Many provisions of the Equality Act 2010 come into force in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2010.
The Act was one of the last pieces of legislation to be enacted under the Labour Government and represents the culmination of years of lobbying by equality campaigners in the United Kingdom. The Equality Act 2010 will apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland does not come under the scheme of the Act as the Northern Ireland Assembly has power to legislate in this area.
The provisions that came into force today include:
- Changing the definition of gender reassignment, by removing the requirement for medical supervision.
- Extending protection in private clubs to sex, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment.
The Act is an important innovation in the UK in taking a holistic approach to equality law – where a single body is charged with monitoring and enforcement. The preexisting UK patchwork equality regime was very complex and difficult to navigate, it is therefore intended that this single Act will make the equality laws clearer and deliver greater compliance. Importantly the Act clarifies the definitions of harassment, discrimination and victimization and applies them across all of the protected grounds in the Act. The legislation represents the evolution of equality law in the UK from a formal equality model to a substantive equality model that addresses not only direct discrimination but also more subtle incidences of indirect discrimination, harassment and victimization.
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