Northern Ireland Audit Office

Northern Ireland Audit Office Section 75 Screening Report NIAO Screening Report 1. Introduction 1.1 As a designated public authority for the purposes of section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO), in carrying out its functions, powers and duties, must: (1) have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity between: • persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation; • men and women generally; • persons with a disability and persons without; and • h dependants and persons without; and (2) without prejudice to the above obligation, have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group. 1.2 The NIAO Equality Scheme, which arises out of the implementation of Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and was approved by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland in November 2003, sets out how the Office intends to carry out its section 75 duties. In relation to the requirement to assess the impact of its policies on the promotion of equality of opportunity, the NIAO Equality Scheme states that the Office will: “carry out a systematic review of all its existing and proposed policies to determine whether there are any equality of opportunity implications ….. and whether any should be subject to an ...