New law for dual discrimination

At the moment, people may only bring separate discrimination claims relating to one protected characteristic; such as their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.  

But some people still have stereotyped attitudes about certain groups with a combination of protected characteristics, such as Asian men or black women. 

The new ‘dual discrimination’ clause which the Government wants to insert in the Equality Bill would allow people to make a claim if they were directly discriminated against because of a combination of two relevant protected characteristics.

This would mean, for example, that a black woman who is discriminated against because her employer has particular stereotyped attitudes towards black women - as opposed to black men or white women -  could bring a single claim for combined race and sex discrimination.

The Equality Bill will replace the Equal Pay Act 1970, and the Sex Discrimination Act.