The Equality Act 2010^[1] (c. 15), often erroneously called the Equalities Act 2010, is an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed during the Brown ministry with the primary purpose of consolidating, updating and supplementing the numerous prior Acts and Regulations, that formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in mostly England, Scotland and Wales; some sections also apply to Northern Ireland. These consisted, primarily, of the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and three major statutory instruments protecting discrimination in employment on grounds of religion or belief, sexual orientation and age.^[2]

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Equality Act 2010

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision to require Ministers of the Crown and others when making strategic decisions about the exercise of their functions to have regard to the desirability of reducing socio-economic inequalities; to reform and harmonise equality law and restate the greater part of the enactments relating to discrimination and harassment related to certain personal characteristics; to enable certain employers to be required to publish information about the differences in pay between male and female employees; to prohibit victimisation in certain circumstances; to require the exercise of certain functions to be with regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and other prohibited conduct; to enable duties to be imposed in relation to the exercise of public procurement functions; to increase equality of opportunity; to amend the law relating to rights and responsibilities in family relationships; and for connected purposes.
Citation	2010 c. 15
Introduced by	Harriet Harman
Territorial extent	England and Wales; Scotland; section 82, 105 (3) and (4) and 199 also apply to Northern Ireland
Dates
Royal assent	8 April 2010
Commencement	1 October 2010
Other legislation
Repeals/revokes	Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 Equal Pay Act 1970 Sex Discrimination Act 1975 Race Relations Act 1976 Sex Discrimination Act 1986 Race Relations (Remedies) Act 1994 Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

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The act has broadly the same goals as the four major EU Equal Treatment Directives, whose provisions it mirrors and implements.^[3] However, the Act also offers protection beyond the EU directives, protecting against discrimination based on a person's nationality and citizenship^[4][5] and also extending individuals' rights in areas of life beyond the workplace in religion or belief, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.^[6][7]

The act protects people against discrimination, harassment or victimisation in employment, and as users of private and public services based on nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. The Act includes provisions for single-sex services where the restrictions are "a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim".^[8] In the case of disability, employers and service providers are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to their workplaces to overcome barriers experienced by disabled people. In this regard, the Equality Act 2010 did not change the law. Under s.217, with limited exceptions the Act does not apply to Northern Ireland.^[9]

The Labour Party included a commitment to an Equality Bill in its 2005 election manifesto. The Discrimination Law Review was established in 2005 to develop the legislation and was led by the Government Equalities Office. The review considered the findings of the Equalities Review Panel, chaired by Trevor Phillips, which reported in February 2007.^[10] The Act is intended to simplify the law by bringing together existing anti-discrimination legislation. The Equality Act 2010 has replaced the Equal Pay Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relations Act 1976, Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003^[11] and the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.

Polly Toynbee wrote that the bill, which was drafted under the guidance of Harriet Harman, was "Labour's biggest idea for 11 years. A public-sector duty to close the gap between rich and poor will tackle the class divide in a way that no other policy has... This new duty to narrow the gap would permeate every aspect of government policy. Its possible ramifications are mind-bogglingly immense." One cabinet member described it as "socialism in one clause".^[12] This part of the legislation was never brought into force, except for Scottish devolved authorities.^{[13] [14]} Sections 104–105 of the Act extend until 2030 the exemption from sex discrimination law, which allows political parties to create all-women shortlists.^[15] The exemption was previously permitted by the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002.

The parliamentary process was completed, following a debate, shortly after 11 pm on 6 April 2010, when amendments by the House of Lords were accepted in full.^[16]

This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2017)

Certain employment is exempted from the Act, including:

• Priests, monks, nuns, rabbis, and ministers of religion.
• Actors and models in the film, television and fashion industries (a British Chinese actress for a specific role, for instance).
• Special employment training programmes aimed at ethnic minorities, ex-offenders, young adults, the long-term unemployed, or people with physical or learning disabilities.
• Employment where there are cultural sensitivities (such as a documentary where male victims of domestic violence need to be interviewed by a male researcher, or a gay men's domestic violence helpline).
• Where safety or operational efficiency could be jeopardised.
• Political parties who use 'protected characteristics' (age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation)^[24] as candidate selection criteria; however, these "Selection arrangements do not include short-listing only such persons as have a particular protected characteristic",^[25] other than sex,^[26] which may still be used to prejudice selection in some circumstances (e.g. all-women/all-men shortlists).
• Local support staff who work in embassies and high commissions, by virtue of diplomatic immunity.
• Where national security could be jeopardised.

The duty set out in section 149 requires those public authorities which are subject to it to have due regard to three aims:

• to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited under the Act,
• to advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, and
• to foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.^{[1]: Section 149}

The Cabinet Office's Information Note 1/13, "Public Procurement and the Public Sector Equality Duty", noted that public authorities needed to have due regard to this duty when planning and undertaking procurement activities, stating in particular that when contracting out public functions, it would be usual to include contract conditions which specified how equality obligations and objectives were to be complied with.^[39]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2021)

In 2020, certain groups attempted to legally challenge the EHRC's Code of Practice on "Services, Public Functions and Associations", which attempts to provide practical guidance on implementing the Equality Act, concerning the advice that service providers should in general treat trans people as their acquired gender. The challenge failed to get a hearing before the High Court of Justice, because the justice did not consider the case to be arguable.^[42]

• UK employment equality law
• Equality Impact Assessment
• Mandla v Dowell-Lee
• Gender Recognition Act