Supporting Change • Developing People • Promoting Ability

The Equality Act 2010 - What's changed?

About the new Act

The new Equality Act 2010 is the most fundamental overhaul of UK anti-discrimination and equality legislation ever.

There are now nine "protected characteristics" that give people a legal right to protection from discrimination:

age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation.

In addition, the new Equality Act introduces a new integrated single equality duty for public sector organisations covering these areas, and also requires them to tackle inequalities based on socio-economic background.

What's changed from previous legislation?

Different parts of the Act come into force at different times. The provisions which came into force on 1 October 2010 include:

the basic framework of protection against direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation in services and public functions, premises, work, education, associations and transport
levelling up protection for people discriminated against because they are perceived to have, or are associated with someone who has, a protected characteristic
applying the European definition of indirect discrimination to all protected characteristics
extending protection from indirect discrimination to disability
introducing the concept of "discrimination arising from disability", to replace protection under previous legislation lost as a result of a legal judgment (the Malcolm case)
applying the detriment model to victimisation protection, aligning it with the approach in employment law
harmonising the thresholds for the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people
extending protection from third-party harassment to all protected characteristics
restricting the circumstances in which employers can ask job applicants questions about disability or health
introducing new powers for employment tribunals to make recommendations which benefit the wider workforce
harmonising provisions allowing voluntary positive action.

Goss Consultancy Ltd
October 2010