Equality Act 2010

In October 2010 the Equality Act came into effect. Before this there had been more than 100 pieces of legislation covering equalities protections and alongside them there are three associated public duties for race, gender and disability. The Equality Act has nine protected characteristics defined as:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Religion or belief – this includes absence of belief
• Sexual orientation
• Ethnicity/race