Here you will find out about the legal duties and responsibilities that apply to all public authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.
Public authorities must uphold and promote human rights in everything they do.
All public authorities have legal duties relating to race, gender and disability. Their obligations within each area focus on:
- promoting equality of opportunity
- promoting good relations
- promoting positive attitudes
- eliminating harassment, and
- eliminating unlawful discrimination.
These obligations are set out in the race equality duty, the gender equality duty and the disability equality duty.
The three equality duties are similar in spirit as they all place the onus on public authorities to actively tackle discrimination and promote equality. However, the duties do have slightly different requirements, which will need to be met in order to satisfy legal obligations.
Pages in this section
Visit the ‘Human rights’ page to find out more
Race equality duty
Disability equality duty
Gender equality duty
Discrimination in the public sector: examples and the legal framework