The purpose of the new Regulations is to "reproduce in domestic law certain interpretive effects of retained EU law which, under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023, will cease to apply to the UK statute book after the end of 2023."
The Equality Act has now been amended to protect certain rights against discrimination which derive from EU Law, so they are not lost by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023.
The Regulations amend the Equality Act 2010 to achieve this purpose. The amendments are specifically in relation to the following:
- Direct discrimination related to pregnancy, maternity and breastfeeding;
- Indirect discrimination where a person without a relevant protected characteristic suffers substantively the same disadvantage as those with that protected characteristic;
- Direct discrimination in the context of access to employment and occupation as regards public statements outside a recruitment process;
- The right to equal pay where employees' terms are attributable to a single source (Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union);
- The definition of disability in relation to employment and occupation.