Race and Equality

The Developing Agenda

The Equality Act 2006 (c.3) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom covering the United Kingdom, covering the following areas - the creation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), replacing the equality commissions - the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission, outlawing of discrimination on goods and services on the grounds of religion and belief (subject to certain exemptions) and allowing the Government to introduce regulations outlawing discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in goods and services in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the Sexual Orientation Regulations 2006) and a provision relating to the creation of a public duty to promote equality on the ground of gender.

With the exception of the provision relating to goods and services discrimination in Northern Ireland on the grounds of sexual orientation, the Act relates to equality law in Great Britain as a separate legislative framework exists for Northern Ireland which also has a separate equality body, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (though by and large reflecting the general approach to equality legislation in Great Britain).

The Equality Act 2006 is a precursor to a promised Single Equality Act, whose aim is to combine all of the equality enactments within Great Britain and provide comparable protections across all equality strands. Those explicitly mentioned by the Equality Act 2006 include age; disability; gender; proposed, commenced or completed gender reassignment; race; religion or belief and sexual orientation.

The 2007 public sector duty on gender equality is a  part of the reform process to promote equality of opportunity and eliminate discrimination, and follows similar public sector duties for race and, more recently, on disability equalities. The public sector duty on gender equality has now placed public authorities on the front-foot in promoting equality of opportunity and embedding a culture change in employment practices and service delivery. This is intended to make services more responsive to women and men's individual needs and bring opportunities, reduce inequalities and improve quality of life for all.