OXFORDSHIRE County Council wants is seeking residents' views on its new policy towards equality across the county.

The Equality Act, introduced in 2012, sets out the responsibilities that public authorities are required meet through a Public Sector Equality Duty.

This requires local authorities to tackle discrimination, harassment and victimisation and ensure that people with a ‘protected characteristic’ have the same opportunities as those people who don’t.

It also seeks to encourage good relationships between people with protected characteristics and those without.

The protected characteristics it refers to are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.

A council spokesperson said: “Our equality policy and objectives are due for review.

“As part of the review we completed a self-assessment tool which highlighted many examples of good practice where we demonstrate how we believe we are fulfilling our commitment.

“These can be found throughout the policy document and are called ‘case studies’. We have also considered what the data we hold on our communities and on our workforce tells us.”

A draft Equality Policy 2018-2022 including 10 new objectives has been created by the council and are available for the public to give feedback on it.

The consultation ends on March 11. To take part visit consultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk.