Protected Characteristics: The Equality Act 2010 at Work

The nine protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

• At work the Act protects anyone who works for an employer, contractors and self-employed people hired to personally do the work, job applicants and former workers.
• Acas says you can make a discrimination claim regardless of your employment status or how long you have worked for your employer.
• Anyone can bring a claim: age discrimination can happen to people of any age, and sex discrimination can happen to both men and women.
• There are four types of discrimination: direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation. The four types do not all apply to every protected characteristic.
• Indirect discrimination applies to age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation, but not to pregnancy and maternity.
• Harassment related to a protected characteristic applies to age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation, and not to marriage and civil partnership or pregnancy and maternity.
• Unwanted conduct of a sexual nature is also harassment, and Acas says sexual harassment does not need to be related to a protected characteristic.
• From 30 October 2026 the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes the law on third party harassment: employers will be liable if a third party harasses a worker, unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.
• Victimisation means being treated unfairly because you were involved with a discrimination or harassment complaint, for example by making a complaint or by supporting a complaint made by someone else.
• You are also protected from direct discrimination if you are treated worse because of your connection with someone who has a protected characteristic, or because someone thinks you have one when you do not. Neither applies to marriage and civil partnership or pregnancy and maternity.
• Acas lists dress codes, selection criteria in recruitment, the way employees are selected for redundancy, working hours, and policies on ways of working such as flexible working or working from home among the working practices that can be indirect discrimination.
• An employer can defend indirect discrimination if it shows the rule or practice is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

The Equality Act 2010 does not apply to Northern Ireland. nidirect lists separate laws there against discrimination on grounds that include religion or political opinion.

Age means being of a particular age or belonging to an age group, and the law does not say how wide an age group is.

• Age discrimination includes direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
• An employer can defend direct age discrimination if it can show its treatment is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
• In an Acas example, a job advert says applicants must have spent 10 years working in retail, which could be indirect age discrimination because it excludes younger people who might have the skills and qualifications needed.
• There is no default retirement age, and compulsory retirement is not allowed unless the employer can objectively justify it. You can challenge compulsory retirement at an employment tribunal.
• An employer does not commit age discrimination by giving a benefit based on length of service, but if the service exceeds 5 years the employer may rely on this only if it reasonably believes it fulfils a business need.

You have a disability under the Act if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

GOV.UK says substantial is more than minor or trivial. An effect is long-term if it has lasted, or is likely to last, at least 12 months, or is likely to last for the rest of your life.

• You are covered from the day you are diagnosed with cancer, HIV infection or multiple sclerosis. Acas also lists a visual impairment if you are certified as blind, severely sight impaired, sight impaired or partially sighted.
• You do not need a medical diagnosis, as long as you can still show a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
• Acas says poor mental health can amount to a disability, and being neurodivergent, including ADHD, autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia, will often amount to one.
• The law says to discount the effects of any medication, aids or treatment when considering whether someone has a disability, except for glasses or contact lenses.
• Two types of discrimination apply to disability alone: discrimination arising from disability and failure to make reasonable adjustments.
• Discrimination arising from disability is unfavourable treatment because of something that results from your disability, for example absence from work because of regular hospital appointments, unless the employer can show the treatment is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. It does not apply if the employer shows it did not know, and could not reasonably have been expected to know, that you had the disability.
• The Act applies a duty to make reasonable adjustments to employers. Where a rule or practice, a physical feature or the lack of an auxiliary aid puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared with people who are not disabled, the employer must take the steps it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage or provide the aid.
• Unless the Act says otherwise, the employer cannot require the disabled person to pay any of the costs of complying with the duty.
• GOV.UK gives examples of reasonable adjustments: application forms in Braille or audio formats, extra time for aptitude tests, and interview arrangements such as wheelchair access or communicator support.

You have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if you are proposing to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone a process, or part of a process, for the purpose of reassigning your sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

• Acas says you are protected as soon as you propose to transition, even if you go no further. You do not need to have any medical treatment or surgery, complete a transition process, or apply for or get a Gender Recognition Certificate.
• Gender reassignment discrimination includes direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
• If you are absent from work because of gender reassignment, your employer discriminates against you if it treats you less favourably than it would if your absence was because of sickness or injury, or for some other reason where it is not reasonable to treat you less favourably.
• Acas says that, depending on the circumstances, the law on gender reassignment discrimination might protect non-binary people and people with variations in sex characteristics.
• Acas says an employer should not ask to see your Gender Recognition Certificate, and must not disclose that someone has one or is applying for one.

You have this characteristic if you are married or a civil partner. You are protected even when you are not living together, and a marriage or civil partnership formed abroad counts if it is legally recognised in England, Scotland and Wales.

• Acas says you are not protected if you are single, living with a partner but not married or civil partners, engaged to be married, or if the marriage has ended or the civil partnership has been dissolved.
• Marriage and civil partnership discrimination includes direct and indirect discrimination, and victimisation.
• For work, direct discrimination applies only if the treatment is because you are married or a civil partner.
• The parts of the Act on services and public functions, premises and schools do not apply to marriage and civil partnership.

Pregnancy and maternity discrimination at work is unfavourable treatment because you are pregnant, because of an illness you suffer as a result of the pregnancy in the protected period, because you are on compulsory maternity leave, or because you are exercising or seeking to exercise the right to ordinary or additional maternity leave. For pregnancy and maternity, discrimination means treating someone unfavourably, and there is no need to compare with how someone else is treated.

• The protected period begins when the pregnancy begins; if you have the right to ordinary and additional maternity leave it ends at the end of the additional maternity leave period or, if earlier, when you return to work after the pregnancy.
• If you have no right to ordinary and additional maternity leave or to equivalent maternity leave, the protected period ends at the end of the period of 2 weeks beginning with the end of the pregnancy.
• Acas says someone is only protected from pregnancy and maternity discrimination if their employer knows they are pregnant, or if the employer should reasonably have known.
• Pregnancy and maternity discrimination law does not include indirect discrimination or harassment, but some things could be sex discrimination instead, for example discrimination related to breastfeeding.
• Acas says putting someone at a disadvantage because of pregnancy or maternity is likely to be indirect sex discrimination, for example an employer refusing a flexible working request from a new mother without having a genuine business reason.
• Dismissal because someone is pregnant or on maternity leave is automatically unfair dismissal, and Acas says it could also be discrimination. The unfair dismissal qualifying period does not apply to a dismissal under section 99 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, whose reasons must relate to pregnancy, childbirth or maternity.
• Employers must give pregnant employees time off for antenatal care and pay their normal rate for this time off.

Race includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins, and Acas says your race is made up of a combination of these things.

• Colour means skin colour, and Acas says hair colour is not covered by the law.
• Nationality means your current nationality or citizenship. National origin usually means where you were born or where your parents are from.
• An ethnic group is a group of people with a shared history and culture. Whether an ethnic group is protected can depend on it being recognised by the courts. Acas gives Irish Travellers, Jewish people and Romany Gypsies as examples of recognised ethnic groups.
• Acas says English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh people are all recognised as separate ethnic groups within the UK. Not all ethnic groups have been recognised as protected by the courts, for example some Gypsy and Traveller groups.
• Race discrimination includes direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
• For race, less favourable treatment includes segregating you from others.

Under the Act, religion means any religion and belief means any religious or philosophical belief, and Acas says not having a religion or belief has the same legal protection as having one.

• Acas says the law does not give a list of religions or beliefs, and an employment tribunal can decide if a belief is protected by the law.
• Acas says a religion must have a clear structure and belief system, and could be a well-known organised religion or a smaller religion with not many followers.
• Acas says a philosophical belief must be genuinely held, not just an opinion or point of view based on current information, about a significant aspect of human life and behaviour, clear, consistent, serious and important, and acceptable in a democratic society.
• Acas says employment tribunals have previously found some beliefs to be protected by law, for example ethical veganism, environmentalism (beliefs related to the need to tackle climate change and protect the environment) and gender critical beliefs.
• Acas says employment tribunals have previously found loyalty to a country, supporting a sports team and membership of a political party not to be protected by law, but political beliefs could still be protected if they meet the definition of philosophical belief.
• Religion or belief discrimination includes direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
• Acas says a person could experience discrimination from someone else with the same religion or belief, for example someone who is more orthodox than them or belongs to a different sect within the same religion.
• Acas says having a religion or belief protected by law does not mean you can discriminate against someone with another protected characteristic.

The Act defines sex using the terms man and woman.

• Acas says that in April 2025 the Supreme Court ruled that sex in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex, which will usually mean the sex recorded on an original birth certificate.
• Sex discrimination includes direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
• Less favourable treatment of a woman because of her sex includes less favourable treatment because she is breast-feeding. When a man claims sex discrimination, no account is taken of special treatment given to a woman in connection with pregnancy, childbirth or maternity.
• In an Acas example, an employer rejects a woman for a farm machinery job because it thinks men have better technical skills and more credibility with customers, which is direct discrimination because of sex.
• In another Acas example, a business advertises a head of sales job only internally when the only people who could apply are all men, which could still be indirect sex discrimination even though the business does not intend to discriminate.

The Act defines sexual orientation as your orientation towards people of the same sex, people of the opposite sex, or people of either sex, and Acas says this means being gay, lesbian, heterosexual or bisexual.

• Sexual orientation discrimination includes direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
• Acas says people with other sexual orientations might still be protected by discrimination law, for example if they experience less favourable treatment because of their sexual orientation.
• In an Acas example, colleagues who wrongly think a colleague is a lesbian draw offensive graffiti on their locker, which Acas says is discrimination by perception on the grounds of sexual orientation.
• In another Acas example, a colleague tells the team that someone is gay when they have not told people at work, and the team then ignores them in meetings, which Acas says is likely to be harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation.
• Acas says being transgender is not related to sexual orientation, and that sexual orientation is a different protected characteristic.

GOV.UK says that if you think you have been unfairly discriminated against you can complain directly to the person or organisation, use someone else to help you sort it out (called mediation or alternative dispute resolution), or make a claim in a court or tribunal.

• If a tribunal finds a contravention, it may make a declaration about the rights of the claimant and the respondent, order the respondent to pay compensation, or make an appropriate recommendation.
• An appropriate recommendation asks the respondent to take specified steps within a specified period to remove or reduce the adverse effect on you. If the respondent fails without reasonable excuse to comply, the tribunal may increase the compensation or, if none was ordered, make an order.
• The amount of compensation corresponds to the amount a county court or the sheriff could award. The Home Office tells employers that if a discrimination claim is upheld, the tribunal will normally order the employer to pay compensation, for which there is no upper limit.
• Injury to feelings awards follow three bands. For claims presented on or after 6 April 2026: a lower band of £1,300 to £12,600 for less serious cases, a middle band of £12,600 to £37,700, and an upper band of £37,700 to £62,900 for the most serious cases, with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £62,900.
• See our discrimination at work guide and our Employment Tribunal guide for detailed procedural guidance