Equality Act 2010

In brief

The principal UK anti-discrimination statute. Consolidates previous equality legislation into a single Act. Defines nine protected characteristics including sex (s.11) and gender reassignment (s.7). Establishes the Public Sector Equality Duty (s.149) requiring public bodies to have due regard to eliminating discrimination and advancing equality of opportunity.

Key provisions

• s.4 — Protected characteristics (nine) : Lists the nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
• s.7 — Gender reassignment (proposing to undergo, undergoing, or having undergone reassignment) : Defines gender reassignment as a protected characteristic. A person has this characteristic if they are proposing to undergo, are undergoing, or have undergone a process to reassign their sex.
• s.11 — Sex : Defines sex as a protected characteristic. Post-FWS, this means biological sex (chromosomal/gonadal sex at birth or conception).
• s.13 — Direct discrimination : Prohibits direct discrimination: treating someone less favourably because of a protected characteristic than a comparator without that characteristic.
• s.19 — Indirect discrimination : Prohibits indirect discrimination: applying a provision, criterion, or practice (PCP) that puts persons sharing a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage, unless objectively justified.
• s.26 — Harassment : Defines harassment: unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of violating dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment.
• s.27 — Victimisation : Prohibits victimisation: subjecting someone to a detriment because they have done, or are believed to have done, a protected act (e.g. bringing a discrimination complaint).
• s.149 — Public Sector Equality Duty : The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED): public authorities must have due regard to eliminating discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity, and fostering good relations between groups sharing protected characteristics.
• Schedule 3, Part 7 — Separate and single-sex services exceptions : Provides exceptions allowing single-sex and separate-sex services where this is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Covers communal accommodation, facilities, and services.
• Schedule 9 — Occupational requirements : Allows occupational requirements: an employer may apply a requirement to have a particular protected characteristic if it is an occupational requirement and its application is proportionate.
• s.29 — Provision of services and public functions (Part 3) : A service-provider — anyone concerned with providing a service to the public or a section of the public, for payment or not — must not discriminate against a person requiring the service by not providing it, or in providing it (terms, termination, other detriment), must not harass a person requiring or receiving the service, and must not victimise. Public functions are covered by s.29(6).
• s.39 — Employees and applicants (Part 5) : An employer must not discriminate against an applicant in recruitment arrangements, offered terms or by not offering employment, nor against an employee as to terms, access to promotion, transfer, training or any other benefit, facility or service, by dismissal or by any other detriment; parallel prohibitions on victimisation (s.39(3)–(4)) and harassment (s.40).
• s.41 — Contract workers (Part 5) : A principal — a person who makes work available for an individual employed by another person who supplies them under a contract — must not discriminate against, harass or victimise a contract worker as to the terms on which the worker is allowed to do the work, by not allowing the work to be done or continued, in access to benefits, facilities or services, or by any other detriment. The duty to make reasonable adjustments applies to the principal as well as the employer (s.41(4)).
• s.44 — Partnerships (Part 5) : A firm or proposed firm must not discriminate against a person in deciding whom to offer a position as a partner, the terms offered or by not offering the position, nor against a partner as to terms, access to opportunities and benefits, expulsion or any other detriment; harassment and victimisation are prohibited. Section 45 applies the same rules to limited liability partnerships.
• s.49 — Personal offices — appointments, terms and termination (Part 5) : A personal office is an office or post to which a person is appointed to discharge a function personally under the direction of another person and in respect of which the appointee is entitled to remuneration. The person with power to appoint must not discriminate in the appointment arrangements, the terms offered or by not offering the appointment, and a relevant person must not discriminate against the office holder as to terms, access to opportunities, termination or any other detriment; harassment and victimisation are prohibited. Sections 50–52 cover public offices.
• s.53 — Qualifications bodies (Part 5) : A qualifications body must not discriminate against a person in the arrangements for deciding upon whom to confer a relevant qualification, the terms of conferral or by not conferring it, nor against a holder by withdrawing or varying the qualification or any other detriment; harassment and victimisation are prohibited.
• s.55 — Employment service-providers (Part 5) : A person concerned with the provision of an employment service (recruitment, training, careers guidance and related services — s.56) must not discriminate in selecting to whom to provide or offer the service, the terms offered or by not offering it, nor in providing the service (terms, refusal, termination, other detriment); harassment and victimisation are prohibited.
• s.83 — Interpretation — employment (Part 5) : For Part 5, employment means employment under a contract of employment, a contract of apprenticeship or a contract personally to do work (s.83(2)(a)), together with Crown employment and House of Commons and House of Lords staff; service in the armed forces is treated as employment (s.83(3)); references to employer and employee are read accordingly, and employer includes a person with no employees who is seeking to employ.
• s.101 — Associations — members and associates (Part 7) : An association (one with at least 25 members whose admission is regulated by rules involving selection — s.107) must not discriminate against a person in deciding whom to admit to membership, the terms of admission or by not accepting an application; nor against a member or an associate in access to benefits, facilities or services, by depriving them of membership or associate rights, by varying terms or rights, or by any other detriment; harassment of members, applicants and associates and victimisation are prohibited. Section 102 covers guests.
• s.109 — Liability of employers and principals : Anything done by a person in the course of their employment is treated as also done by the employer, and anything done by an agent with the principal's authority as also done by the principal, whether or not with the employer's or principal's knowledge or approval; it is a defence for the employer to show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the employee from doing that thing or anything of that description (s.109(4)).
• s.110 — Liability of employees and agents : An employee or agent personally contravenes the Act where they do something treated by s.109 as done by the employer or principal and it amounts to a contravention by the employer or principal, whether or not the employer escapes liability under the reasonable-steps defence; reliance on an employer's statement that the act is lawful is a defence if reasonable, and a knowingly or recklessly false such statement is an offence.

When relevant

Foundational statute for ALL toolkit analysis. Every policy, facilities decision, complaint response, and operational question about trans inclusion engages the EA2010. Section 7 (gender reassignment), section 11 (sex), section 13 (direct discrimination), section 19 (indirect discrimination), section 26 (harassment), section 149 (PSED), Schedule 3 (single-sex exceptions), Schedule 9 (occupational requirements). Use when: any trans inclusion question, any policy analysis, any proportionality assessment, any EqIA. Population scope (JoJo ruling, 5 Sep 2026): Part 5 reaches employees and applicants (s.39), contract workers supplied through a third party (s.41), partners and LLP members (ss.44–46), personal and public office holders (ss.49–52), and the qualifications-body and employment-service routes (ss.53–56), all bounded by the s.83(2) definition of employment; volunteers without a contract are outside Part 5 (MID-SUSSEX-UKSC-2012) and genuinely independent providers are outside employment (JIVRAJ-UKSC-2011). Service users, customers and the public come under Part 3 (s.29); members, associates and guests of a qualifying association under Part 7 (ss.101–102). Employer and individual liability run through ss.109–110. Worker-status case law (Uber, Pimlico Plumbers) is not held — verify on cite.