Single Equality Bill
Speakers
Ulele Burnham Ulele Burnham's practice comprises a mix of employment/discrimination, mental health and the overlapping areas of mental health and detention related public law. Her employment/discrimination practice has tended to focus on individual rights, and within that area, equality law is the sphere in which she has particular interest and expertise. She has significant experience in representing Claimants in complex discrimination cases at tribunal and appellate levels. This experience includes claims made in relation to the new statutorily proscribed forms of discrimination (sexual orientation, religion and age) and the older statutory torts of race, sex and disability discrimination. |
Jonathan Rees Jonathan is the Director-General and Accounting Officer of the Government Equalities Office, taking up this new post in February 2008. The GEO, an independent Department, was set up to put equality at the heart of Government, and is responsible for equality legislation, the Government’s targets (Public Service Agreement) on equality across public and private sectors and delivering on the Ministers for Women’s priorities, as well as sponsoring the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Women’s National Commission. Prior to joining GEO, Jonathan was Deputy Chief Executive (Policy) at the Health and Safety Executive following a varied career in the civil service with several jobs in DTI, most recently as Director of Consumer and Competition Policy, three years in the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit working for John Major and Tony Blair, three years in the Cabinet Office and two spells in Brussels, with the European Commission and UK Representation. |
Mark Harper MP Mark was elected as Member of Parliament for the Forest of Dean on 5th May 2005. In 1995 Mark qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG and, until 2002, worked for Intel Corporation before establishing his own chartered accountancy practice in the Forest of Dean. In July 2007, following David Cameron’s reshuffle of his frontbench team, Mark was appointed Shadow Minister for Disabled People as part of the Shadow Work and Pensions team. |
Phil McCarvill Dr Phil McCarvill is currently Head of Public Sector Duties at the Equality & Human Rights Commission. He leads the Commission's work to influence the proposed Equality Duty, which forms part of the Equality Bill. He was previously Head of Public Service Delivery within the Commission for Racial Equality, where he had responsibility for developing and delivering the CRE's work with public authorities in respect of the public sector race equality duty. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked in local government and health sectors. Phil has a Ph.D. in Ethnic Relations from the University of Warwick. |
Mark Reedman Mark Reedman is the Chief Executive of the Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) Voluntary and Community Organisations (VCO), a national umbrella body supporting membership organisations. Mark has a very varied and interesting employment history that includes work in the public sector (both health and education), the third sector (both VCS and social enterprise) and periods of self employment. He would describe himself as a social entrepreneur, always looking for ways to support and develop the voluntary sector. Prior to taking up this role, Mark had been involved in developing programmes across the country for voluntary and community organisations to consider social enterprise activities, and supporting these to become more sustainable. His previous roles include partnership of a Social Enterprise Development organisation, freelance consultancy for voluntary sector development and fundraising, and senior strategic management of pan London SRB and Equal projects around HIV, substance misuse and ex-offenders. |
Ruth Scott Ruth is the Director of Policy and Campaigns at Scope and is responsible for the organisation’s public policy development, research and political advocacy. Ruth has a particular interest in human rights and equality issues and leads Scope’s Human Rights and Civil Rights Programmes, including the organisation’s work on the Equality Bill. Ruth is one of the leading experts on accessible e-voting technology and has advised the UK Electoral Commission and UK Government on creating accessible democracy. Ruth is a Trustee of a number of organisations, including the Communication Forum, which campaigns to improve services and support for adults with communication, speech and language impairments and, The Nick Webber Trust, a small NGO that funds health, education, legal and human rights projects in Malawi. |
Suzanne Bond Suzanne has worked in local Government since 1996 at a number of different authorities. She is currently working in the London Borough of Hackney as the Interim Principal Lawyer for Children and Community Services. During her time in Local Government she has advised on all aspects of local government law ranging from prosecutions, housing, governance to child care. She is currently the Chairman of Solicitors in Local Government the representative body for local Government lawyers. |
Dr Katherine Rake Dr. Katherine Rake is Director of the Fawcett Society and one of the UK’s leading specialists in gender and social policy. Under her leadership, Fawcett runs passionate, informed campaigns for women’s rights. Katherine has advised the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit, HM Treasury and a range of other Government departments. She is a regular broadcaster and has contributed to a wide range of print media. Katherine was previously Lecturer in Social Policy at the LSE and secondee to the Women’s Unit, Cabinet Office where she edited a ground-breaking report on women’s lifetime incomes. In 2008, Katherine was awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities, an Institute of Directors ‘Good Director’ Honour and the Social Policy Association’s Annual Award for Outstanding Contribution from a Non-academic. |
Robert Brown As a Senior Policy Officer at Age Concern and Help the Aged Robert leads on the Charity's policy in the areas of equality and human rights. He is currently working on securing protection against discrimination for older people in goods, facilities and services and the abolition of the default retirement age. |
Sarah Veale Sarah Veale is Head of the Equality and Employment Rights Department at the TUC, where she has worked since 1985 . The Department covers women’s equality, equal pay, race equality, disabled workers’ equality, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, and equality on the basis of religion and age; the Department also leads on employment rights, both individual and collective. Before becoming Head of Equality and Employment Rights, Sarah was Senior Employment Rights Officer, in which role she was responsible for the development of TUC policy on employment law. She co-ordinated TUC activities in relation to the introduction of the Employment Relations Act 1999 and wrote the TUC Guide to the Act. She was also responsible for various TUC submissions to the Government, and was a member of the TUC team which negotiated the recent national agreement with the CBI and the Government on temporary agency work. She regularly briefs senior union officers on developments in employment and equality law. She is co-author of “Your Rights at Work”, the TUC’s book on employment rights. Sarah is a member of the ACAS Council, the Government’s Risk and Regulation Advisory Council, the Women’s National Commission and the Employment Tribunals System Steering Board. She was awarded the CBE for services to diversity in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2006. Sarah’s interests include her family, music, reading and politics. |