A major poll of lesbian and gay people found recent legislation protections has not helped fight discrimination against them.

The majority still believe they will be discriminated against when accessing public services and nearly one in five still get bullied at work for being gay.

A YouGov poll commissioned by Stonewall revealed almost a third expect to be treated worse than a heterosexual when enrolling their child in primary or secondary school while nine in ten think they would face barriers from becoming a foster parent.

The survey of more than 1,600 people is the first statistically significant national poll ever conducted into the life experiences of Britain’s 3.6 million gay people also found one in four expect to be treated worse by police if victim of hate crime.

The polling is published in a new report, Serves You Right, supported by Accenture, which also makes a range of recommendations offering simple ways of improving public service delivery for lesbian and gay people.

Ben Summerskill, Stonewall’s Chief Executive, said: "Too many public services are still a bit too smug about the progress being made towards fair treatment for the lesbian and gay taxpayers who help fund them. The insight provided by this report is a valuable antidote to that sort of complacency."

Serves You Right does, however, report public bodies and companies making a positive effort to promote fair treatment can reap significant reputational benefits. Nearly half of lesbian and gay people said they were likely to buy products from businesses that use images of gay people to sell their goods; two thirds are more likely to buy products from a company that shows a positive commitment to recruiting gay people.

Mr Summerskill added: "This pioneering research highlights the one remaining gap at the heart of Britain’s legislative equality framework. There is not yet a duty on public bodies requiring them to promote equality of service for gay people in a way that already exists for gender, ethnicity and disability. We’ll now be pressing the government to honour its outstanding manifesto pledge to introduce such a duty."