Legislation
In May 2010 the Equality Act became law. This landmark piece of legislation replaced the variety of separate equality focused statutes, such as the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, which had previously been in force. Its principles and duties shape much of our work.
The Equality Act has also replaced the range of different duties imposed by those acts with a single Equality Duty covering all the areas currently subject to statute. This came into force on 5 April 2011. In summary, the Equality Act's general duty demands that Salford City Council must pay ‘due regard' to eliminate discrimination, encourage participation, advance equality and foster good relations in all the protected characteristics.
The Equality Act has expanded the number of 'protected characteristics' (that is, protected by law), adding marriage/civil partnership as well as maternity and pregnancy to the existing areas and extended the scope of what counts as discrimination. With certain limited exceptions (for example, age currently only applies to employment, and will not be extended to goods and services until 2012), the general duty now applies to both the employment sphere and the delivery of goods and services.
Protected groups/characteristics
Under the Equality Act the protected characteristics include:
- Age (currently applies to employment, will be extended to goods and services in 2012)
- Race
- Disability
- Religion and belief
- Sexual orientation
- Gender
- Gender reassignment
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Marriage and civil partnerships
Many of the provisions came into force in October 2010, but certain aspects are being implemented throughout 2011 and 2012.
As with previous equalities legislation, the government has now introduced a number of specific statutory duties to Parliament for approval. These duties will require public authorities in Great Britain to publish:
- Equality objectives, at least every four years by 6 April 2012
- Information to demonstrate their compliance with the equality duty by 31 January 2012 and then at least annually
The latter will need to include, in particular, information relating to their employees (for authorities with 150 or more staff) and others affected by their policies and practices, such as service users.
Schools will be required to publish both their information and their equality objectives by 6 April 2012.
A number of guidance documents have been published by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to advise councils and other public bodies of their responsibilities under the Act. More information can be found on the commission's website.
This page was last updated on 14 July 2011
