Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 requires public authorities, in carrying out their functions, powers and duties, to promote equality of opportunity and good relations among a range of groups. 
The groups spelled out in Section 75 are:

a) persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation;
b) men and women generally;
c) persons with a disability and persons without;
d) persons with dependants and persons without.

The legislation seeks to ensure that equality is mainstreamed in public authorities. This means it aims to ascertain that equality considerations are taken on board in everything an organisation does, in other words that equality becomes part and parcel of the work of an organisation.
To this end, Section 75 requires all public bodies to produce an Equality Scheme. Our scheme, which was approved in April 2001, lays out what we will do to promote equality and good relations within the Agencyover a five year period. The main issues, which the Scheme addresses, relate to:

• how we take on board equality issues in reviewing and developing our policies
• how we equip our staff to effectively address equality issues in their work by delivering training to them
• how we consult and communicate with the public in all aspects of implementing the statutory equality duties
• how we promote good relations within our work.

We report on a yearly basis to the Equality Commission on our progress in implementing the scheme. For further information on our Annual Reviews of Progress select from the links below.

The Equality Commission”””’’s guidance outlines a two-stage process for the consideration of equality implications in the development and review of policies: Screening as the initial review to identify those policies with greatest equality implications and Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) as a subsequent, more rigorous examination of those identified policies. EQIAS carried out by the Agency can be downloaded from the links below.

Equality Scheme

Our Equality Scheme was approved for the NI Council for Postgraduate Medical Education by the Equality Commission in April 2001. The Scheme will be revised for NIMDTA in accordance with guidance provided by the Equality Commission.

Below are useful documents available for download:

Equality Scheme

Equality Impact Assessments

Equality Impact Assessment on Flexible Working Policies - June 2003 

Equality Impact Assessment on Specialist Registrar Policies

Equality Impact Assessment on Appointment of Staff to Act on Behalf of the Agency
: Specialty Advisers, Training Programme Directors, Tutors, Course Organisers

Equality Impact Assessment on General Dental Practice Policies
: VDP Trainer Selection, GDP continuing Dental Education

Equality Impact Assessment on General Practice Policies
: GP Trainer Selection, GP Retainer Scheme

Equality Impact Assessment on Recruitment of Trainees for Dental Vocational Training (VT) and Dental General Profession Training (GPT)

Equality Commission

Equality Commission Guide to Statutory Duties

Disability Report to Equality Commission 31 July 2007

Disability Report to Equality Commission 31 March 2008

Equality Annual Reviews

Equality Annual Review 2005 - 2006

Equality Annual Review 2006 - 2007

Equality Five Year Review

Equality Five Year Review Part 01

Equality Five Year Review Part 02 - Policies and Proceedures

Equality Monitoring

Equality Monitoring Data of Applicants and Trainees for 2007/2008 Training Programmes