Radical or just worthy? Charles Pigott puts the Equality Act under the spotlight
There is a certain irony in the fact that the Equality Act received Royal Assent after five years’ hard work by the outgoing Labour government, leaving our new coalition government with five years to reap its benefits before it has to face another general election.
The main objectives of the Act are well enough known to be treated briefly.
l The first, and least controversial, aim was to bring all the country’s anti-discrimination law under one roof, rather than leaving it scattered across numerous acts and statutory instruments.
l The second, closely linked to the first, was to iron out the anomalies that had accumulated due to piecemeal implementation of EU legislation.
l The third, and most challenging, was to reform and modernise the law to tackle persistent inequalities, of which the gender pay gap has been the most obvious example. Exactly 40 years after the Equal Pay Act received Royal Assent, it is still well into double figures on any
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