Fears about Equality Act prove unfounded

Leading HR professionals have said they are well-prepared for changes introduced in the Equality Act, which came into force this month.The act streamlines nine separate pieces of employment legislation into a single statute, while adding new responsibilities for employers. The use of untargeted pre-employment health questionnaires has been banned from the recruitment process, and the definition of discrimination has been widened to include “perceptive” and “associative” discrimination for people who have a family connection with, or are perceived as being part of, a protected group.