Imperial is committed to promoting and embedding equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the College. We have a number of committees and working groups across the College focused on different activities and aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion. 

However, we believe creating an equal, diverse and inclusive culture is everyone's responsibility.

Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 brought together over 116 separate pieces of legislation. A significant piece of legislation, the Act simplified, consolidated and strengthened the law, providing a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. The Act covers the rights of our staff and students, and prospective staff and students.

In the UK, conversations about equality, diversity and inclusion often take place in the framework of the nine protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

Public Sector Duty

The Equality Act 2010 requires all public bodies to meet a General Duty. The Duty covers all protected groups (except Marriage and Civil Partnership) and Duty requires public bodies to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

The General Duty is supported by specific duties:

• Publish equality objectives at least every four years
• Publish information to demonstrate compliance with the equality duty, at least annually

In October 2018, Imperial published our new Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Strategy, replacing our previous equality objectives. Our latest EDI Annual Report 2019-2020 (pdf)‌ gives a summary of our recent activities. 

Our latest Imperial staff EDI data (Excel) and Imperial student EDI data (Excel) are also available. Further data is also available on Imperial's gender pay gap.