Our vision puts equality of opportunity at the heart of our approach to policy making, service delivery and employment. We are committed to identifying, understanding and eliminating all barriers that prevent access to services, information and employment.
This page looks at the nine protected characteristics as identified by the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Framework for Local Government provides a framework which we will follow to make sure we are providing the relevant requirements for the community where reasonably appropriate.
We also have a Single Equality Scheme. This scheme sets out our commitment to the whole equality and diversity agenda, linking in to all relevant legislation and explaining how we will monitor ourselves against relevant targets. The scheme underwent an extensive consultation and represents a new approach for us equality and diversity.
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The Equality Act 2010 became law in April 2010. It contains a range of new rights, powers and obligations to help with the drive towards equality.
The main purpose of the Act is to collect together the complicated and numerous array of Acts and Regulations, which formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in the United Kingdom.
This was, primarily:
- Equal Pay Act 1970
- Sex Discrimination Act 1975
- Race Relations Act 1976 and as amended 2000
- Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and as amended 2005
- Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
- Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003
- Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2003
Key elements of the Act
- Putting a new integrated Equality Duty on public bodies
- Using public procurement to improve equality
- Banning age discrimination outside the workplace
- Requiring employment equality publishing
- Extending the scope to use positive action
- Strengthening the powers of employment tribunals
- Protecting carers from discrimination
- Clarifying the protection in private members' clubs
- Strengthening protection from discrimination for disabled people