Lawbite: Service Providers On Notice: Updated Statutory Equality Code Now Applies

A new statutory code is now in force across England, Scotland and Wales, replacing the 2011 code and providing an updated framework for Equality Act compliance.

Service providers, public bodies and associations in those jurisdictions should now be working from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (“EHRC”)’s updated Code of Practice on services, public functions and associations (“Code”). The Code came into force on 5 August 2026, replacing the 2011 version.

The update is significant because the new Code reflects more than a decade of legal developments, including the legalisation of same-sex marriage, case law on the definition of disability and the threshold for a philosophical belief to be protected under the Equality Act 2010 (the “EqA 2010”), as well as the Supreme Court’s judgment on the definition of sex in the EqA 2010. It also incorporates previously separate technical guidance on age