The EHRC Code Ends Eight Months of Confusion: But Will Labour Act?
After eight months of delay, the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s statutory Code of Practice has been formally laid before Parliament. For every NHS trust, council, charity and quango that has spent years hiding behind confusion, the hiding is over.
The code of practice is not a pamphlet. It is not a recommendation. It is not a consultation exercise or a diversity working group’s output. Laid before Parliament on 21 May 2026, it is statutory guidance, approved by the Secretary of State, carrying the weight of the Equality Act 2010, and grounded in the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers. Courts and tribunals must take it into account. Lawyers must advise their clients by it. Service providers ignore it at their legal peril.
This publication should not require celebration. It should have been obvious from the moment of the Supreme Court judgment more than a year ago. But in a country where obvious things are routinely made obscure when they inconvenience the right people, it is worth stating plainly: “The law has been confirmed . . . ”
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