Equality Action Plans for Large Employers - What UK Rules Require and When

Large UK employers are moving from reporting pay gaps to explaining, in public, what they will do about them. Section 33 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 creates the framework for employers with 250 or more employees to publish an equality action plan on gender equality, covering the gender pay gap and support for employees going through the menopause.

The duty is being phased in. The enabling power came into force on 6 April 2026, and the government launched a voluntary action plan scheme in April 2026 alongside new guidance. Mandatory plans follow from spring 2027, subject to regulations.

A second development widens the picture. On 25 March 2026 the government published its response to the consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting. It confirmed that large employers will also be expected to publish action plans addressing any ethnicity and disability pay gaps, and that it aims to harmonise the regimes so employers produce one combined equality action plan.

This guide explains what the action plan must contain, how it interacts with your pay gap figures, and the policy set that sits behind a credible plan.

Primary sources: section 33 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 on legislation.gov.uk, the government response on ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting (25 March 2026), the GOV.UK guidance on creating an action plan, and the Plan to Make Work Pay timeline update.

Why This Matters

Gender pay gap reporting has been mandatory for employers with 250 or more staff since 2017, but the numbers alone have never required a response. The action plan duty changes that. Once regulations are in force, a large employer will need to publish the steps it is taking alongside the size of its gap.

Action plans are public documents. Candidates, employees, trade unions and tender assessors can read them alongside your published figures. A vague or recycled plan sitting next to a widening pay gap is a visible reputational problem.

The voluntary window that opened in April 2026 is effectively a rehearsal year. Employers that publish a voluntary plan now will have tested their data, their actions and their sign-off process before the mandatory regime and any enforcement mechanism arrive.

1. The Gender Equality Action Plan Duty Under the Employment Rights Act 2025

Section 33 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 inserts a new section 78A into the Equality Act 2010, directly after the existing gender pay gap reporting power in section 78. Section 78A allows regulations to require employers to develop and publish an equality action plan showing the steps they are taking on prescribed matters related to gender equality, and to publish prescribed information relating to the plan.

The duty will not apply to employers with fewer than 250 employees. Most public authorities are outside section 78A, although certain bodies listed in Schedule 19 to the Equality Act 2010 are within scope.

The regulations can prescribe the content of the plan, the form and manner of publication, how often it must be published or revised, and requirements for senior approval before publication. Section 78A(6) caps the frequency: after first publication, information cannot be required more often than at 12-month intervals. The regulations must go through the affirmative parliamentary procedure, and section 33 itself was commenced on 6 April 2026 by SI 2026/323.

2. Menopause Support Is Written Into the Duty

Section 78A(4) names two matters as related to gender equality: addressing the gender pay gap, and supporting employees going through the menopause. This is the first time menopause support has been written into a statutory employer publication duty, and it means a compliant plan must cover both strands, not the pay gap alone.

The GOV.UK guidance published for the voluntary phase suggests practical menopause actions. These include training line managers to hold supportive conversations, offering occupational health advice, carrying out workplace risk assessments, and making adjustments such as flexible hours, temperature control and relaxed uniform rules.

For most employers the sensible anchor is a written menopause policy. It gives managers a consistent framework and gives the action plan something concrete to cite.

3. The Harmonised Ethnicity and Disability Intention

The government response of 25 March 2026 confirmed that mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting will be introduced for employers with 250 or more employees, using the same six measures as gender pay gap reporting. It also confirmed that large employers will be required to publish action plans to tackle any ethnicity and disability pay gaps as part of that regime.

The key point for planning is that the response states that the government is aiming to harmonise the approaches so that employers can produce a single equality action plan, published on the same service, covering sex, race (including ethnicity) and disability once all the reporting requirements are in force. Employers should therefore design one plan with sections per strand, not three separate documents.

The ethnicity and disability requirements need primary legislation, the planned Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, followed by regulations. As of July 2026 no commencement dates have been confirmed, so these strands remain a firm intention rather than a live duty. Employee disclosure of ethnicity and disability data will be voluntary, with a "prefer not to say" option.

4. What a Compliant Action Plan Contains

The GOV.UK guidance collection published on 7 April 2026, including "Creating an action plan: guidance for employers" and a companion list of evidence-informed actions, sets out the expected shape of a plan. It recommends six steps: understand the issues in your organisation, choose actions, write a supporting narrative, submit the plan to the gender pay gap service, track outcomes, and review the plan.

In practice a strong plan contains a short diagnosis of what is driving the gap, a small set of specific actions on the pay gap and on menopause support, and a named owner, timescale and success measure for each action. The supporting narrative explains context, such as workforce composition or recent restructuring, without excusing the numbers.

Expect the 2027 regulations to prescribe minimum content and to require senior approval before publication, since section 78A(5) expressly allows both. Boards should treat the plan as a governance document with the same sign-off discipline as the pay gap figures.

5. How the Action Plan Interacts With Pay Gap Figures

The plan and the data are designed to be read together, published side by side on the government's gender pay gap service. The six reported measures do the diagnosis: quartile data shows where women sit in the pay distribution, and bonus gap figures often reveal issues in senior or sales roles. The action plan is the response to that diagnosis.

Each annual reporting cycle then becomes a test of the previous plan. If you committed to structured interviews or salary ranges in adverts, the next set of figures shows whether representation and pay distribution moved. Expect scrutiny where a plan repeats unchanged while the gap does not close.

When ethnicity and disability reporting arrives, the same logic extends across strands. One combined plan will need to respond to each identified gap, which is why the government is harmonising the reporting service and the plan format from the outset.

6. The Policy Set Behind the Plan

An action plan is only as credible as the policies underneath it. Four areas matter most. First, a menopause policy covering symptoms, adjustments, absence handling and manager responsibilities, since menopause support is a named statutory strand.

Second, flexible working. Flexible hours and hybrid patterns are among the most effective levers on both the gender pay gap and menopause retention, and your flexible working policy needs to reflect the statutory request regime accurately. Third, recruitment and selection: structured interviews, diverse shortlists and published salary ranges are all on the government's evidence-informed actions list, and each needs policy backing to happen consistently.

Fourth, pay and progression. Transparent pay bands, documented promotion criteria and an equal pay review process give the plan measurable commitments. A wider equality, opportunities and diversity policy ties the set together and provides the framework for the ethnicity and disability strands when they become mandatory.

Equality Action Plans at a Glance

Requirement	Who	Status as of July 2026
Gender pay gap reporting (six measures)	Employers with 250 or more employees	Mandatory since 2017
Gender equality action plan (pay gap and menopause)	Employers with 250 or more employees	Voluntary from April 2026; mandatory from spring 2027, subject to regulations
Ethnicity pay gap reporting	Employers with 250 or more employees	Confirmed intention; needs the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, no date set
Disability pay gap reporting	Employers with 250 or more employees	Confirmed intention; needs the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, no date set
Ethnicity and disability action plans	Employers with 250 or more employees	Intended to be mandatory, harmonised into a single combined plan
Any of the above for smaller employers	Employers with fewer than 250 employees	Voluntary; government guidance encourages participation

What Employers Should Do Now

1. Confirm whether you are in scope. Check your headcount against the 250-employee threshold using the same counting approach as your gender pay gap reporting.
2. Publish a voluntary plan during 2026. Use the voluntary window to submit a plan on the gender pay gap service, so your first mandatory plan in 2027 is a revision rather than a first attempt.
3. Analyse your latest pay gap data properly. Break the six measures down by quartile, function and grade to identify what is actually driving the gap before choosing actions.
4. Choose a small number of measurable actions. Pick actions from the government's evidence-informed list where possible, and give each one an owner, a deadline and a metric.
5. Put a menopause policy in place. The menopause strand is statutory, so the plan needs real workplace support to describe, including manager training and adjustment options.
6. Start voluntary ethnicity and disability data collection. Use the Government Statistical Service harmonised questions with a "prefer not to say" option, so you have usable baseline data before reporting becomes mandatory.
7. Line up senior sign-off. Agree now who will approve the plan at board or executive level, since the regulations are expected to require senior approval before publication.

Common Errors to Avoid

• Treating the plan as a communications exercise. A page of values statements with no owners or measures will sit in public next to your pay gap figures and invite the obvious question of what changed.
• Leaving menopause out. Section 78A(4) names menopause support explicitly, so a plan that only addresses the pay gap misses half of the statutory scope.
• Waiting for the 2027 regulations before doing anything. The actions that move pay gaps, such as recruitment and progression changes, take more than one reporting cycle to show results, so a late start guarantees a weak first mandatory plan.
• Publishing actions with no baseline. If you cannot say where you started, you cannot evidence progress in year two, and the plan loses credibility with employees and regulators alike.
• Building three separate plans. The government has stated it wants one harmonised plan covering sex, ethnicity and disability, so parallel documents create duplicated effort and inconsistent commitments.
• Mishandling diversity data. Ethnicity and disability disclosure is voluntary, so pressuring staff to complete monitoring forms, or collecting data without a clear privacy notice, creates data protection risk alongside trust damage.

Enforcement and Current Status

Section 78A(7) allows the regulations to prescribe enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance, but expressly rules out criminal offences. The detail, including any role for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, will be set out in the regulations.

As of July 2026 the position is this: the section 33 power is in force, the voluntary scheme and GOV.UK guidance are live, and mandatory gender equality action plans are expected from spring 2027 once affirmative regulations are made. The ethnicity and disability strands are confirmed policy but need the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill first, and the government has not committed to dates.

The action plan duty also lands amid a rolling programme of Employment Rights Act changes through 2026 and 2027, so it needs a slot in your wider compliance timetable.

How Policy Pros Can Help

We help large employers build the document set that a credible equality action plan depends on. That starts with the data side, explained in our ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting guide, and extends to the workplace policies your plan will cite. Our menopause policies give you the statutory menopause strand ready-made, with manager guidance and adjustment frameworks written in plain English.

We also draft and review the wider framework, including equality, opportunities and diversity policies that tie your gender, ethnicity and disability commitments into one consistent structure. Every policy is written for your organisation, not copied from a template bank, so the actions in your published plan match what your documents actually say.

If you are sequencing this work against the wider legislation, our Employment Rights Act October 2026 checklist shows how the action plan duty fits alongside the other reforms now taking effect. Contact us for a fixed quote on a menopause policy, an equality policy review, or a full action plan support package.