Businesses
This guide tells you how you can avoid all the different types of unlawful discrimination. We give you an overview of how equality law applies to all businesses, and then we go on to look at particular issues that businesses providing goods, facilities or services in different sectors may need to think about when considering what equality law requires them to do.
Pages in this section include:
Businesses selling goods, such as shops and petrol stations
Banks and other financial services providers
Builders, other trades people and companies providing similar services
Estate agents, letting agents and property management companies
Gyms, health clubs and sporting activity providers
Hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons
Hotels, restaurants, cafés and pubs
Theatres and other entertainment venues
Designers and manufacturers of goods – who are only covered in specific circumstances.
If your business is not in this list, it does not mean that equality law does not apply to you. Reading this guide will help you and your business. Use it to work out how to apply what it says to your business.
It does not matter whether you give the service for free (for example, giving someone information about your paid-for services) or if you charge for it. It does not matter if you are set up as a sole trader, a partnership, a limited company or any other legal structure. The size of your business does not matter either. Equality law applies to you.
Equality law affects everyone responsible for running your business or who might do something on its behalf, including staff if you have them.
This guide also contains the following sections, which are similar in each guide in the series and contain information you are likely to need to understand what we tell you about running a business in a way that meets the requirements of equality law:
Equality Act good practice guidance downloads
Protected characteristic's definition
Codes of practice on Services, Public Functions and Associations
Last Updated: 16 May 2014