The government has just published a consultation document dealing with how its forthcoming Equality Bill might include provisions to protect disabled people from indirect discrimination.
Entitled “Improving Protection from Disability Discrimination”, the document reflects the implications of a recent judgment by the House of Lords (Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm, weekly LELR 81) which made it more difficult for a disabled person to show that they had been discriminated against for a reason related to their disability.
So the Government is proposing that, for the Equality Bill, it should replace the current concept of “disability-related” discrimination with the concept of indirect discrimination, which is used for other protected characteristics, such as sex and age.
Indirect discrimination would then occur when a provision, criterion or practice is applied which puts someone with a disability at a particular disadvantage when compared with others, unless the employer can objectively justify it.
The government believes this change would also improve consistency within the Bill between the disability provisions and the provisions for people with other protected characteristics.
It would also ensure compliance with the requirements of other proposed European anti-discrimination legislation to introduce a new Directive providing protection against discrimination based on disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age, in areas beyond employment.
The consultation is open until 6 January 2009.
For more information, go to: www.officefordisability.gov.uk/resources/indirect-discrimination.asp