The Equalities Act

(Updated 26/02/25)

Why do you need to know?

The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) has been hailed as the most significant piece of equality legislation in the past 40 years. The main body of the legislation came into force on 1 October 2010 and consolidates existing discrimination legislation covering age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity (now called ‘protected characteristics’), as well as add to and extend key areas of protection.

About the Equalities Act

The Equality Act is a mixture of rights and responsibilities that have:

• Stayed the same – for example, direct discrimination still occurs when “someone is treated less favourably than another person because of a protected characteristic”
• Changed – for example, employees will now be able to complain of harassment even if it is not directed at them, if they can demonstrate that it creates an offensive environment for them
• Been extended – for example, associative discrimination (direct discrimination against someone because they associate with another person who possesses a protected characteristic) will cover age, disability, gender reassignment and sex as well as race, religion and belief and sexual orientation
• Been introduced for the first time – for example, the concept of discrimination arising from disability, which occurs if a disabled person is treated unfavourably because of something arising in consequence of their disability.

The Equality Act (Amendment) Regulations 2023 came into effect on January 1, 2024.

• The amendments aimed to retain discrimination provisions that would have disappeared from UK law under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform Act 2023), this ensured that some EU derived protections would regarding equality law were safeguarded and enshrined in domestic legislation after Brexit. This allowed for the same level of protections under law post-Brexit.

As a result, you may need to review and change some of your policies and practices.

The Government Equalities Office has a lot of guidance on the Act

The Equality & Human Rights Commission website has a Guidance for Employers section outlining your obligations.