The Equality Act 2010 is the primary legislation in England, Wales and Scotland concerning equality and non-discrimination. The Act has two main purposes – to harmonise discrimination law and to strengthen the law to support the progress of equality.

The Act repeals, revokes and consolidated many previous Acts and regulations, including:

• Equal Pay Act 1970;
• Sex Discrimination Acts 1975 and 1986;
• Race Relations Act 1976;
• Disability and Discrimination Act 2005 and the Disability and Discrimination Act 1995 insofar as it applies to England, Wales and Scotland;
• the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003;
• the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003;
• the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006;
• the Equality Act 2006, Part 2; and
• the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007

The Act creates defined “protected characteristics”, against which there are various duties not to discriminate. The protected characteristics are:

• Age;
• Disability;
• Gender reassignment;
• Marriage and civil partnership;
• Pregnancy and maternity;
• Race;
• Religion or belief;
• Sex; and
• Sexual orientation.

Note that the Equality Act has only very limited application in Northern Ireland – primarily in relation to off-shore work. Note that the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 is still the primary disability discrimination legislation in Northern Ireland.