The Equality Act 2010: Five years on

Abstract

'The Equality Act 2010: five years on' conference was organized as a collaboration between the Forum for Research into Equality and Diversity (University of Chester) and the School of Law and Social Justice (University of Liverpool). The Equality Act 2010 has arguably been one of the most important and challenging pieces of legislation introduced in the last decade in the United Kingdom. As such, it was felt that the 5-year anniversary of its implementation provided an excellent opportunity to bring together those researching and practising in this area of law. In particular, the conference was intended to provide the opportunity for a review of the implications and impact of the legislation during this period, but also to consider the way in which it can continue to promote equality and protect against discrimination into the 21st century.As organizers, we were keen to focus the themes of the conference around the broad range of socio-legal study taking place across the United Kingdom in relation to the Equality Act 2010. While many conferences have focussed on the implications of the legislation for practitioners and wider exploration of equality across a variety of sectors, it was felt that there were few academic gatherings permitting researchers to explore the impact of the Equality Act from a socio-legal perspective. Contributors were invited to submit papers and poster presentations across a range of themes around the legislation including, but not limited to, the public sector equality duty, intersectionality, positive action, strategic enforcement, hierarchy of protected characteristics, education, etc.The quality and range of papers and posters submitted and presented at the conference exceeded expectations. As had been hoped, the variety of socio-legal study being carried

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