The list of discrimination laws has been expanding due to new UK legislation, and is also affected by European legislation and rulings of the European Court of Justice.
Relevant pieces of legislation are outlined, and the practical implications of these are explained below.
Codes of practice
The Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) are organisations that have produced codes of practice on equal opportunities. Whilst these are not actually statutory requirements, they carry significant influence for tribunals and are strongly recommended as the actions of a ‘good’ employer.
The codes recommend that a company develops an equal opportunities policy and takes steps to monitor the effectiveness of the policy.
Most of the relevant legislation in this area is now found under a single law: The Equality Act 2010