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.

British Sign Language description of equality legal requirement. This video has no sound.

Key information

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Email: equality@hw.ac.uk