The main purpose of the Equality Act 2010 is to "harmonise" anti-discrimination law in the UK.

The most obvious way in which this is done is by bringing all anti-discrimination law together into a single Act. However equally important is the harmonisation of procedural, enforcement and general anti-discrimination rules which generally now apply to all strands of anti-discrimination in the same way and by virtue of the same statutory provisions. Inevitably, however, there are some exceptions.