Equality Act 2006^[1]
Dates
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision for the establishment of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights; to dissolve the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Disability Rights Commission; to make provision about discrimination on grounds of religion or belief; to enable provision to be made about discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation; to impose duties relating to sex discrimination on persons performing public functions; to amend the Disability Discrimination Act 1995; and for connected purposes.
Citation	2006 c 3
Royal assent	16 February 2006
Status: Amended
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

342	MSM activity made illegal
1533	Death penalty introduced for MSM activity
1543	Buggery Act extended to Wales
1828	Offences Against the Person Act 1828
1835	James Pratt and John Smith executed
1861	Death penalty for buggery abolished
1885	Labouchere Amendment introduced
1889	Cleveland Street scandal
1895	Oscar Wilde found guilty of gross indecency
1912	The Cave of the Golden Calf opens
1921	Plans to make lesbian activity illegal defeated
1936	Mark Weston transitions
1952	John Nott-Bower begins crackdown
1954	Pitt-Rivers, Montagu, Wildeblood imprisoned
1954	Alan Turing commits suicide
1957	Wolfenden report released
1967	MSM activity made legal (England & Wales)
1972	First British Gay Pride Rally
1976	Jeremy Thorpe resigns as Liberal leader
1981	MSM activity made legal (Scotland)
1981	First case of AIDS reported in the UK
1982	MSM activity made legal (NI)
1983	Gay men barred from donating blood
1984	Chris Smith elected as first openly gay MP
1987	Operation Spanner begins
1988	Section 28 comes into force
1989	Stonewall UK forms
1994	Age of consent for MSM becomes 18
1997	Angela Eagle becomes first openly lesbian MP
1998	Bolton 7 found guilty
1998	Lord Alli becomes first openly gay Lord
1999	Admiral Duncan bombing
2000	Gay men allowed in HM Armed Forces
2001	Age of consent equalised to 16
2001	MSM activity involving multiple men legal
2002	Same sex couples granted equal rights to adopt
2003	Section 28 repealed
2004	Civil partnerships introduced
2004	Gender Recognition Act 2004
2006	Discrimination made illegal
2008	Equalised access to IVF for lesbian couples
2008	Incitement to homophobic hatred made a crime
2009	Public apology to Alan Turing
2010	Equality Act 2010
2011	Gay men allowed to donate blood (1 yr deferral)
2013	Nikki Sinclaire becomes first openly trans MEP
2013	Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013
2014	First same-sex marriages take place
2016	MSM activity not grounds for military discharge
2017	Turing law implemented
2017	Blood donation deferral 3 months (excl. NI)
2019	MPs legislate for gay marriage in NI
2020	Gay marriage legal across UK, incl. NI
2020	Blood donation deferral 3 months (incl. NI)
2021	Blood donation deferral equalised

The Equality Act 2006 (c 3) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom covering the United Kingdom. The 2006 Act is a precursor to the Equality Act 2010, which combines all of the equality enactments within Great Britain and provide comparable protections across all equality strands. Those explicitly mentioned by the Equality Act 2006 include age; disability; sex; proposed, commenced or completed gender reassignment; race; religion or belief and sexual orientation. The changes it made were:

creating the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (merging the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission)
outlawing of discrimination on goods and services on the grounds of religion and belief (subject to certain exemptions)
allowing the Government to introduce regulations outlawing discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in goods and services, which led to the Sexual Orientation Regulations 2006
creating a public duty to promote equality on the ground of gender (The Equality Act 2006, section 84, inserting section 76A of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, now found in section 1 of the Equality Act 2010)

Overview

With the exception of the provision relating to goods and services discrimination in Northern Ireland on the grounds of sexual orientation, the Act relates to equality law in Great Britain, as a separate legislative framework exists for Northern Ireland which also has a separate equality body, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (though by and large reflecting the general approach to equality legislation in Great Britain).

Background

In 1998, the Runnymede Trust published a report by Bhikhu Parekh calling for a new Equality Act which would consolidate and advance existing legislation.^[2]

The Equality Bill first appeared in the 2004/05 Session, but did not make it into law before Parliament was dissolved ahead of the 2005 general election. In its manifesto, the Labour Party promised to reintroduce the Bill, which it duly accomplished upon its reinstatement in Westminster.

At this stage, only "religion or belief" was included in the anti-discrimination clauses. The Labour Party specifically did not wish to ban discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.^[3]

After the bill was reintroduced, further lobbying by openly gay Peer the Lord Alli succeeded in forcing the government to add homophobic discrimination to the Bill.

However, the lateness of this concession meant the extra provisions could not be included substantively in the primary legislation. Instead, legislators agreed to delegate the drafting of regulations to the Government. After a public consultation^[4]^[5] and a protracted debate within the Cabinet,^[6]^[7] these were eventually laid before Parliament as the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.

Further promised legislation also includes a provision to provide for protection for people in the provision of goods and services on the grounds of gender reassignment in order to comply with an EU Directive.

Cases under the Act

In mid-2010, following the June 2010 United Kingdom Budget, which allocated a series of cuts across government departments and the public sector, the Fawcett Society filed an action for judicial review, on the ground that the budget paid no regard to the disparate negative impact on women as it should have under section 84 of the Equality Act 2006 and section 76A of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. This requires every public authority, not excluding the Treasury or the Cabinet Office, to "have due regard to the need— (a) to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment, and (b) to promote equality of opportunity between men and women". It was alleged that the government failed to "have due regard" to the disparate impact of its budget on women.