In its role in providing advice on putting the Equality Act 2010 into practice, on 5 September 2025 the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) provided its updated Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to the Minister for Women and Equalities for approval.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:
“Over the past two years the EHRC has undertaken a major project to update the entire statutory code of practice, which was published in 2011, to reflect over ten years of new legislation. Following the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers in April, some additional sections required further revision.
“We have now submitted an updated draft of the code to the Minister for Women and Equalities. The government is responsible for laying it before Parliament. Once Parliament has considered its content, I look forward to the EHRC publishing this guidance, fulfilling our statutory role to provide clear information that protects everyone's rights under the Equality Act 2010.”
The project to update the code included two consultation processes which sought to understand how the guidance could be made clearer.
The first, held in in late 2024, sought views on updates to the whole Code of Practice, covering all nine protected characteristics. A further consultation was carried out following the above Supreme Court ruling and involved an additional six-week consultation on proposed updates to sections impacted by that ruling.
Once approved by the minister, the Government must lay the draft code before Parliament for 40 days before it can be brought into force.
