| These pages are about equality laws in the UK. If you are looking for information about equality laws in another country, please contact your local epilepsy organisation |
The Equality Act brings together, replaces and strengthens a number of older laws, including the Disability Discrimination Act.
Most of the Equality Act came into force on 1 October 2010. Some extra parts were added on 5 April 2011. The Equality Act is a law that aims to protect people from discrimination on the grounds of disability, race, religion and belief, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, sex, sexual orientation and 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 Act also has extra rules for government and other public organisations (Public Sector Equality Duty. 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 of the Equality Act, but they do not have a legal obligation to achieve them.
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Updated November 2011To be reviewed November 2013
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