Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation on the basis of their 'protected characteristics', which are:

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

The Act replaced nine pieces of equality legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relations Act 1976 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Read more about the protected characteristics in our factsheets, and find out more about the Equality Act 2010.