for providing that security of a legislative footing is so gender budgeting and equalities budgeting are not vulnerable to the electoral cycle and the particular political preferences at any given time; rather, there would be a statutory requirement. There is certainly a strong argument for ensuring statutory provisions are effectively implemented. In the absence of those statutory requirements, they should be introduced.