By Jo Seery, Professional Support Lawyer
The Equality and Human Rights Commission laid its draft Code of Practice on services, public functions and associations (the “Services Code”) before Parliament on 21 May 2026.
The Services Code applies to providers of services (e.g. local authorities and hospitals), public authorities carrying out public functions (e.g. law enforcement) and discrimination by associations with 25 or more members and regulated admission.
The government has 40 days to review and approve the Code. If the government does not disapprove the Code, it will set a date for it to come into force. Once in force as a statutory code, it can be taken into account in legal proceedings.
While the Code does not apply to workplace discrimination and harassment – which is covered by the EHRC Employment Code – employers may still need to consider the Code.
The Code takes into account developments of the law since it was last updated in 2011 including the Supreme Court’s decision in R (For Women Scotland Ltd) v Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16, which confirmed that references to “sex”, “woman” and “man” in the Equality Act relate to biological sex.
The update follows a period of significant legal and policy developments in equality law, and recent litigation on the interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling, including the dismissal of a judicial review challenge in R (Good Law Project Ltd) v EHRC [2026] EWHC 279 (Admin).
