Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics

(Form updated April 2019)

Minerals & Waste Joint Plan

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents.  EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting.  To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website.  This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements. 

Name of Directorate and Service Area	Business and Environmental Services
Lead Officer and contact details	Vicky Perkin – Head of Planning Services vicky.perkin@northyorks.gov.uk
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA
How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer	Individual officer
When did the due regard process start?	26 January 2022

Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)

The EIA is about the adoption of the Minerals & Waste Joint Plan.

Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g. to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)

The County Council’s adoption of the Minerals & Waste Joint Plan will provide an up-to-date policy framework against which to assess and determine applications in relation to both minerals and waste matters in the County.

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

The adoption of the Joint Plan will bring the policy context for determining applications for minerals and waste development up-to-date and compliant with extant regulations relating to forward planning in England. It will provide improved and updated advice and guidance to the communities of North Yorkshire and to those making investment decisions regarding minerals and waste developments in the county on the approach to be taken by the Authorities who have worked in partnership on the production of the Plan.

Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)

Consultation with interested stakeholders and consultation with the wider public have taken place at various stages in the production of the Joint Plan between 2014 and 2021; with the last stage of consultation ending on 15^th September 2021 which sought views on proposed Main Modifications to the Plan.

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?

Please explain briefly why this will be the result.

An invoice from the Planning Inspectorate for most of the cost of the Examination has been received and paid to the amount of £72,302.64 to date (of which £39,766.45 represents the County Council’s share with the remainder paid by the City of York Council and the North York Moors National Park Authority). The remaining amount is unknown, but this cost, along with all other associated costs can be paid from existing allocated budgets.

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
Age	x
Disability	x
Sex	x
Race	x
Gender reassignment	x
Sexual orientation	x
Religion or belief	x
Pregnancy or maternity	x
Marriage or civil partnership	x

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
..live in a rural area?		x		Ensure mineral and waste-related proposals in the county are assessed against up-to-date minerals and waste planning policies.
…have a low income?	x
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?	x

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide	x
Craven district
Hambleton district
Harrogate district
Richmondshire district
Ryedale district
Scarborough district
Selby district
If you have ticked one or more districts, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.

Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.

N/A

Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)	Tick option chosen
1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.	x
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.) The adoption of the Minerals and Waste Joint Plan relates to land use planning, more specifically, for minerals and waste planning, and there is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact.

Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)

The monitoring and review of the Joint Plan is set out within Chapter 4 of the policy document and the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 require the Joint Plan to be subject to review every five years.

Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements
Review the Minerals and Waste Joint Plan	Planning Services	Every five years		Update every five years

Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.

The production of the Minerals and Waste Joint Plan has been carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 and no EIA impacts have been identified.

Section 14. Sign off section

This full EIA was completed by: Planning Services

Name: Vicky Perkin

Job title: Head of Planning Services

Directorate: Business and Environmental Services

Signature: Vicky Perkin

Completion date: 26 January 2022

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): Matt O’Neill

Date: 4^th February 2022