The Office for Equality and Opportunity, formerly known as the Government Equalities Office, is the office of the British government with responsibility for social equality. Based in the Cabinet Office, it is led by the Minister for Women and Equalities.
The Office for Equality and Opportunity is responsible for leading on equality policy including women's equality, race equality, LGBT+ equality, disability equality, socio-economic equality and the overall framework of equality legislation for the UK. It contains three smaller equalities units within it known as the Disability Unit, the Race Equality Unit and the Women and Equalities Unit.
Prime minister Gordon Brown created the Government Equalities Office (GEO) as a new ministerial department on 12 October 2007, led by Harriet Harman as Minister for Women and Equality, Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons.
When David Cameron became prime minister, the GEO was transferred to become a part of the Home Office, led by Theresa May as Minister for Women and Equalities and Home Secretary. Between 2012 and 2019, the GEO was transferred again repeatedly to the department that the new Minister for Women and Equalities was concurrently the Secretary of State for.
Since April 2019, the GEO has been permanently based within the Cabinet Office. In October 2024, the GEO was renamed the Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO).
The women and equalities ministerial team are typically appointed to the department that the Minister for Women and Equalities leads by virtue of their other Cabinet appointment. Since July 2024, under Bridget Phillipson (Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for Education), all OEO ministers have been appointed to the Department for Education.
, the OEO ministers and spokespersons are as follows:
The budget for the GEO reached ã76 million in 2010-11. Following a spending review this was set to decrease each year, to ã47.1 million in 2014-15. The budget continued to decrease year-on-year, with ã16.7 million being allocated in 2019-20.
The OEO has had different forms over the years. It was created in October 2007 when the Women and Equality Unit, based within the Department for Communities and Local Government was converted into an independent department. Since that time it has had various ministerial sponsors and has been housed within several ministerial departments:
In June 2011, it emerged that female staff at the GEO received 7.7% more pay than males on average. The information came to light following a Freedom of Information request by MP Dominic Raab. The enquiry also revealed that almost two thirds of the department's 107 staff were female. Raab criticised the department for double standards, stating "It undermines the credibility of the equality and diversity agenda, if bureaucrats at the government equalities office are preaching about unequal representation and the pay gap, whilst practising reverse". The differences between the genders became marked from 2008 under the leadership of Harriet Harman with the pay gap almost doubling from that time and six out of seven new jobs going to women.
In an interview about her role, director Hilary Spencer said: