Part VII Human Rights and Equal Opportunities
Equality of opportunity
I175 Statutory duty on public authorities.
C11
A public authority shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity—
a
between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation;
b
between men and women generally;
c
between persons with a disability and persons without;
and
d
between persons with dependants and persons without.
C12
Without prejudice to its obligations under subsection (1), a public authority shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group.
3
In this section “public authority” means—
a
any department, corporation or body listed in Schedule 2 to the M1Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 (departments, corporations and bodies subject to investigation) and designated for the purposes of this section by order made by the Secretary of State;
b
any body (other than the Equality Commission) listed in Schedule 2 to the M2Commissioner for Complaints (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (bodies subject to investigation);
c
any department or other authority listed in Schedule 2 to the M3Ombudsman (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (departments and other authorities subject to investigation);
F1cc
the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland;
F2cd
the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland;
F3ce
the Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland;
cf
the Northern Ireland Law Commission;
d
any other person designated for the purposes of this section by order made by the Secretary of State.
4
Schedule 9 (which makes provision for the enforcement of the duties under this section) shall have effect.
F44A
The references in subsections (1) and (2) and Schedule 9 to the functions of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland do not include any of his functions relating to the prosecution of offences F5or any of the functions conferred on him by, or in relation to, Part 5 or 8 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (c. 29) (civil recovery of the proceeds etc. of unlawful conduct, civil recovery investigations and disclosure orders in relation to confiscation investigations) .