The UK equality laws and epilepsy

Contents

• About the equality laws
• Why the equality laws protects you because you have epilepsy
• The different types of disability discrimination 
• Areas of life where the equality laws can help
• The Public Sector Equality Duty (England, Scotland and Wales)
• Areas of life where people can lawfully treat you differently, if you have epilepsy
• Reasons why people can lawfully treat you differently, if you have epilepsy
• What to do if you think you’ve been treated unfairly under the equality laws
• How to take legal action against someone who has treated you unfairly
• Finding out more about the equality laws

About the equality laws

This information is about two different equality laws: the Equality Act and the Disability Discrimination Act.

The Equality Act

The Equality Act applies to England, Scotland and Wales. It first came into force in October 2010, replacing the Disability Discrimination Act. It aims to protect people from unfair discrimination because of their disability, race, religion and belief, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, sex, sexual orientation or age. Under the Act, these are called ‘protected characteristics’. The message of the Equality Act is that everyone has the right to be treated fairly at work or when using services.

The Equality Act also has extra rules for government and other public organisations. They must pay ‘due regard’ to the need to reduce discrimination. They should also pay ‘due regard’ to making sure people who are disabled, or who have another protected characteristic, are treated equally to other people. To ‘pay due regard to’ means they should try to achieve the aims, but they do not have a legal obligation to achieve them.

The Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discrimination Act applies to Northern Ireland. It first came into force in 1995. It aims to reduce discrimination against disabled people. It says that disabled people should not be treated less well than non-disabled people.