New diversity and inclusion rules will not be introduced into the UK’s financial sector by regulators, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority have stated.
‘Not part of the Trump backlash’
Natasha Adom, partner at employment law specialist Littler said the UK context made the regulators’ decision very different from U-turns in the US around DEI. She said: “Some may see this as a sign of Trump’s anti-DEI backlash hitting the UK public sector, but the reality is that the legal and political landscape is very different here in the UK than in the US.
She added: “The UK government recently proposed imposing new DEI measures on employers, like mandating ethnicity pay gap reporting on employers for the first time. Perhaps it is not surprising that the regulator has opted to pause this work to see how those proposed legislative changes pan out. So, putting Trump aside this is not an entirely unexpected announcement.”
However, the decision was “the first big example of the public sector rowing back from DEI,” said Adom.
