Gender Equality and the Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 will further enhance gender and gender re-assignment based equality and requires employers to be more open about differences in pay between men and women.
Existing law on sex discrimination and equal pay is effectively repealed and replaced by the new act, which includes a number of specific provisions relevant to gender and gender re-assignment, including:
Protected characteristics
Gender and gender re-assignment are protected characteristics under the new act, and direct, indirect, harassment and victimisation are "prohibited behaviours" or unlawful, under the act.
Pregnancy and maternity is also a protected characteristic under the new legislation, offering greater recognition in law to discrimination experienced by pregnant women and new mothers.
When the law kicks in for gender re-assignment
The Equality Act has changed the point at which people undergoing gender re-assignment gain protection in employment and the delivery of services.
Under the new law, a person will enjoy protection if they are proposing to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone a process or part of a process in order to re-assign their gender.
Effectively, from the point at which a person tells their employer or a service provider they intend to undergo gender re-assignment; they are entitled to protection because of gender re-assignment.
The law will also provide protection in employment to people undergoing gender re-assignment, by disallowing employers from penalising them for taking time off work when undergoing medical treatment or experiencing sickness as a result of any treatment they receive in order to undergo re-assignment.
Breastfeeding mothers
The Equality Act will make it unlawful for providers of services or the owners of publicly used places to ask a mother who is breastfeeding to cease or to use a private room of facility.
This change provides more dignity for mothers who need to feed their babies, and should help stop discrimination against them.
Equal pay
There are a small number of changes to the law on equal pay.
The two main changes include:
Plans to make employers publish information about gender pay gaps - this will require employers to publish information about any inequalities in pay between male and female employees.
Making "pay gagging clauses" unlawful − this is where employees have been prevented from divulging how much they are paid. In the past this has helped employers hide inequality in pay between men and women.
Public sector duty to promote equality
View our updated informaton on the new public sector equality duty (opens in a new window) which replaced the duty to promote gender equality.
Voluntary gender equality reporting
The government has been working with a range of partners to develop a new voluntary framework for gender equality reporting, called Think, Act, Report.
More information about the initiative can be found on the Government Equalities Office (opens in a new window) website.