The new Equality Bill was announced in the Queen's Speech on 3rd December 2008 and is being used to strengthen protection, advance equality and simplify the law. The Bill places a new equality duty on public bodies, which will bring together existing duties and extend to them to gender reassignment, age, sexual orientation and religion or belief. The Bill will contain powers to outlaw unjustifiable age discrimination in goods, facilities and services.

On Friday 24th April 2009 the Equality Bill was introduced in the House of Commons and it was published on Monday 27th April.

The Equality Bill sets out groundbreaking new laws which will help narrow the gap between rich and poor; require business to report on gender pay; outlaw age discrimination; and will significantly strengthen Britains anti-discrimination legislation.

The Bill will simplify the law which, over the last four decades, has become complex and difficult to navigate. Nine major pieces of legislation and around 100 other measures will be replaced by a single Act written in plain English to make it easier for individuals and employers to understand their legal rights and obligations.

For more information and to download the bill please click here

The following link provides a round-up of all the equality and diversity legislation that public bodies must be aware of, plus external links to the full legal texts. Current Legislation