Doubts have been raised over the implementation date of The Equality Act 2010 after the Government Equalities Office (GEO) removed the October 2010 date for implementation from its website.
The Equality Act received Royal Assent on 8 April and the bulk of the legislation was due to be implemented in October.
But the GEO's website no longer displays that date, and a fact sheet on the Act just states: "The provisions in the Equality Act will come into force at different times to allow time for the people and organisations affected by the new laws to carefully prepare for them."
It's certainly odd that the date has been withdrawn but certainly no excuse to just ignore the likely impact of the Act.
The Act introduces a number of reforms, including: prohibiting employers from asking questions about health before offering a candidate a post; and provision to make regulations requiring employers with at least 250 employees to publish information relating to the differences in pay between men and women (expected to come into effect in 2013).
Watch this space...
The Equality Act 2010 can be viewed on the OPSI website.