Code of practice for services, public functions and associations
About the code of practice
This code of practice applies to England, Scotland and Wales.
The code provides guidance on the Equality Act 2010 (the Act) and helps courts, lawyers, advisers and others interpret and comply with the law. It does not make new law or create any new legal obligations.
The code covers discrimination, harassment and victimisation in services and public functions as set out in Part 3 of the Act. It also covers discrimination, harassment and victimisation by associations, as set out in Part 7.
This code is statutory, which means it has been approved by the Secretary of State and formally laid before Parliament.
The code of practice was laid in Parliament for 40 days from 21 May to 9 July. It became statutory on 5 August.
We have published the PDF version that was laid before Parliament. We have also provided the code as a series of webpages. The content in the webpages is the same as in the PDF version.
We have optimised the content for the webpages and have made a change to the way footnotes are included to support this. This means that, in the webpages, the footnotes are available at the end of each chapter. In the PDF, the footnotes are available at the end of the document.
Read the code of practice for services, public functions and associations
Read the consultation reports
Consultation reports: Code of practice for services, public functions and associations
Read the reports about the consultations we ran on the code of practice for public functions,…
There have been questions about references to special category data in paragraphs 13.175 and 13.182 of the draft Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations (the Code). This information clarifies our position in the context covered by the draft Code. For additional information on the use of personal data and compliance with data protection law, read the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The Code is clear that it is legitimate to collect data about sex from service users for purposes such as equality monitoring or service planning (Code 13.182). Public bodies need to gather evidence, such as data on service users, to inform their consideration of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).
The Code also explains that there may be legitimate reasons for service providers, those exercising public functions and those running associations to ask individuals to confirm their sex, to ensure there is a lawful single or separate-sex provision of a service (Code 13.168).
In such instances, this should be done sensitively and with due respect for the individual’s privacy (Code 13.171 to 176).
Someone’s sex is not in itself special category personal data. However, if information gathered also reveals specific details about an individual’s health status or medical care, or the organisation uses the information to make for example, specific inferences about health, that would involve special category data. This may arise in some of the specific circumstances addressed in the Code.
All personal data, including any information specifically about a person’s sex asked for in the circumstances discussed in the Code, should be treated sensitively and in line with data protection law and the data protection principles.