Check if you've experienced discrimination

If you’ve been treated unfairly or harassed, you might have experienced ‘unlawful discrimination’ - this means the discrimination is against the law.

If you want to take action about discrimination, you need to check if what happened is covered by the Equality Act 2010. This is the law that stops employers, businesses and service providers discriminating against you.

To work out if you’ve experienced unlawful discrimination you’ll need to follow 3 steps:

1. Check if you were treated unfairly because of something about you like your age or race - these are known as ‘protected characteristics’

2. Check if the person or organisation who treated you unfairly is legally responsible for discrimination

3. Check if what happened counts as a type of unlawful discrimination

If you work out that you haven’t experienced discrimination under the Equality Act, you might still be able to take action using different laws.

1. Check if it was because of a protected characteristic

It’s unlawful to discriminate against you because of one or more of the 9 protected characteristics.

If you’ve experienced sexual harassment, it might be unlawful discrimination even if the behaviour wasn’t because of a protected characteristic.

If you weren’t discriminated against because of a protected characteristic, it’s usually not discrimination under the Equality Act.

The 9 protected characteristics are:

If you've experienced sexual harassment

Sexual harassment can be unlawful discrimination - it doesn’t have to be connected to a protected characteristic. You’ll need to check steps 2 and 3 to work out if what you experienced was unlawful discrimination.

You might have experienced sexual harassment if someone’s behaviour was unwanted and sexual in nature, for example if they:

• commented on your clothes or appearance

• sent messages with sexual content or made sexual comments - even if they weren’t about you

Sometimes sexual harassment is connected to a protected characteristic, even though it doesn’t have to be for it to count as unlawful discrimination. For example, someone’s behaviour might be sexual in nature as well as racist or homophobic. 

Enghraifft

Leo is gay and recently started renting a flat. His new landlord makes comments about Leo’s sexuality and asks him questions about his sex life. 

The landlord is making inappropriate comments of a sexual nature - they’re also connected to Leo’s protected characteristic of sexuality.

If someone discriminates against you because they think you have a protected characteristic

If someone discriminates against you because of a protected characteristic, it might still be discrimination even if you don’t have the characteristic. This is called ‘discrimination by perception’. 

For example, it’s discrimination by perception if a pub refused to serve you and your friend because they thought you were a gay couple, even though you’re not. 

It can be discrimination by perception even if the person knows you don’t have the protected characteristic. For example, it’s discrimination by perception if your colleagues are harassing you by making jokes about you being gay - even though they know you’re not.

Discrimination by perception applies to all protected characteristics except:

• pregnancy and maternity

• marriage and civil partnerships

This means it’s not discrimination if someone treats you unfairly because they mistakenly think you’re pregnant, married or in a civil partnership.

If someone discriminates against you because of someone else’s protected characteristic

It might still be discrimination - for example, if a social worker treats you unfairly because of your wife and child’s ethnicity. This is called ‘discrimination by association’. 

Discrimination by association applies to all protected characteristics except:

• pregnancy and maternity

• marriage and civil partnerships

This means it’s not discrimination if someone treats you unfairly because you’re associated with someone who is pregnant, married or in a civil partnership.

2. Check if the person or organisation that treated you unfairly is legally responsible for discrimination

The Equality Act protects you from discrimination in the following contexts:

• work - for example your employer or employment agency

• education - for example your school, college or university

• businesses or service provision - like a shop or a train company

• health or care provision - like a hospital or care home

• housing provision - like a landlord or estate agent

• public service provision - for example the police or your local council

• clubs and associations - like a sports club

If someone who works for one of these organisations discriminates against you, the organisation is also responsible for the discrimination. This is called ‘vicarious liability’. For example if your colleague discriminates against you, your colleague and your employer are both legally responsible. 

If a customer or service user discriminates against you

It isn’t usually covered by the Equality Act - unless the business or service could have stopped it happening. For example, it might be unlawful discrimination if someone at your local leisure centre regularly harasses you and the staff don’t do anything to stop it - even though you keep complaining.

3. Check if what happened is a type of discrimination under the Equality Act

The Equality Act describes what sorts of behaviour count as different types of discrimination.

The types of discrimination include direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment.

You need to check if what you experienced counts as one or more of these types of discrimination.

Check what type of discrimination you experienced.

If you’ve experienced unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act

There are things you can do if you’ve experienced discrimination under the Equality Act. Discrimination isn’t a criminal offence - this means you can’t ask the police to investigate it. You’ll need to take action yourself.

You should follow these steps:

1. Complain to the person or organisation - for example by following their formal complaints procedure

2. Check if you can get help to solve the problem - for example through mediation or an ombudsman

3. Take the person or organisation to court - if you can’t solve the problem without going to court

Before you take action about discrimination, you need to decide what outcome you want and the best way to achieve it. Check how to take action about discrimination.

There are time limits for taking legal action about discrimination. If you need to go to court, it’s important to act quickly - the time limits can be as little as 3 months from the date you experienced discrimination. Check what the time limits are.

If what you experienced wasn’t discrimination

You can’t take action using the Equality Act. Check if you have a different type of legal complaint or if you can solve the problem another way. 

You can:

• check if it was a hate crime

• check if it was criminal harassment 

If you’re not sure if you’ve experienced discrimination

You can talk to an adviser. They can’t tell you if you’ve definitely experienced unlawful discrimination, but they can help you work out if your situation might be covered by the Equality Act. 

If they think your situation is covered, you can decide if you want to take action.

You can talk to a Citizens Advice adviser.

You can also contact an Equality Advisory Support Service adviser.

If you’re finding things difficult

Discrimination can have a big impact on your mental health. You should talk to your GP if you’re feeling depressed or anxious. 

You can find other ways to get help with your mental health on the Mind website.

If you need to speak to someone 

You can speak to a trained volunteer at organisations like Samaritans or Shout.

Samaritans

Helpline: 116 123 (Monday to Sunday at any time)

Welsh Language Line: 0808 164 0123 (Monday to Sunday 7pm to 11pm)

Calls to Samaritans are free.

You can find other ways to get in touch with Samaritans on their website.

Shout

You can also text 'SHOUT' to 85258 to start a conversation with a trained Shout volunteer. Texts are free, anonymous and confidential from anywhere in the UK.