Our legal duties

As government communicators, we are required by law to ensure that all communications we produce are inclusive and accessible. In all cases, you should consider with your policy teams how what you are communicating affects different groups – especially people who are protected by law – and plan this into your strategies.

On this page you will find information on:

Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 is a law which protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations.

The act sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone, and means that discrimination or unfair treatment on the basis of certain personal characteristics, is now against the law in almost all cases. 

There are nine protected characteristics in the Equality Act: age; sex; race; disability; religion or belief; sexual orientation; pregnancy and maternity; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership.

The act also requires public bodies to consider how their decisions might help to reduce the inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage. It is good practice to consider socioeconomic and geographic factors as appropriate. You can read more about the socio-economic duty on GOV.UK.

In Northern Ireland, the rights of disabled people are covered by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Duty to make reasonable adjustments 

One in four (24%) people in the United Kingdom is classified as disabled. (Source: Family Resources Survey, 2022-23, Department for Work and Pensions). This may affect how they experience communications, and what changes we need to make to ensure our communications are inclusive and accessible for everyone.

The Equality Act 2010 sets out the duty of government and others to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people have equal access to information, goods and services.

This duty applies where a disabled person might otherwise be at a ‘substantial’ (meaning ‘more than minor or trivial’) disadvantage.

Any failure to comply with this duty would amount to unlawful discrimination against a disabled person, and have legal, financial, and reputational consequences.  This goes beyond simply avoiding discrimination and requires positive steps to anticipate potential needs and remove barriers, so disabled people can access information, goods and services.

So, if your communication is about something that will affect disabled people, or they are entitled to know or be included in, you will need to ensure that you have done as much as can be reasonably expected to ensure they can access and respond to the information.

What does this mean for you in practice?

  • You must consider what adjustments are reasonable. This may include, for example, provision of alternative formats, such as Easy Read, and auxiliary products or services, such as a sign language interpreter or translation, induction loop or infrared broadcast system, video or text relay services, and so on. The GCS British Sign Language guidance provides more detail on providing BSL content for those who need it.

The act leaves open what particular auxiliary aids or services might be reasonable in specific circumstances. It is up to government and public bodies to determine what reasonable steps they need to take. The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Code of Practice on the Equality Act 2010 elaborates on things to think about when considering what is reasonable.

GOV.UK also provides useful guidance on accessibility requirements for government websites and apps and testing with assistive technology, to ensure everyone can access your services with the technology they rely on, such as screen readers and speech recognition software.

Public Sector Equality Duty

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) places a legal obligation on public bodies (and those performing functions on behalf of them) to consider how any policy or decision affects people who are protected under the Equality Act.

There are three aims of the Public Sector Equality Duty:

  • eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act;
  • advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
  • foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

For work on public communications and information, as with all public functions, decision-makers must therefore consider:

  • whether a proposed approach may be discriminatory or unlawful and
  • the need to take steps to meet different needs of people with protected characteristics.

Failure to consider the impact of communication on those with protected characteristics will likely result in a breach of the PSED.

The Government Equalities Office (the Office of Equality and Opportunity since 2024) has published two quick-start guides to help public bodies understand the Equality Duty and the specific duties:

British Sign Language Act 2022

In 2022, the British Sign Language Act became law. It officially recognises British Sign Language (BSL) as a language of Great Britain.

Nearly all government departments must report on how they are promoting and using BSL in their communications with the public. There are exceptions, such as the Northern Ireland Office. A full list of relevant government departments can be found within section 2 of the act.

The act covers England, Scotland and Wales. The act does not extend to Northern Ireland. This is to acknowledge that equality law is devolved in Northern Ireland, and British and Irish Sign Languages are used among the Northern Irish Deaf community.

For the purposes of the act, only core departments need to report on how they promote and use BSL in their communications. Agencies, non-departmental public bodies and other arm’s length bodies are not in scope of the act, but are encouraged to use BSL translation and interpreting where it meets the needs of audiences, or to produce explanatory material directly in BSL.

The GCS British Sign Language guidance, is specifically aimed at helping government communicators provide bespoke BSL content, translations, and interpretations, to those who need it.

Website and app accessibility regulations

Public sector organisations have a legal duty under The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, to ensure websites and apps meet accessibility requirements.

Further information on understanding why you need to meet the website and mobile app accessibility regulations can be found on GOV.UK.

Social model of disability

Our communications should be based on the social model of disability rather than the medical model of disability. The social model emphasises that people are disabled by the barriers society creates, rather than their impairment or difference. This means that we should ensure our communications aim to remove barriers faced by disabled people through language used, design, channels and overall approach.

You can read more about using the social model of disability and co-creation, which is working with disabled people and their representative organisations when creating communications, in the GCS Inclusive Communications Template.

Inclusive Communications Template

It is each department’s responsibility to ensure their communications meet the duties as explained on this page, including providing communications and information in accessible formats.

We have set out the standards which all GCS communications content must meet, in our Inclusive Communications Template.

The template invites you to consider the needs of different groups, covering all the protected characteristics, including disability. It helps you to think through how you can make your content inclusive and accessible to these different audiences, and have a wider and more effective impact.

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