Who prepares an equalities impact assessment
Section 149 puts the duty on the decision maker. Your assessment is the evidence that lets an officer record due regard properly, which is what protects the permission.
The equalities impact assessment planning question has a structural answer that most applicants get wrong. The statutory duty is on the local planning authority, not on you. Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 requires a public authority to have due regard to the three equality aims when exercising its functions, and determining a planning application is one of those functions. Your assessment is evidence that helps the authority discharge that duty. It is not the discharge of it.
That distinction decides who should write it, what it should contain and where the legal risk sits.
What the duty requires of the decision maker
The public sector equality duty has three limbs. Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. And fostering good relations between them.
The protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Marriage and civil partnership engages only the first limb.
Due regard is a substantive requirement, not a form-filling one. The principles developed in the case law, often summarised after the decisions in Brown and Bracking, are that the decision maker must approach the duty with an open mind and rigour, must do so before and during the decision rather than afterwards, cannot delegate it, and must keep a record. A committee report paragraph asserting that the duty has been considered, with nothing behind it, is the pattern the courts have criticised.
The consequence for an applicant is practical. The document you submit is useful to the extent it gives the officer something real to weigh and record.
The applicant's document against the authority's own assessment
Two documents exist and they do different jobs.
| Applicant's assessment | Authority's record | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Evidence about the scheme's effects on people sharing protected characteristics | Demonstrating the authority had due regard |
| Author | The applicant's team | The case officer, in the report |
| Statutory basis | None directly | Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 |
| Consequence of a weak version | Officer asks for more, or discounts it | The decision is open to challenge |
Where the scheme is large or contentious, ask the case officer early whether the authority intends to prepare its own screening or full assessment, and offer the evidence base that would support it. An authority that has your survey data, your engagement records and your accessibility analysis can write a defensible record. One that has a generic document cannot.
Where competence is legally prescribed rather than a matter of judgement, the position is different again, and the meaning of competent person in planning legislation sets out where those requirements actually bite.
Evidence on protected characteristics
Baseline data has to be specific to the area and honest about its limits.
- Census data from the Office for National Statistics for age, ethnicity, religion, disability and household composition at output area level.
- The English indices of deprivation, which correlate with several characteristics without being a proxy for any one of them.
- The local authority's joint strategic needs assessment, for disability prevalence and health inequalities.
- Existing provision data: step-free public transport access, accessible parking, wheelchair adapted housing stock, places of worship, community facilities.
Then relate the data to the scheme. A development of 200 flats in an area with an older-than-average population and limited step-free transport has an identifiable issue about accessible routes. The same scheme in an area with a young population and a level station has a different one.
Avoid two habits. Do not present district-level statistics as if they described the site. And do not assume an effect is positive because the development is new. Displacement, construction disruption and loss of an existing facility all fall disproportionately on particular groups, and naming that is what gives the document credibility.
Accessibility input from an inclusive design adviser
Accessibility is the part of an equalities assessment where a specialist adds most, and where an ordinary planning team is least equipped.
The relevant technical framework is Approved Document M of the Building Regulations, with its optional requirements M4(2) for accessible and adaptable dwellings and M4(3) for wheelchair user dwellings, which only apply where a local plan policy and a condition bring them into effect. Alongside it sit BS 8300-1 and BS 8300-2 on the design of an accessible built environment.
An access consultant, often a registered access auditor, does three things worth paying for. Checks the external route from the public highway to every entrance for gradient, surface and width. Checks the internal circulation and unit layouts against M4(2) and M4(3) where they apply. And reviews wayfinding, lighting and signage for people with sensory impairment.
Get that input before the layout is fixed. A scheme with a 1 in 15 approach gradient designed in is a different proposition from one where a ramp is added at technical design.
Consultation with affected groups
Engagement is the weakest section in most assessments because it is done late and reported vaguely.
Do three things instead. Identify the groups with a specific interest, which usually means a local access group or disability forum, faith organisations where a place of worship or burial ground is affected, and residents of any facility being displaced. Meet them, rather than posting a questionnaire. And report what they said, including what you did not act on and why.
A report recording that an access group asked for two additional accessible parking bays and that one was provided because of a servicing constraint is far stronger than one recording that consultation was undertaken. The equality analysis section of an assessment is where that record belongs.
Recording the due regard given
The authority's record is what protects the permission, and the applicant benefits from it being good.
What an officer's report needs is a section identifying the characteristics engaged, the evidence considered, the effects identified, the mitigation secured and by what mechanism, and a conclusion on each of the three statutory aims. Where the application goes to committee, the same material has to be in front of members, because the duty falls on the decision maker and a delegated report members never read does not discharge it.
Illustrative example: a mixed use scheme replacing a community hall used by an older residents group and a faith congregation. The assessment identified age and religion or belief as engaged, recorded meetings with both user groups, proposed a replacement facility with an agreed specification and a phasing commitment so that the existing hall remained in use until the new one opened, and secured both in the section 106. The committee report carried a page on the duty setting out each of those points. No challenge followed.
Where a thin assessment creates legal risk
The risk is to the permission, and it lands on the applicant even though the duty is the authority's.
A judicial review on public sector equality duty grounds does not ask whether the decision was right. It asks whether the authority had due regard, and the evidence is the record. Where the record consists of a single sentence, the claim has something to work with. Where it consists of a reasoned section drawing on the applicant's evidence, it does not.
Three patterns attract challenge more than others: schemes displacing an existing use relied on by a group sharing a protected characteristic, schemes affecting gypsy and traveller sites, and schemes where accessibility was raised in representations and not addressed in the report.
So the practical advice runs backwards from the record. Write the assessment as though it were the source material for the officer's section, because that is what it is. Browse the PlanScope report types for the supporting documents a major application needs, and approach reviewers through the professional directory where specialist accessibility input is required.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Equality duty compliance turns on the facts of each decision, so take advice from a planning solicitor and an accessibility professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
Is an equalities impact assessment a statutory requirement for applicants?
No. Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 places the duty on the public authority when it exercises its functions, which includes determining an application. An applicant's assessment has no direct statutory basis. It is evidence that helps the authority record due regard, and local validation checklists may still ask for one on larger schemes.
Which protected characteristics apply?
Age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Marriage and civil partnership engages only the first limb of the duty, which is eliminating unlawful discrimination. The other two limbs cover advancing equality of opportunity and promoting good relations.
Who should write the accessibility section?
An access consultant, often a registered access auditor, working before the layout is fixed. The relevant framework is Approved Document M, including the optional requirements M4(2) and M4(3) where a local plan policy and condition bring them into effect, alongside BS 8300-1 and BS 8300-2 on accessible built environment design.
What does due regard actually mean?
A substantive, recorded consideration rather than a form-filling exercise. The case law principles require the decision maker to approach the duty with an open mind and rigour, to do so before and during the decision, not to delegate it, and to keep a record. A single sentence asserting compliance is the pattern the courts have criticised.
How does a weak assessment create risk for the applicant?
Through the permission. A judicial review on equality duty grounds asks whether the authority had due regard, and the evidence is the officer's record. A thin record gives a claim something to work with, and the consequence falls on the developer even though the duty belonged to the council. Supply material the officer can use.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.