The Equality Bill and the voluntary sector

This information is taken from the guide ’What equality law means for your voluntary and community sector organisation (including charities and religion or belief organisations)' produced by EHRC and can be downloaded from the EHRC website.

The guide is for voluntary or community sector organisations, charities or religion and belief organisations that provide any goods, facilities or services to members of the public.

Whether the service is free to clients or whether people pay and regardless of the size of the organisation – the equality law still applies. The guide tells you what the equality law says voluntary and community organisations must and must not do to avoid unlawful discrimination.

The Equality law also affects everyone who works for the organisation including staff and volunteers. It will be a good idea to provide equality training for staff and volunteers and update the organisation’s equality policy.

What are Protected Characteristics?

• Disability – physical and mental (new)
• Gender Re-assignment (new)
• Pregnancy and Maternity (including breastfeeding)
• Race
• Religion or Belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation.

• Direct discrimination (treating a person worse than someone else because of a protected characteristic) is now extended to the new protected characteristics.
• Indirect discrimination (making a decision or applying a rule which has a worse impact on people of protected characteristics as opposed to those that don’t) previously applied to race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. This is now extended to disability and gender re-assignment. 
• Previously protection from association (treating a person worse than someone else because they are associated with a person of a protected characteristic) and perception (treating a person worse because people incorrectly think they have a protected characteristic) applied to race and religion or belief, this is now extended to disability and gender re-assignment.
• There is now no need for a victim (a person who has complained about discrimination and is being victimised) to show that they have been treated less favourably than someone who has not made or supported a complaint. Under the act they only need to say they were treated badly.
• A person must not be harassed because of their religion, belief or sexual orientation and consequently be treated less favourably than someone else. The court will see this as direct discrimination.
• Reasonable adjustments must be made to ensure that disabled people are able o use the service to the same standard as non disabled clients. This should be thought about in advance and not at the point of when a disabled person wants to access the service.

Therefore

Because of protected characteristics organisations must not:

1. Refuse to serve someone or refuse to take them on as a client.
2. Stop serving or working for someone if you still serve or work for other service users or clients who do not have he same protected characteristics in the same circumstances.
3. Give someone a service of a worse quality or in a worse way than you would usually provide the service.
4. Give someone worse terms of service than you would normally offer.
5. Put them at any other disadvantage unless it can be objectively justified.

Services for particular groups

There are specific situations in which you can provide (or refuse to provide) all or some of your services to people based on a protected characteristics. This applies only if organisations meet the strict tests.

• You can generally provide a limited service or refuse to provide the service to someone who does not share protected characteristics with your users if you reasonably believe it would not be practical to provide the service to that person.
• You are allowed to provide separate services for men and women where providing a combined service would not be as effective as long as this is objectively justified.
• You can refuse to provide a service to pregnant women or set conditions of the service because you reasonably believe that providing the service in the usual way would create a risk to the women’s health and safety.
• It may also be possible to target people with particular protected characteristics through positive action. You must be able to show that you have reason to think the protected characteristic these people share means they have a different need or experience disadvantage or have low participation in activities.
• As well as these exceptions, equality law allows disabled people to be treated more favourably than non-disabled people – this is to remove barriers that disabled people would otherwise face to accessing services.

Exceptions which apply to charities or to religion or belief organisations

If the organisation is a charity or a religion or belief organisation they are allowed to restrict benefit to people (including services provided) to people with a particular protected characteristic if it is:

• included in the charitable instrument
• is objectively justified or
• it is done to prevent or compensate for disadvantage linked to the protected characteristic.

However charities cannot restrict their services on the basis of a person’s colour such as black or white. If the charitable instrument includes a restriction to people of a particular colour it will be read as if that restriction does not exist.

More information on restriction benefits to people with a particular protected characteristic can be found in the Code of Practice. Management and trustees need to decide if the restriction meets either of the two tests, if it does not then the organisation should stop applying the restriction.

Events or activities

An event or activity held to promote or support a charity can be restricted to one sex only e.g. Race for Life.