Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Ratification: 1999)

Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. Discrimination based on social origin. The Committee notes the Government’s statement, in its report, that although social origin is not expressly covered in the Equality Act 2010, relevant protection can apply by other routes. The Government adds that there is a provision in the Act – the socio-economic duty – which among other things would require public bodies to have regard to these considerations in their employment practices. In addition, the Government informs that the Scottish and Welsh Governments have opted to deploy “the socio-economic duty”, provided for in section 1 of the Equality Act, with public bodies within their respective jurisdictions, while this has not been the policy for England. The Government further indicates that because of the volume of cases passing through the employment tribunal system, it is unfortunately not possible to collect case data of the granularity needed to identify cases that might engage social origin or political opinion, however the Government is not aware of any significant “test cases”. Finally, the Government underlines that it is unaware of any further cases of alleged caste discrimination being brought before the courts since the 2014 case of Tirkey v Chandhok. The judgment in the 2014 case, which concluded that aspects of caste can overlap with ethnic origins, indicates that the existing racial discrimination provisions in the Equality Act 2010 provide sufficient protections against potential caste discrimination. The Committee asks the Government to (i) consider expressly including social origin in the legislation as one of the prohibited grounds; and (ii) provide detailed information on how it ensures in practice that all individuals are protected against discrimination based on their social origin, including examples of actions taken by Scottish and Welsh Governments pursuant to section 1 of the Equality Act 2010. Please also clarify the rationale for not pursuing the “socio-economic duty” for England.

Discrimination based on political opinion. The Government reiterates that although political opinion alone is not currently protected (with the exception of Northern Ireland), it can in certain circumstances be considered an aspect of a person’s philosophical belief and so potentially protected as part of that wider belief. The Committee refers to its previous considerations and urges the Governmentto take the necessary steps to ensure that the ground of political opinion is also expressly included in the legislation.

Discrimination based on religion. Northern Ireland. The Committee refers to its previous comments and notes with satisfaction, that the exclusion of teachers from protection against discrimination on the ground of religious belief under The Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 was removed by way of the Fair Employment (School Teachers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, which came into operation on 12th May 2024. The Committee takes note of this information, which addresses its previous request.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.