The Equality Act 2010 requires that we undertake outcome focused activity in addressing equality and diversity issues as a service provider and employer, across nine protected characteristics.
The Act contains nine protected characteristics, which cannot be used as a reason to treat someone unfairly:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment (whether or not someone is trans)
- Marriage or civil partnership (including same-gender marriage)
- Pregnancy and maternity/paternity
- Race or ethnicity
- Religion or belief
- Sex or gender
- Sexual orientation
We have a general duty to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it.
As a public sector organisation, we also have specific duty to prepare and publish specific and measurable equality objectives every four years.
The Act contains a general duty which requires us to have due regard to:
- Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- Advancing equality of opportunity
- Fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it.
The Act also contains specific duties which are to:
- Prepare and publish equality objectives at least every four years after that
- Ensure that the objectives are specific and measurable, and set out how progress towards the objectives will be measured
- Publish details of engagement in developing the equality objectives also at least every four years, and in line with publication of objectives
- Consider its published equality information before preparing and publishing these objectives
- Publish the objectives in a reasonably accessible format either as an individual document or as part of another report.
