Protected Characteristics (UK)
The nine personal attributes defined by the Equality Act 2010 that employers in the UK cannot use as grounds for discrimination: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
- What Are Protected Characteristics?
- The Nine Protected Characteristics Explained
- Types of Discrimination Linked to Protected Characteristics
- Employer Duties Under the Equality Act 2010
- Employment Tribunal Claims and Remedies
- Intersectionality and Combined Characteristics
- HR Compliance Checklist for Protected Characteristics
- Frequently Asked Questions About Protected Characteristics
What Are Protected Characteristics?
Key Takeaways
- ✓Protected characteristics are the nine personal attributes that the Equality Act 2010 says cannot be used as a basis for treating someone less favorably at work.
- ✓They are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
- ✓Protection applies throughout the employment lifecycle: recruitment, terms of employment, pay, promotions, training, discipline, and dismissal.
- ✓UK employment tribunal compensation for discrimination is uncapped, meaning high-value awards for successful claimants are increasingly common.
- ✓Over 26,000 discrimination-related claims were filed in 2023-2024, with disability discrimination being the single most common type (HMCTS).
Protected characteristics are the legal foundation of workplace equality in the UK. The Equality Act 2010 consolidated over 100 separate pieces of anti-discrimination legislation into a single framework, and these nine characteristics sit at its center. Every person has most of these characteristics (everyone has an age, a sex, a race), which means the Act protects everyone, not just minority groups. A 25-year-old can bring an age discrimination claim just as a 60-year-old can. The practical effect for HR teams is this: any employment decision that treats someone less favorably because of one of these nine characteristics, or that applies a policy which disproportionately disadvantages a group sharing a characteristic, is potentially unlawful. This covers direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimization. Understanding these characteristics isn't optional for UK employers. It's the baseline requirement for lawful employment practices.
The Nine Protected Characteristics Explained
Each characteristic has specific legal definitions and case law that shape how it applies in practice.
| Characteristic | What It Covers | Key Points for HR |
|---|---|---|
| Age | Any age or age group (young or old) | Can justify age-related practices if there's a legitimate aim and proportionate means. Mandatory retirement ages are generally unlawful unless objectively justified. |
| Disability | Physical or mental impairment with substantial, long-term adverse effect on day-to-day activities | Employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments. "Long-term" means 12+ months or likely to last that long. Includes conditions like depression, diabetes, HIV, cancer, and MS from diagnosis. |
| Gender reassignment | People who are proposing to undergo, are undergoing, or have undergone gender reassignment | No medical treatment is required. The person only needs to be taking steps (or proposing to) to live in a different gender. Covers non-binary individuals in many tribunal rulings. |
| Marriage and civil partnership | People who are legally married or in a civil partnership | Only protects against discrimination for being married/in a civil partnership. Doesn't cover single people or unmarried cohabiting couples. Only applies to direct discrimination and harassment at work. |
| Pregnancy and maternity | Pregnancy, pregnancy-related illness, and maternity leave period (up to 26 weeks after birth) | During the protected period, any unfavorable treatment connected to pregnancy is automatically discrimination. No comparator needed. Redundancy selection must not be influenced by pregnancy or maternity. |
| Race | Color, nationality, ethnic origins, and national origins | Includes Romany Gypsies, Irish Travellers, Sikhs, and Jews (as ethnic groups). Indirect discrimination claims are common where "neutral" policies disproportionately affect specific racial groups. |
| Religion or belief | Any religion, religious belief, or philosophical belief (including lack of belief) | Must be a genuinely held belief that's serious, cogent, and worthy of respect. Includes veganism (Casamitjana v League Against Cruel Sports, 2020) but not every personal opinion. |
| Sex | Being male or female | Covers equal pay claims, single-sex spaces, and sex-based harassment. The majority of sex discrimination claims involve women, but men are equally protected. |
| Sexual orientation | Orientation toward people of the same sex, the opposite sex, or both | Covers gay, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual individuals. Discrimination by association (treating someone badly because of their partner's sexual orientation) is also covered. |
Types of Discrimination Linked to Protected Characteristics
The Equality Act defines several forms of prohibited conduct. HR professionals need to understand each type because the legal tests and defenses differ.
Direct discrimination
Treating someone less favorably because of a protected characteristic. A straightforward example: not shortlisting a candidate because she's pregnant. Direct discrimination also includes discrimination by perception (treating someone less favorably because you think they have a characteristic, even if they don't) and discrimination by association (treating someone less favorably because of someone else's characteristic, such as a carer of a disabled child). Direct discrimination can't be justified except in the case of age, where the employer can argue a legitimate aim pursued proportionately.
Indirect discrimination
Applying a provision, criterion, or practice (PCP) that is neutral on its face but puts people sharing a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage. Example: requiring all employees to work full-time could indirectly discriminate against women who disproportionately bear childcare responsibilities. Indirect discrimination can be justified if the employer shows the PCP is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. This is where most complex tribunal cases arise because "proportionate" and "legitimate" are fact-specific determinations.
Harassment
Unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that violates someone's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment. The test is whether the conduct "reasonably" had that effect, considering the claimant's perception, the circumstances, and whether it's reasonable for the conduct to have that effect. A single incident can constitute harassment if it's sufficiently serious. Employers are liable for harassment by employees unless they can show they took all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Victimization
Treating someone badly because they've made or supported a complaint about discrimination (a "protected act"). If an employee files a grievance about racial discrimination and is subsequently passed over for promotion, that's victimization. The protected act doesn't need to be successful. Even if the original discrimination complaint fails, retaliating against the person for making it is unlawful.
Employer Duties Under the Equality Act 2010
UK employers have both negative duties (don't discriminate) and positive duties (make adjustments, prevent harassment) in relation to protected characteristics.
Reasonable adjustments for disability
When a disabled employee or applicant is at a substantial disadvantage due to a physical feature, a provision/criterion/practice, or lack of an auxiliary aid, the employer must make reasonable adjustments. What's "reasonable" depends on the employer's size, resources, practicality, and the effectiveness of the adjustment. Examples include providing screen-reading software, adjusting working hours, reallocating minor duties, modifying workstations, or allowing working from home. Failing to make reasonable adjustments is itself an act of discrimination.
Preventing harassment
Under the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, employers have a proactive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. This came into force in October 2024. It means employers can't just respond to complaints. They must anticipate risks and take preventive action: risk assessments, training, clear policies, and reporting channels. Failure to take reasonable preventive steps can increase tribunal compensation by up to 25%.
Equal pay obligations
The Equality Act includes a sex equality clause in every employment contract. Employees doing equal work (same work, work rated as equivalent, or work of equal value) are entitled to equal pay regardless of sex. Employers with 250+ employees must publish annual gender pay gap reports. While the pay gap report isn't a direct measure of equal pay compliance, significant gaps trigger scrutiny from employees, media, and increasingly, investors.
Employment Tribunal Claims and Remedies
When discrimination claims reach the employment tribunal, the process and potential outcomes have significant implications for employers.
Claim timeline
Employees must file a claim within three months (minus one day) of the discriminatory act. Before filing, they must contact ACAS for early conciliation, which pauses the clock for up to six weeks. Late claims can be accepted if the tribunal considers it "just and equitable" to extend time, which happens more often in discrimination cases than other employment claims. HR teams should take note: settling early is almost always cheaper than defending a tribunal case, even when you believe you'd win.
Compensation
Discrimination compensation is uncapped. Awards include injury to feelings (Vento bands: lower band $1,200 to $11,200, middle band $11,200 to $33,700, upper band $33,700 to $56,200 in 2024 values), financial losses (past and future loss of earnings), and aggravated damages where the employer's conduct during the process was particularly poor. The highest tribunal awards regularly exceed $100,000, with exceptional cases reaching seven figures. Unlike unfair dismissal, there's no cap on compensatory awards.
Intersectionality and Combined Characteristics
Employees don't experience protected characteristics in isolation. A disabled Black woman faces different workplace challenges than a non-disabled white woman or a disabled white man. Intersectionality affects how discrimination operates in practice.
How UK law handles intersectional claims
The Equality Act allows claims based on the combination of two or more protected characteristics, though the case law is still developing. In Ministry of Defence v DeBique (2010), the Employment Appeal Tribunal recognized that a single mother from the Commonwealth faced discrimination on grounds of both sex and race that couldn't be properly analyzed by looking at each characteristic separately. Despite this, most tribunal claims are still filed under a single characteristic because the legal framework doesn't explicitly provide for combined discrimination (Section 14 of the Act was never brought into force).
Practical implications for HR
When analyzing workforce data, look at intersections, not just individual characteristics. Your gender pay gap might look acceptable overall, but breaking it down by ethnicity could reveal that the gap for Black women is three times larger than for white women. Inclusion surveys should allow analysis by combined demographics. A company where 90% of women feel included but only 60% of disabled women do has a problem that single-characteristic data would hide. Policy design should also consider intersectional impacts: a dress code that affects women of specific religious backgrounds differently from other women is an intersectional issue.
HR Compliance Checklist for Protected Characteristics
Practical steps every UK HR team should take to stay compliant with the Equality Act 2010.
- Audit all job postings for language that could discriminate against any protected characteristic. Pay attention to age-coded language ("recent graduate," "digital native"), gendered terms, and unjustified physical requirements.
- Review policies annually against the nine characteristics. Check dress codes, flexible working, parental leave, and religious observance policies for indirect discrimination risks.
- Maintain reasonable adjustment records. Document every adjustment request, what was implemented, and the reasoning if a request was declined.
- Train all managers (not just HR) on the basics of the Equality Act. Managers make day-to-day decisions that create or prevent discrimination claims.
- Implement a clear harassment reporting process with multiple reporting channels (direct manager, HR, anonymous hotline) so employees aren't forced to report to the person harassing them.
- Conduct risk assessments for sexual harassment prevention under the 2023 Worker Protection Act. Document the risks identified and steps taken.
- Keep interview notes and scoring records for at least 12 months after a hiring decision. These are your primary defense if a rejected candidate brings a claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Equality Act protect everyone or just minorities?
Can an employer ever treat people differently based on a protected characteristic?
Is obesity a protected characteristic?
What happens if a manager discriminates without the company's knowledge?
Do protected characteristics apply during the recruitment process?
Written by Adithyan RK