Equality and diversity legislation 

They outline the legislation, what employers need to do, the key issues and shared learning from trusts, and signpost you to other sources of information, including the key full legal texts.

Current legislation

There are currently nine pieces of primary legislation on equality within the UK, with regulations, codes of practice and guidelines supporting these. Employers should ensure that they are - at least - compliant with these legal requirements.

With the new Equality Act expected to be introduced during 2010, the legislation should be simplified and strengthened.  To prepare for this, and ensure they are compliant with current requirements, employers should have in place equality schemes and equality impact assessments for new and existing policies and practices.

The equality and diversity legislation currently covers the eight equality and diversity strands outlined below:

• Age
• Carers
• Disability
• Gender
• Human rights
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sexual orientation

Additional tools for employers

We have also developed the following practical guidance and tools to support employers:

• Navigating Equality and Diversity guide - this summarises the main equality and diversity guidance (not legislation) and key actions for NHS organisations
• Single equality schemes (SES) guidance - how to develop an SES and examples of good practice in this area
• Equality impact assessments (EqIA) guidance - guidance and templates on  how to do EqIAs and examples of good practice
• Diversity monitoring guidance - how to track how your organisation is doing on the diversity strands
• Business case for diversity - a briefing that outlines the business case for diversity for employers