In contrast to Northern Ireland, Great Britain has one single law, which imposes equality duties on public authorities. This was introduced after a review of all laws in England, Scotland and Wales pertaining to anti-discrimination. The result of the review in 2007 had been that the various legal bases should be combined in order to simplify them and design them in a more coherent and result-focused way.

At the same time, the equality duties regarding ethnic origin, gender and disability, previously formalised in different laws, were combined and extended to further protected characteristics. This is because through the review of the law it had become clear that positive duties are an essential part of an effective protection against discrimination.

The following chapter will briefly present this unified Equality Act 2010.