Equality duties mainly engage state institutions while in Great Britain organisations with public functions or service provisions are also subject to the legal duties. Addresses are thus for instance ministries, agencies, administrations, schools, universities, communities as well as health authorities. Private institutions and individuals are not subject to the duties.

The target groups that public authorities have to respect in their equality considerations are made up of citizens that potentially experience discrimination on the basis of one or more protected characteristics. These are for instance age, disability, ethnic origin, religion, gender and sexual orientation. If a marriage or civil partnership leads to an indirect connection to one or more protected characteristics, these people must under specific circumstances also be considered by British public institutions. The situation is different in Northern Ireland, where the category ‘marital status’ is mentioned in the legal text as a protected characteristic.