If your local council discriminates against you

You shouldn't be discriminated against by public sector organisations. This includes your local council, the police, schools, the NHS and government departments. These are also known as ‘public authorities’.

If you’ve been treated unfairly by a public authority, you should check if what happened is covered by the Equality Act 2010. 

If it’s covered by the Equality Act, it’s ‘unlawful discrimination’. This means the discrimination is against the law and you can take action about it.

When public authorities have to follow the Equality Act

Public authorities must not discriminate against you when they provide public services - like hospitals, libraries and leisure centres.

They also must not discriminate against you when they carry out ‘public functions’ - this includes things like:

• benefits assessments and decisions

• policing

• tax collection

• planning control

• parking enforcement

• child protection

Other organisations like private companies and charities sometimes provide public functions or services. When they do this, they must not discriminate against you. For example, train companies and private security firms that work in prisons are covered by the Equality Act.

Check if it was discrimination

It might be discrimination if a public authority says you can’t use a public service or function - or if they treat you worse than other people.

To work out if a public authority has discriminated against you unlawfully, you should check:

• if the discrimination was because of something about you like your sex or race - these things are called ‘protected characteristics’

• how you were discriminated against - for example, direct discrimination or harassment

Check if it was because of a protected characteristic

Public sector organisations must not discriminate against you because of your protected characteristics. The 9 protected characteristics are:

• age

• disability

• gender reassignment - this means if you’re transgender

• pregnancy and maternity

• race

• religion or belief

• sex

• sexuality

If you’re not sure, you can check which protected characteristics you have.

Check how you were discriminated against

You’ll need to check if what happened is covered by one of the types of discrimination in the Equality Act. The types are:

• direct discrimination - this is when someone treats you differently and worse because of a protected characteristic

• indirect discrimination - this is when a policy or rule has a worse effect on you because of a protected characteristic

• harassment - this includes things like bullying or making jokes about you because of a protected characteristic

• victimisation - this is when you complain about unlawful discrimination and then you’re treated badly

• pregnancy and maternity discrimination

If you’re disabled, there are 2 extra types of discrimination you’re protected from. These are called 'failure to make reasonable adjustments' and ‘discrimination arising from disability'.

Public authorities must make reasonable adjustments so disabled people can access their services. For example, they might need to change the way they communicate with you. If they don’t, this is a failure to make reasonable adjustments. Check how to ask for reasonable adjustments.

Public authorities should think about the needs of disabled people and make their buildings and services accessible before you have to ask. This is called the ‘anticipatory duty’ to make reasonable adjustments. 

Discrimination arising from disability is when a public authority treats you badly because of something that happens as a result of your disability.

Example

Hamish has ADHD and OCD. As a result of his disabilities, he finds it hard to be on time.

Hamish claims Universal Credit and his work coach knows about his disabilities. Hamish misses an appointment with his work coach, and he gets a sanction.

This might be:

• failure to make reasonable adjustments - because the work coach didn’t make an exception to the usual rule

• discrimination arising from disability - because Hamish was sanctioned

You can check what type of discrimination you’ve experienced.

Situations when you can’t make a discrimination claim

Sometimes public authorities aren’t covered by the Equality Act. This means they’re allowed to treat you differently because of a protected characteristic and it’s not unlawful discrimination. This includes:

• if there’s a law that says they must treat you differently - for example, the law that allows older people to get a Winter Fuel Allowance

• if you’re a threat to national security - for example, you can’t make a discrimination claim against MI5 or MI6

• if the army needs to treat you differently so they can fight effectively - they can only do this because of sex, disability or gender reassignment 

• decisions made by courts and tribunals - for example, if a judge refuses a reasonable adjustments request to move a court hearing to another day

Example

Addy is called to take part in jury service. She asks the court to provide a BSL interpreter because she’s Deaf. The court can’t provide an interpreter as a reasonable adjustment because the law says no-one except members of the jury can be present in the jury room.

In this case it’s not unlawful discrimination if the court refuses to make a reasonable adjustment.

Immigration services

When you apply for a visa, the Home Office is allowed to make a decision based on your:

• nationality and ethnic or national origins

• religion or belief

• disability

This isn’t unlawful discrimination.

Example

Violet wants to apply for a Youth Mobility visa to come and work in the UK. She finds out you can only apply if you’re from certain countries. These countries all have white or Asian majority populations, like Australia and Japan. 

Violet can’t apply because she’s from Zimbabwe. She thinks this is racist, but she can’t challenge it because it’s not unlawful discrimination.

Immigration staff can also treat you differently when they’re carrying out other immigration functions - for example, doing passport controls at an airport. They can only treat you differently because of your:

• nationality and ethnic or national origins

• religion or belief 

The Home Office aren’t allowed to harass or victimise you because of any protected characteristic - including race, religion, belief and disability. Check what to do if you’ve been harassed.

Taking action about discrimination

If you’ve experienced discrimination under the Equality Act, you can take action to solve the problem.

You should try to resolve your problem by following these steps:

1. Make a formal complaint to the public authority using their complaints procedure

2. Check if they’re represented by a trade association who can help you resolve the problem - you can find most trade associations on the Trade Association Forum website

3. Check if you can complain to an ombudsman

4. Get legal advice about making a discrimination claim in the civil courts

There are time limits for taking legal action about discrimination. If you need to go to court, you have to make your claim in court within 6 months less 1 day from when the discrimination happened.

The time limit isn’t paused while you go through the other steps - make sure to get legal advice in plenty of time.

You can check how to make a complaint or make a civil court claim.

If you want to challenge a decision made by a public authority, you can sometimes apply for ‘judicial review’ in the courts. The court can force the authority to make the decision again.

If you want to apply for judicial review, you must:

• go through the public authority's complaints procedure first - including any appeals

• apply to the court within 3 months of the decision

Applying for judicial review is complicated and you’ll need a solicitor. If you want to apply, you should talk to an adviser.