Equality Act

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. 

It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone. 

Who is protected? 

The Act protects people from discrimination on the basis of 'protected characteristics'. The protected characteristics are as follows: 

• Age 
• Disability 
• Gender reassignment 
• Pregnancy and maternity 
• Race 
• Religion or belief 
• Sex 
• Sexual orientation 
• Marriage and civil partnership 

What does the law prohibit? 

• Direct discrimination - treating someone differently and worse than someone else because of who they are. 
• Indirect discrimination - when there's a practice, policy or rule which applies to everyone in the same way, but it has a worse effect on some people than others because of who they are. 
• Discrimination by association - protects a person from being discriminated against because of a third-party's protected characteristic. 
• Discrimination by perception - discrimination against someone because they are wrongly perceived to have a certain protected characteristic, for example where an employer believes an employee is gay, or is of a particular race, and treats them less favourably as a result. 
• Harassment - unwanted behaviour with the purpose or effect of violating your dignity, or creating a degrading, humiliating, hostile, intimidating or offensive environment. 
• Victimisation - the action of singling someone out for cruel or unjust treatment.