Age Consultation 2011
Equality Act 2010: Ending age discrimination in services,
public functions and associations - A consultation
Open
date:
3 March 2011
Closing
date:
25 May 2011
The Equality Act 2010, which received Royal
Assent in April 2010, includes provisions enabling a ban on age
discrimination in the provision of services and public functions.
Implementing the age discrimination ban would require secondary
legislation to be made, setting out the circumstances in which it
would remain lawful to use age as a reason for treating people
differently.
Before implementing the new age discrimination
ban, we want to ensure that the new law prohibits only harmful
treatment that results in genuinely unfair discrimination because
of age. It should not outlaw the many instances of different
treatment that are justifiable or beneficial. We therefore need to
set out in secondary legislation the circumstances in which it
would remain lawful to use age as a reason for treating people
differently.
The consultation ‘Equality Act 2010:
Banning age discrimination in services, public functions and
associations - A consultation on proposed exceptions to the
ban’ sets out those areas where we believe that different
treatment of people of various ages is justified; and proposes how
the legislation will be drafted to take account of these.
The consultation sets out the exceptions which
have been prepared for the following areas:
·
Age-based concessions. This exception will allow any
organisation to use age to determine eligibility for concessions or
benefits, provided that the purpose of the concession is to benefit
the age group to which it applies.
·
Group holidays. This exception will allow specialist
holiday providers to continue to provide holidays for people in
particular age groups, e.g. Saga and Club 18-30 holidays.
·
Immigration. When determining a person’s eligibility to
enter and remain in the UK, age needs to be one factor that is
given consideration in some applications along with other factors
such as earnings.
·
Sport. This exception will allow for the continuation of
age-restricted sports competitions, for example, under-21s’
football competitions and tennis veterans’ competitions.
· Residential park
homes. This exception will allow residential park homes to
continue to include age limits in their park admission rules.
· Financial
services. This exception will allow the use of age in the
assessment of risk, in the financial services sector to continue,
provided that this is based on relevant information from a source
on which it is reasonable to rely. Age-banding and age limits will
also be allowed. In addition, we will use voluntary measures to
improve access to insurance products through sign posting and to
increase transparency regarding how age is used when pricing these
products.
The Government proposes no specific exceptions
to the ban on age discrimination for health or social care
services. This means that any age-based practices by the NHS and
social care would need to be objectively justified, if
challenged.
This consultation will be of interest
to:
- public bodies;
- others who perform public functions;
- organisations representing financial
institutions;
- businesses;
- health sector organisations;
- equality lobby groups or bodies; and
- older peoples groups.
Comments from other interested parties
are also welcome.
Download the consultation
· Equality Act 2010: Banning
age discrimination in services, public functions and associations -
A consultation on proposed exceptions to the ban
· Impact Assessment
· Equality Impact Assessment
· Consultation response
form