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The Code provides practical guidance on how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, public functions and associations, explaining the steps needed to ensure people are not discriminated against, harassed or victimised in relation to the nine protected characteristics set out in the Act.
It does not create new law or impose new legal obligations. Instead, it offers legally accurate, impartial and up-to-date guidance on existing law, helping organisations comply with it, legal advisers interpret it, and courts and tribunals apply it.
This update reflects more than a decade of legal developments, including the legalisation of same-sex marriage, case law on the definition of disability and the threshold for a philosophical belief to be protected under the Equality Act, and last year's Supreme Court judgment on the definition of sex in the Equality Act. The Code also incorporates previously separate technical guidance on age discrimination.
As statutory guidance, the Code must be taken into account by courts and tribunals where relevant, though it does not override their authority to interpret the law.
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