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Ageism and age discrimination
Ageism and age discrimination

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2.5 The Public Sector Equality Duty

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is a legal obligation under the Equality Act 2010 that requires public bodies in England, Scotland, and Wales to consider how their decisions and actions affect people with protected characteristics.

It applies to:

  • Public bodies (e.g. schools, hospitals, police)
  • Private or voluntary organisations carrying out public functions (e.g. a private company running a prison or a train service franchise).

Watch this video from the Equality and Human Rights Commission for an overview of the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Video 4 'What is the Public Sector Equality Duty? | Equality law: discrimination explained', Equality and Human Rights Commission (See transcript [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] [PDF, 20 KB])
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Public bodies must have ‘due regard’ to the need to achieve three main aims, as can be seen in Figure 9.

Graphic with the title ‘The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)’. The text below the title reads ‘The three aims of the general duty are to make sure that public authorities have due regard to the need to:’ It then lists the three aims with an icon next to each one: ‘put an end to unlawful behaviour that is banned by the Equality Act 2010, including discrimination, harassment and victimisation’ (icon of a raised hand), ‘advance equal opportunities between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not’ (icon of a box with an arrow pointing upwards and forwards), ‘foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not (icon of a handshake)’. Source: Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Figure 9: The three aims of the Public Sector Equality Duty (The Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2022)
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Graphic with the title ‘The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)’. The text below the title reads ‘The three aims of the general duty are to make sure that public authorities have due regard to the need to:’ It then lists the three aims with an icon next to each one: ‘put an end to unlawful behaviour that is banned by the Equality Act 2010, including discrimination, harassment and victimisation’ (icon of a raised hand), ‘advance equal opportunities between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not’ (icon of a box with an arrow pointing upwards and forwards), ‘foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not (icon of a handshake)’. Source: Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Figure 9: The three aims of the Public Sector Equality Duty (The Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2022)