UK Legal System

UK Legal System

Introduction

The United Kingdom (UK) has specific legislation on equality that outlaws discrimination and provides a mechanism for individuals to lodge complaints with the courts when they experience unlawful discrimination. The UK now has legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race, religion and belief, sex, sexual orientation and transgender status, disability and age. Discrimination on any of these grounds is prohibited in the employment sphere. Discrimination on some of these grounds is prohibited in other spheres, such as education, housing, the provision of goods and services and by public authorities. The operation of these different pieces of legislation is dealt with in detail below.

Discussion

The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), which incorporates the rights contained in the European Convention of Human Rights (the Convention) into UK law, is also relevant in challenging discrimination. Unlike UK equality legislation, the HRA can only be enforced directly against public bodies, such as the police or a local authority and private bodies exercising public functions. However, courts and tribunals are themselves public bodies and must interpret and apply legislation in a way that is compatible with the Convention, even when the parties to the dispute are not public bodies. Moreover, it is possible to rely on the Convention in any court or tribunal proceedings, including for example proceedings in an Employment Tribunal, as the court must act compatibly with the Convention when making its decision.

Article 14 of the Convention prohibits discrimination on many grounds including sex, race, religion, political opinion as well as 'any other status'. 'Other status' has been interpreted broadly to cover, for example, marital status, sexuality, financial or employment status, physical or mental ability. Article 14 is not a free standing guarantee of equal treatment or a prohibition on discrimination more generally. Rather, it prohibits discrimination in respect of access to other Convention rights and is intended to guarantee equality before the law of the Convention (Barnard 2007).

Article 14 must be used in combination with one or more of the other Articles in the Convention. The other right need not have been breached, but the facts complained of must at least come within the ambit of the substantive right. By way of example, men who have been widowed have used Article 14, together with Protocol 1, Article 1 (protection of property rights) to argue that benefits which were paid to women when their husbands died ...