Equality Act

Information about the Equality Act.

The Equality Act received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010. 

UCU has produced a briefing for members about this new legislation, which came into force on 1 October 2010:

 2010 Equality Act briefing (.pdf) [139kb]
 2010 Equality Act briefing (.doc) [144kb]

See also:

 Equality Act 2010: Public Sector Equality Duties briefing (.pdf) [55kb]
 Equality Act 2010: Public Sector Equality Duties briefing (.doc) [33kb]

The TUC has also produced a briefing which is available for download here (pdf) or a Word version is available here:  TUC Equality Act 2010 briefing (.doc) [249kb]

The Equality Duties

You can find information on the Equality Duties on the UCU website here

Archive documents

UCU has now submitted its response to the Equality Bill's specific duties consultation:

 UCU response to the consultation on specific duties, Sep 09 (.rtf) [76kb]

UCU previously submitted a response to the government's consultation on introducing multiple discrimination provision in the new Equality Bill:

 Equality Bill consultation - a response by UCU, Jun 09 (.pdf) [135kb]

UCU's submission to Equality Bill Committee welcomes the Equality Bill but sets out a number of areas where we believe the bill should be strengthened or amended:

 Equality Bill: UCU submission to Public Bill Committee, Jun 09 (.pdf) [411kb]
 Equality Bill: UCU submission to Public Bill Committee, Jun 09 (.doc) [318kb]

Response to EHRC consultation

UCU has also responded to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) consultation on the statutory codes of practice and non statutory guidance which need to be produced ahead of the publication of the Equality Act. UCU is concerned about the proposal to replace the current codes with only four new codes of practice. UCU has made it clear that we believe shorter codes which are specific to certain employment areas are better than one wide-ranging generic employment code. UCU has responded that a statutory code of practice on equal pay should be retained, along with a statutory code and non statutory guidance on the disability provisions of the bill.
 
The full response is available here:  UCU response to EHRC codes and guidance consultation on for the Equality Act, May 09 (.rtf) [2.0Mb]

Equality Bill

UCU had earlier issued a briefing on the government's  Equality Bill, which was introduced on 24 April 2009 to be presented to parliament this autumn:
 UCU briefing on the Equality Bill, Apr 09 (.pdf) [265kb]
 UCU briefing on the Equality Bill, Apr 09 (.doc) [173kb]

The government had previously published both its proposals 'Framework for a fairer future - the equality bill' and its response to the equality law consultation (.pdf), both of which were part of the process of preparing the bill. The new bill will have very great significance affecting all aspects of equality legislation. UCU had previously published a response:  UCU equality bill summary and commentary, Jul 08 (.pdf) [45kb]