Office for Equality and Opportunity

The Office for Equality and Opportunity ('OEO), formerly known as the Government Equalities Office, is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. Based in the Cabinet Office, it is led by the Minister for Women and Equalities.

Department overview
Formed	October 2007
Jurisdiction	England
Headquarters	London, England
Annual budget	£16.7 million in 2019-20[1]
Ministers responsible	Bridget Phillipson, Minister for Women and Equalities The Baroness Smith of Malvern, Minister of State for Women and Equalities
Parent department	Cabinet Office
Website

The OEO also contains a smaller equalities team within it known as the Women and Equalities Unit which has responsibility for gender equality within the UK government, together with a responsibility to provide advice on all other forms of equality (including age, race, sexual orientation and disability) to other UK government departments.

History

Prior to April 2019, the GEO was led concurrently by Cabinet Secretaries at the Home Office, DFID and DfE. The day-to-day responsibility for policy on these issues was not transferred to GEO when it was created. The Equalities Office currently leads the Discrimination Law Review, which developed the Equality Act 2010 that replaced previous anti-discrimination legislation.

In November 2018, the GEO announced that the unit would move to be part of the Cabinet Office in April 2019.^[2]

As of July 2024, the ministers responsible are Anneliese Dodds (Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)) and Bridget Phillipson (Minister for Women and Equalities). Phillipson as Secretary of State for Education fulfils constitutional requirements to have a minister at full cabinet level.

In October 2024, the unit was renamed the Office for Equality and Opportunity.^[3]

Ministers

The Government Equalities Office Ministers are as follows:

Minister	Office	Portfolio
Bridget Phillipson	Minister for Women and Equalities	Strategic oversight of the equalities legislative framework and government equality policy for women, ethnicity, disability and LGBT+; sponsorship of the Social Mobility Commission and Equality and Human Rights Commission
Baroness Smith of Malvern	Minister of State for Women and Equalities	Equalities framework; legislation and policy on women, disability, LGBT+, and race; equality data and analysis; sponsorship of the Equality and Human Rights Commission
Stephen Timms	Minister of State for Social Security and Disability	Oversight of Disabilty Unit including disability elements in equality legislation; disability policy and benefits; oversight of Health and Safety Executive
Seema Malhotra	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Equalities	Race and ethnicity elements in equality legislation; race and ethnicity policy
Olivia Bailey	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Equalities	LGBT+ legislation including on conversion practices, and the Conversion Practices Bill
Lord Collins of Highbury	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Equalities	Government spokesperson in the House of Lords.
(vacant)	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Equalities	Government spokesperson in the House of Lords.

Budget

The budget for the Equalities Office reached £76 million in 2010-11. Following the spending review this is set to decrease each year, to £47.1 million in 2014-15.^[4] The budget has continued to decrease year-on-year, with £16.7 million being allocated in 2019-20.^[5]

Governance

The GEO has had different forms over the years since its creation. It was created in October 2007 when the Women and Equality Unit, based within the Department for Communities and Local Government was converted into an independent department. Since that time it has had various ministerial sponsors and has been housed within several ministerial departments:

Dates	Cabinet Minister	Unit status
October 2007–May 2010	Harriet Harman	Independent department
May 2010–September 2012	Theresa May	Home Office
September 2012–April 2014	Maria Miller	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
April–July 2014	Nicky Morgan (for women) Sajid Javid (for equalities)
July 2014–July 2016	Nicky Morgan	Department for Education
July 2016–January 2018	Justine Greening
January–April 2018	Amber Rudd	Home Office
April 2018–April 2019	Penny Mordaunt	Department for International Development
April 2019–September 2019		Cabinet Office
July–September 2019	Amber Rudd
September 2019-September 2022	Liz Truss
September 2022-October 2022	Nadhim Zahawi
October 2022 - July 2024	Kemi Badenoch
July 2024 - present	Bridget Phillipson

Controversies

In June 2011, it emerged that female staff at the Equalities Office received 7.7% more pay than males on average. The information came to light following a Freedom of Information request by MP Dominic Raab. The enquiry also revealed that almost two thirds of the department's 107 staff were female. Raab criticised the department for double standards, stating "It undermines the credibility of the equality and diversity agenda, if bureaucrats at the government equalities office are preaching about unequal representation and the pay gap, whilst practising reverse".^[6] The differences between the genders became marked from 2008 under the leadership of Harriet Harman with the pay gap almost doubling from that time and six out of seven new jobs going to women.^{[citation needed]}

In an interview about her role, director Hilary Spencer said:

I offer one-off career chats to people, including many women, who are trying to work out whether they can make the leap to the senior civil service and whether that’s compatible with family life. Interestingly, I have very few conversations with men who wonder whether getting to Deputy Director is compatible with family life. There is still a point when women have children where they tend to take the brunt of the childcare and responsibilities.^[7]

See also

• Minister for Women and Equalities
• Women and Equalities Committee