Under the Equality Act 2010, a person is protected from discrimination throughout the employee lifecycle including recruitment, training and promotion. This Act sets out the main types of discrimination, including the personal attributes or characteristics which the law protects. 

This factsheet provides an overview of the law relating to discrimination in the workplace, exploring the types of discrimination and how these apply to the nine protected characteristics.

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Please note, on 16 April 2025 the Supreme Court returned the ruling that the protected characteristic of “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex. The result of this ruling can be viewed on the Supreme Court website. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (the EHRC, the national equality and human rights regulator for England, Scotland and Wales) released an interim update on 25 April 2025,  with a further clarification on 23 June 2025, to help employers and others understand how to follow the law in response to the Supreme Court ruling. The EHRC is working 'at pace' to update its statutory and non-statutory guidance.
 
We will update our content appropriately when the EHRC statutory guidance is available or changes are made. 

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