Equality Act guidance, codes of practice and technical guidance
The Equality Act is the most significant piece of equality legislation for many years. It simplifies, streamlines and strengthens the law. It gives individuals greater protection from unfair discrimination and makes it easier for employers and companies to understand their responsibilities. It also sets a new standard for those who provide public services to treat everyone, with dignity and respect.
Equality Act Guidance
Our guidance and good practice guides will help you to understand and use the Equality Act law.
Guidance for employers
How to comply with equality law and implement good practice in all aspects of employment including recruitment, pay, working hours, managing staff and developing policies.
- What equality law means for you as an employer: when you recruit someone to work for you
- What equality law means for you as an employer: working hours, flexible working and time off
- What equality law means for you as an employer: pay and benefits
- What equality law means for you as an employer: training, development, promotion and transfer
- What equality law means for you as an employer: managing workers
- What equality law means for you as an employer: dismissal, redundancy, retirement and after a worker has left
- Good equality practice for employers: equality policies, equality training and monitoring
- Pre-employment health questions: Guidance for employers on Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010
- Religion or belief in the workplace: A guide for employers following recent European Court of Human Rights judgments
- Religion or belief in the workplace: An explanation of recent European Court of Human Rights judgments
Guidance for workers
Understand your rights to be treated equally in employment including when applying for jobs, promotion, flexible working, reasonable adjustments, equal pay, and retirement.
- Your rights to equality at work: when you apply for a job
- Your rights to equality at work: working hours, flexible working and time off
- Your rights to equality at work: pay and benefits
- Your right to equality at work: training, development, promotion and transfer
- Your rights to equality at work: how you are managed
- Your rights to equality at work: dismissal, redundancy, retirement and after you have left a job
- How to make sure everyone is treated fairly at work: easy read
- Pre-employment health questions Guidance for job applications on Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010
- Telling people about your disability or health when you apply for a job (easy read)
Guidance for service providers
Guidance on how to comply with equality law and implement good practice when providing services, for all types of business, association or organisation.
- What equality law means for your business
- What equality law means for your association, club or society
- What equality law means for your voluntary and community sector organisation (including charities and religion or belief organisations)
- Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions and Associations
Guidance for service users
Understand your rights to be treated equally and free from discrimination when buying goods or accessing services, including protection against harassment and rights to accessibility.
- Your rights to equality as a member, associate member or guest of an association, club or society
- Your rights to equality from businesses providing goods, facilities or services to the public
- Your rights to equality from the criminal and civil justice systems and national security
- Your rights to equality from healthcare and social care services
- Your rights to equality from local councils, government departments and immigration
- Your rights to equality from Parliaments, politicians and political parties
- Your rights to equality from voluntary and community sector organisations (including charities and religion or belief organisations)
- Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions and Associations
Guidance for education providers
- What equality law means for you as an education provider: schools
- What equality law means for you as an education provider: further and higher education
- Equality Act 2010 Technical Guidance on Further and Higher Education
- Equality Act 2010 Technical guidance for schools in Scotland
Guidance for students
Equality Act Codes of Practice
In line with our statutory powers, we have produced Codes of Practice on Employment, Services and Equal Pay. The main purpose of the Codes of Practice is to provide detailed explanations of the provisions in the Act and to apply legal concepts in the Act to everyday situations. This will assist courts and tribunals when interpreting the law and help lawyers, advisers, trades union representatives, human resources departments and others who need to apply the law. As with the Act, the Codes apply to England, Scotland and Wales.
The Codes set out clearly and precisely what the legislation means. They draw on precedent and case law and explain the implications of every clause in technical terms. These statutory codes are the authoritative source of advice for anyone who wants a rigorous analysis of the legislation's detail. For lawyers, advocates and human resources experts in particular, they will be invaluable.
These Codes of Practice became law on 6 April 2011.
You can purchase printed copies of the Codes from The Stationery Office (TSO) website or download them from the links below.
Code of Practice on Equal Pay
Related pages - Equal pay
Code of Practice on Employment
Code of Practice on Employment
Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions and Associations
Download: Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions and Associations
Codes of Practice post consultation report
Our post consultation report highlights the concerns that stakeholders raised with us during the Equality Act Codes of Practice consultation period in 2010. The report explains how we addressed these concerns and how this stakeholder input has ultimately improved the final version of these Codes.
The Equality Act Codes of Practice post consultation report (PDF)
Equality Act Technical Guidance
Technical Guidance introduction
The Commission is continuing to develop a range of guidance based on the Equality Act 2010 to support our stakeholders, and make it easier for them to make informed decisions about the Act. A key element of this guidance is the suite of statutory codes of practice, which explain the statutory provisions of the Equality Act 2010.
We had originally planned to produce statutory codes of practice on the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), which came into force on 5 April 2011, and for statutory codes of practice for Schools and the Further and Higher Education (FEHE) sector. In the light of the Government's position not to lay codes before Parliament, the Commission has decided for now to produce the original text of these codes as technical guidance.
Technical guidance is a non-statutory version of a code, however it will still provide a formal, authoritative, and comprehensive legal interpretation of the PSED and education sections of the Act. It will also clarify the requirements of the legislation.
Our technical guidance will complement our existing suite of codes of practice and non-statutory guidance: take a look at our Equality Act guidance.
Technical guidance - Public Sector Equality Duty
The Public Sector Equality Duty was created by the Equality Act 2010, and replaces the race, disability and gender equality duties. We have produced a suite of Technical Guidance to explain the needs of the PSED, outline the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and the specific duty regulations and provide practical approaches to complying with the Public Sector Equality Duty in England, Scotland and Wales. The guidance provides an authoritative, comprehensive and technical guide to the detail of the law. It will be invaluable to lawyers, advocates, human resources personnel, courts and tribunals, and everyone who needs to understand the law in depth, or apply it in practice.
Technical Guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty England
Technical Guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty Scotland
Technical Guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty Wales
Technical Guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty Wales Welsh
Schools Technical Guidance - England and Scotland
The Commission has produced dedicated Technical Guidance for Schools for both England and Scotland that outlines the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 on schools, in relation to provision of education and access to benefits, facilities or services, both educational and non-educational. It provides an authoritative, comprehensive and technical guide to the detail of the law.
It is aimed at those working in schools, lawyers, advocates, courts and tribunals, and everyone who needs to understand the law in depth, or apply it in practice.
This guidance has been discussed and consulted upon across the education sector, including school leaders, teachers and stakeholders, government departments and trade unions. Their contributions have enriched and improved the text, and we are grateful for their help.
While this guidance is not a statutory Code of Practice, it can be used as evidence in legal proceedings. The courts have said that a body subject to the equality duty that does not follow non-statutory guidance such as this will need to justify why it has not done so. However, such guidance does not in itself impose further duties to those set out in the statute.
Schools technical guidance - England
Schools technical guidance - Scotland
The Wales guidance for schools What equality law means for you as an education provider in Wales: Schools was published in 2012. The guidance is available on the Wales section of the EHRC website at this link.
What equality law means for you as an education provider in Wales: Schools
Reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils - Auxiliary Aids Technical Guidance
Schools and education authorities have had a duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils since 2002 (originally under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (the DDA) and, from October 2010, under the Equality Act 2010). From 1 September 2012 the reasonable adjustments duty for schools and education authorities includes a duty to provide auxiliary aids and services for disabled pupils.
This guide will help school leaders and education authorities understand and comply with the reasonable adjustments duty, including the new auxiliary aids and services provision. It will also help disabled pupils and their parents understand the duty.
The focus of this guide is on the practical implementation of the reasonable adjustments duty in schools. It includes practical case studies showing how the duty can be applied in contexts which will be familiar to teachers.
- Reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils
- Reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils Scotland
- Reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils - Welsh
Technical Guidance on Further and Higher Education
This FEHE Technical Guidance sets out Equality Act 2010 requirements on further and higher education providers in relation to provision of education and access to benefits, facilities or services. These cover all of the services, facilities and benefits, both educational and non-educational that an education provider provides or offers to provide for students.This Technical Guidance applies to England, Scotland and Wales. However, education provided outside Great Britain may be covered by the Act.
Technical guidance on further and higher education
Our post consultation report highlights the concerns that stakeholders raised with us during the FEHE guidance consultation period. The report explains how we addressed these concerns and how this stakeholder input has ultimately improved the final version.
Further and Higher Education Technical Guidance post-consultation report
Last Updated: 09 Sep 2015