Stages of an EIA

The first stage is to gather data and information that will help you complete the EIA. You will need data broken down by certain groups or protected characteristics, for example age or sexual orientation.

For some changes or decisions, there may be little available evidence of the potential impact on different groups. In such cases, you should make a judgement that is as reliable as possible. A consultation (see stage 2) will help strengthen these value judgements by building a consensus that can avoid prejudices, assumptions, and unconscious biases.

Consultation can help add further evidence and data to your EIA. Consultation is very important and can be key to demonstrating that, as an organisation, Imperial is meeting its Public Sector Duty under the Equality Act. 

The consultation should be proportionate and relevant. You need to avoid over-consultation on a small policy or practice, and to avoid under-consultation on a significant policy or an activity that has the potential to create barriers for a large number of people.  

To safeguard against 'group think', involve a diverse range of people in your consultation.

At this stage, you may not have all the evidence you need, but you have enough to conduct a provisional assessment.

If you carry out a provisional assessment, you must have a plan to gather the further data required so that a full assessment can be completed after a reasonable time. The scale of these plans should be proportionate to the activity at hand.

Only when there is enough evidence should a full EIA should be prepared. Only one EIA should be created for each change or decision. As you gather more data or evidence, you can build upon your provisional assessment and create a final EIA.