The Equality Act 2010 came into effect in October 2010, replacing all existing anti-discrimination laws and extending protection across a number of “protected characteristics”.
What are protected characteristics?
Protected characteristics are specific attributes that are safeguarded under the Equality Act 2010.
The Equality Act 2010 protects you if you experience discrimination because of your:
- Race
- Sex
- Disability
- Age
- Sexual orientation
- Religion or belief
- Gender reassignment
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Marriage and partnership
We have introduced the following additional protected characteristics for the borough of Rochdale for:
- Service and ex-service personnel
- Those who are care experienced
- Those with caring responsibilities
Data on protected characteristics in the borough
We collect equality and diversity data for the borough of Rochdale. Our approach to this is supported by the collection and analysis of data from a variety of sources.
We report on all protected characteristics. Some data is incredibly hard to collect. This could be because data isn't collected nationally or as a single approved source. This means we need to be flexible and innovative about what data we can gather and how we use it.