Discrimination occurs when an individual or a group of people are treated less favourably than others based on a protected characteristic such as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership (in employment), pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex or gender, sexual orientation.
The Equality Act (2010) sets out three types of unlawful discrimination: direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, and discrimination arising from a disability.
The Equality Act (2010) sets out three types of unlawful discrimination: direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, and discrimination arising from a disability.
Direct discrimination
Direct discrimination occurs when you treat a person less favourably than you treat (or would treat) another person because of a protected characteristic as laid out in The Equality Act (2010):
- age,
- disability,
- gender reassignment,
- marriage and civil partnership,
- pregnancy and maternity,
- race,
- religion or belief (including lack of belief),
- sex,
- sexual orientation.
This could be refusing to give someone a job because of their race or not admitting them on to a course because of their religious beliefs.
Indirect discrimination
Indirect discrimination occurs when you apply a provision, criteria or practice in the same way for everyone but this has the effect of putting people sharing a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage. It doesn’t matter that you did not intend to disadvantage that group. What does matter is whether your action does or would disadvantage that group in some way.
Indirect discrimination will occur if the following three conditions are met:
- the provision, criterion or practice is applied or would be applied equally to all people, including a particular person or group with a protected characteristic;
- the provision, criterion or practice puts or would put people sharing a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage compared to relevant people who do not share that characteristic; and
- the provision, criterion or practice puts or would put the particular person or group at that disadvantage, and it cannot be shown that the provision, criteria or practice is justified as a ‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’.