485.This section supplements section 149. It introduces Schedule 19 which lists the public bodies that are subject to the public sector equality duty and provides for them to be subject to this duty in respect of all of their functions unless such a body is listed only in respect of some of its functions, in which case the duty only applies to those specified functions.
486.“Public function” is given the same meaning as it has in the Human Rights Act 1998. This term is used in subsection (2) of section 149, which extends the public sector equality duty to persons not listed in Schedule 19 but who exercise public functions.
487.The public sector equality duties in previous legislation specified which bodies were subject to the duties in different ways. The Race Relations Act 1976 used a list, while the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 applied the disability equality duty and the gender equality duty to those who have “functions of a public nature”. The Act combines the two approaches by including a list of public bodies subject to the duty, to provide legal certainty, and in addition applying the duty to anyone else who is exercising public functions, in respect of those functions (see subsection (2) of section 149).