Current best practices

• Author: Vickers, Lucy
• Pages: 68-68

68

10 CURRENT BEST PRACTICES

- The positive duties imp osed on public auth orities by the Public Sector Equality Duty

(Section 149 EqA) in GB and Section 75 Northern Ireland Act 1998 (in NI) (see 2.3.1).

- The broad coverage in the UK beyond employment and occupation of discrimination

on grounds of disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief (and, in GB, age) (see

3.2.6-3.2.10).

- The coverage by the EqA of discrimination on grounds of caste (see 2.1.1).

- Despite t he recent budget cuts, the work of the EHRC and ECNI is strong, with a

significant number of high-quality research reports and investigations published each

year.

- In NI, during 2019 legislation was introduc ed requiring the Secretary of State to

introduce legislation allowing same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships.

This legislation, the Marriage (Same-sex Couples) and Civil Partnershi p (Opposit e-

sex Couples) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2019, was introduced in December

2019.187 In 2019, the Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) Regulations 2019 were

introduced, al lowing op posite-sex couples the same rights as same-sex couples to

enter civil partnerships.

187 The first same-sex marriage took place in February 2020.