The Equality Act (2010) is a UK law that is intended to protect people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
This is to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
The Equality Act (2010) is about ensuring equality and fair treatment for all.
Before the Equality Act (2010) there were more than 100 pieces of other legislation that included details around protecting people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
The Equality Act (2010) starts by outlining the 9 protected characteristics:
- Sex
- Race
- Disability
- Sexual Orientation
- Gender Re-Assignment
- Religion or Belief
- Marriage or Civil Partnership
- Pregnancy and Maternity
- Age
Next the act goes on to define what is prohibited, including:
- Direct discrimination of anybody with a protected characteristic.
- Indirect discrimination of anybody with a protected characteristic.
- Harassment of anybody with a protected characteristic.
- Victimisation of anybody with a protected characteristic.
Equality Act (2010) applies to all public organisations, all private organisations and all third sector organisations, making it all encompassing.
It covers accessing or buying services, buying of products, all education establishments, the NHS, Social Care (plus all other local authority services), employment (all aspects) and pensions.
It places a responsibility on all organisations to make reasonable adjustments for anybody with a protected characteristic and outlines the potential legal consequences for not adhering to this legislation.
I am choosing to write about the Equality Act (2010) now because a certain right-wing political party is planning to abolish this Act and the legal protections it provides if the party gets into power. Scarily, this political party appears to be getting increasingly popular with every day that passes. It is looking like this political party might get into power at the next general election.
So I thought I would use this platform to explain what the Act offers and hopefully help people realise why it is important for every one. Regardless of whether you have a protected characteristic or not.
If you enjoyed this blog post, you might also like my post The Human Rights Act (1998) Explained.
Write soon,
Antony
