PART TWO: CONTENT OF COMPREHENSIVE ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW (c) foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. PART TWO – V The term “due regard” is explained under section 149 (3) of the Act, as requiring public authorities to have due regard to the need to “remove or minimise disadvantages” experienced by individuals belonging to a protected group, to “take steps to meet the needs” of such persons and to “encourage persons who share a relevant protected characteristic to participate in public life or in any other activity in which participation by such persons is disproportionately low”. Under section 149 (5), public authorities must have due regard to the need to “tackle prejudice” and “promote understanding”. Section 149 (6) recognizes explicitly that compliance with the duty “may involve treating some persons more favourably than others”, thereby permitting the adoption of positive action (to the extent that such measures are consistent with other parts of the Act). The meaning of the term “due regard” has been further clarified by the courts. In the case of R (Brown) v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,830 Lord Justice Aikens delivered what have come to be known as the Brown Principles, which establish six key criteria for operation of the public sector equality duty as follows: (a) public authorities “must be made aware of their duty to have ‘due regard’ to the identified goals”; (b) the “duty must be fulfilled before and at the time that a particular policy” that may impact a protected group is being considered; (c) “the duty must be exercised in substance, with rigour and with an open mind”; (d) the duty cannot be delegated; (e) “the duty is a continuing one”; and (f) public authorities ought to keep “adequate record[s]” demonstrating that they have considered their “equality duties and pondered relevant questions”.831 To demonstrate compliance with the public sector equality duty, and to instrumentalize approaches, many public authorities carry out equality impact assessment. While this is not mandatory in England (unlike in Wales and Scotland), as discussed above, it is required in practice. C. Monitoring and data States parties are obligated to monitor the implementation and effectiveness of their measures to eliminate discrimination. Treaty bodies, in their engagement with States through the periodic reporting process, repeatedly and consistently stress the need to collect and report disaggregated data on the participation of groups exposed to discrimination in different areas of life.832 In its general recommendation No. 24 (1999), the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated that “it is essential that States parties provide as far as possible the Committee with information on the presence within their territory of [different] groups”.833 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has similarly held that States should “create and continuously improve statistical databases and the analysis of all forms of discrimination against women … and against women belonging to specific vulnerable groups in particular”.834 In addition to this international reporting obligation, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has stressed the need for monitoring and data collection to ensure the effective implementation of anti-discrimination laws at the national level, noting that States should “establish indicators, benchmarks and timelines” and “mechanisms that collect relevant sex-disaggregated data, enable effective monitoring, facilitate continuing evaluation and allow for the revision or supplementation of existing measures and the identification of any new measures”.835 The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has specified that having taken “concrete, deliberate and targeted measures” to eliminate discrimination, States “should 830 R (Brown) v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2008] EWHC 3158 (Admin). 831 Ibid., paras. 90–92 and 94–96. 832 See, for instance, CCPR/C/BEL/CO/6, para. 16 (c); E/C.12/FRA/CO/4, para. 17; CEDAW/C/BGR/CO/8, para. 46; CERD/C/KHM/CO/14-17, para. 6; and CRPD/C/IRQ/CO/1, para. 60 (c). 833 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, general recommendation No. 24 (1999), para. 1. 834 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010), para. 10. 835 Ibid., para. 28. 119