Investigations
‘Section 75’ investigations
We can carry out investigations under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 in these circumstances:
- Paragraph 10 provides that when the Commission receives a complaint made in accordance with that paragraph of failure by a public authority to comply with its approved equality scheme, the Commission will either investigate the complaint, or provide reasons for not investigating.
- Paragraph 11 empowers the Commission to undertake investigations to allow any other investigation [i.e. other than paragraph 10] where it believes that a public authority may have failed to comply with its approved equality scheme.
We can therefore only investigate a public authority under Paragraph 11 if we form a belief that the public authority may have failed to comply with its approved equality scheme.
Para 11 investigations can be generated purely from within the Commission´s own knowledge, or from matters of general importance brought to its attention by interested third parties.