Equality and Human Rights Commission

All public authorities are required to provide services to all communities and individuals without discrimination. Any organisation or individual doing work of a public nature could be considered a public authority, so private and not-for-profit organisations that are delivering public services are sometimes public authorities. The section called ‘Rights in different settings’ contains further details of many public services.

Example

A religious group has a contract with a local authority to provide a meals-on-wheels service. A member of the group, who is a volunteer, refuses to deliver meals to a gay man because of his sexual orientation. The group’s director tells the volunteer that he must deliver the meals to everyone who needs them, regardless of their sexual orientation. The volunteer refuses because this conflicts with his strongly held religious conviction that same-sex relationships are wrong. The director tells the volunteer that he cannot continue to participate in the meals-on-wheels service.