What are the main provisions of the Equality Act 2010?

Asked by: Nellie Kessler Sr. | Last update: May 5, 2026

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The Equality Act 2010 protects people in Great Britain from discrimination, harassment, and victimisation based on nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation, in areas like work, education, services, and housing, by prohibiting unfair treatment, requiring reasonable adjustments for disabled people, and placing duties on public bodies to promote equality.

What are the key provisions of the Equality Act 2010?

The Equality Act 2010

The Act prohibits direct and indirect discrimination, and harassment and victimisation. It also prohibits discrimination in relation to something arising from a person's disability, and creates a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.

What are the 9 protected characteristics of the Equality Act?

Under the Equality Act 2010, there are 9 protected characteristics which are; age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

What are the three general duties of the Equality Act 2010?

Public Sector Equality Duty

remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their relevant protected characteristics.
take steps to meet the different needs of people who share a relevant protected characteristic.
encourage participation in public life or any other activity by underrepresented groups.

What are the 9 grounds of the Equality Act?

The protected grounds are gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief or lack of belief, age, disability, race including nationality, and membership in the Traveller community.

An introduction to the Equality Act 2010

19 related questions found

What are the main aims of the 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.

What are the 4 types of discrimination in the Equality Act 2010?

age discrimination. disability discrimination. gender reassignment discrimination. marriage and civil partnership discrimination.

What are the 9 types of equality?

The Equality Act and protected characteristics

age.
disability.
gender reassignment.
marriage or civil partnership (in employment only)
pregnancy and maternity.
race.
religion or belief.
sex.

What are examples of discrimination?

Here are some examples of what may constitute discrimination.

A restaurant does not admit a guest because the person has cerebral palsy.
An employee has lower pay than a colleague of the opposite sex with the same or equivalent work.
A manager makes unwelcome sexual advances.

What are the 5 provisions of the right to freedom?

Right to freedom of speech and expression, assembly, association or union, movement, residence, and right to practice any profession or occupation (some of these rights are subject to security of the State, friendly relations with foreign countries, public order, decency or morality).

What are the key provisions of the Human Rights Act?

Article 2: Right to life. Article 3: Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. Article 4: Freedom from slavery and forced labour. Article 5: Right to liberty and security.

What are the main provisions of right to work laws?

A Right to Work law guarantees that no person can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join, nor to pay dues to a labor union. Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act affirms the right of states to enact Right to Work laws.

What are the provisions of the right to equality?

The Constitution says that the government shall not deny to any person in India equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws. It means that the laws apply in the same manner to all, regardless of a person's status. This is called the rule of law. Rule of law is the foundation of any democracy.

What are the main principles of equality?

The Principle of Equality is roughly to the effect that we should give a priority to policies which will make well-off those who are badly-off -- policies which will remove individuals from the class of the badly-off -- and that we should seek to act on these policies by having certain practices of equality.

What are the primary principles or objectives of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010?

The legislation protects people from discrimination on the basis of their individual attributes in certain areas of public life, and provides redress for people who have been discriminated against. It also aims to eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation.

What are the 10 types of discrimination?

Below are ten types of discrimination.

Age discrimination. ...
Disability. ...
Gender/sexual orientation. ...
Gender identity/gender expression. ...
Genetic information. ...
Military status/military obligations. ...
National origin. ...
Religion.

What are the 9 grounds of the Employment Equality Act?

The 9 grounds of discrimination in Ireland are gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, age, disability, race, religion, and membership in the Traveller community. What is the IHREC? The IHREC is the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

What are the main points of equality?

The core principle of equality is that people should not be treated differently on the basis of any identity with which they identify or which is ascribed to them, including their race, sex, gender identity, class, language, religion, age, sexual orientation, national origin, birth status, disability, and so forth.

What are the key points of the Equality Act 2010?

Under the Equality Act, there are nine protected characteristics:

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

What are 5 examples of unfair discrimination?

Five examples of unfair discrimination include being passed over for promotion due to race or gender (racial/gender bias), paying women less for the same job as men (unequal pay), denying reasonable accommodations for a disability (disability discrimination), harassing someone for their sexual orientation (sexual orientation discrimination), or retaliating against an employee for reporting harassment (retaliation). These actions unfairly disadvantage individuals based on protected traits rather than merit, violating laws like Title VII.

What is a list of disabilities?

A disability is a broad term encompassing physical, sensory, intellectual, developmental, mental health, and chronic medical conditions that affect a person's ability to perform daily activities, with examples including vision/hearing loss, autism, ADHD, depression, arthritis, cancer, and traumatic brain injury, often categorized by impairments in mobility, learning, mental health, or body systems like neurological or immune functions.

What are the 7 main protected characteristics?

Protected characteristics

Age.
Disability.
Gender reassignment.
Marriage and civil partnership.
Pregnancy and maternity.
Race.
Religion or belief.
Sex.

What are the 4 types of discrimination under the Equality Act?

If you're disabled. If you're disabled under the Equality Act, you're protected from all the main types of discrimination - direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation. You can check if you're disabled under the Equality Act.

What are the general duties under the Equality Act 2010?

Those under the duty must actively consider, when they deliver their public functions, the need to: eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation. advance equality of opportunity between different groups. foster good relations between different groups.