Our legal duty
The Equality Act 2010 provides a legal framework to:
- protect the rights of individuals
- advance equality of opportunity for all
- protect individuals from unfair treatment
- promote a fair and more equal society
Under the act it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of the following protected characteristics:
- age
- gender reassignment
- being married or in a civil partnership
- being pregnant or on maternity leave
- disability
- race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
Our diversity and inclusion policy outlines the different types of discrimination.
Public sector equality duty
The public sector equality duty was created under the Equality Act. As a large public sector authority, we must consider all individuals when carrying out our day-to-day work including:
- when developing policy
- when delivering services
- in relation to our own employees
The duty also requires that public bodies have due regard to the need to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
- advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
- foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
We comply with the legislation by having due regard for advancing equality in the following ways:
- removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics
- taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people
- encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low