In Great Britain equality duties developed from the idea that discrimination could not only be fought through laws but that discrimination should also be actively prevented. This became obvious in 1999 when the Macpherson report regarding the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence in April 1993 in London revealed a grave misconduct and multiple failures by the Metropolitan Police in the murder investigation.

Due to the resulting concerns about institutional racism in the public administration and particularly the police the Race Relations Amendments Act 2000 introduced a positive duty in 2001 for the first time. The so-called Race Equality Duty was imposed on all public authorities in order to proactively prevent discrimination on the basis of origin or ethnic characteristics and to positively promote equality.

This was followed by similar equality duties for characteristics such as disability and gender in 2006 and 2007 in order to achieve ongoing equality in institutions. In 2011 the three duties were consolidated in the Equality Act 2010, which covered all protected characteristics.