Equality Act 2006

The Equality Act 2006 set up the Equality and Human Rights Commission to work for the elimination of prejudice on any of the following grounds:

• age
• disability
• sex
• gender reassignment
• race
• religion or belief
• sexual orientation

As originally drafted, the Act's anti-discrimination provisions covered only religion or belief; the Labour government did not intend to include sexual orientation. Following lobbying by Lord Alli, an openly gay peer, the government agreed to add protection against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. This concession came late in the legislative process, too late to be incorporated directly into the primary Act, so the government instead committed to introducing the protection through secondary legislation. This followed in the form of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, made under powers granted by the 2006 Act.

The provisions of the Act have since been superseded by the Equality Act 2010.

External links

• Equality Act 2006, full text – legislation.gov.uk
• Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, full text – legislation.gov.uk