Exploring the Equality Act 2010 Quiz

Answer:

The Equality Act 2010 ("the 2010 Act") - legislation focussing on matters of discrimination - was brought about during the last few months of Gordon Brown's tenure as UK prime minister. The act received royal assent in April 2010 and subsequently came into force in October of the same year.

The applicability of the 2010 Act is broad and covers equality concerns in relation to provision of goods and services (transport, housing, education etc), but it is most prominent in the realm of employment. It is therefore not surprising that the Employment Tribunal is the legal body tasked with dealing with the vast majority of claims made under the 2010 Act, claims that are - for the most part - made by an (ex) employee against their (former) employer.

The 2010 Act is built upon the foundational concept of the 'protected characteristic'. This concept is firmly philosophically rooted in liberalism, in particular the formulation that rights are an attribute of an individual (rather than inherent to the bond between individuals or something altogether more communitarian). Protected characteristics include sex, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation but this is by no means an exhaustive list.

The 2010 Act affords protection against discrimination on the grounds of any of the specified protected characteristics. The legislation outlines numerous ways in which discrimination could manifest - including direct and indirect discrimination, victimisation and harassment - though, as is often the case with the law, proceedings become an abstract exercise in making events fit a set of legal tests.

The Equality Act 2010 has proven to be a controversial piece of legislation with points of contention including the fairness - or otherwise - of positive action, intersectionality interpretations with respect to gender and gender reassignment (up to and including decisions made by the Supreme Court), and how the law is (seen to be) applied being dependent upon whether a claimant exhibits a majority or minority expression of a given characteristic (a modern example of the liberal tenet of seeking to prevent factionalism through restraint of the "tyranny of the majority").