Legal requirements

For us, equality and diversity is all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all. There are also legal drivers for our activity.

Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act (2010) covers:

• employment
• equal pay and services
• public functions and associations
• education (further and higher education)

Protected characteristics

The Act outlines the following 'Protected Characteristics' as protected under the Equality Act (2010)

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief (including lack of belief)
• sex
• sexual orientation

Equality duty

The act introduced a public sector equality duty which is to:

• eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
• foster good relations between persons who share a protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

To fulfil our requirements we must publish information relating to pay gap information, as well as an equal pay statement, equality outcomes and mainstreaming equality information.

Our current activities cover 2021-25, and are found in our 'Advancing EDI' document. At April 2023 we published progress updates. Further information is available across these pages.  

Equality Impact Assessment

We support using Equality Impact Assessment across our work and keep a log of completed assessments to inform practice and for reference.