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HomeCountry report non-discrimination
United Kingdom 2018
Country report non-discrimination
United Kingdom 2018
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The United Kingdom (UK) comprises England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (NI), with the term Great Britain (GB) used to refer to England, Wales and Scotland. The UK is a parliamentary democracy, based around the core principle of parliamentary sovereignty. It has neither a written constitution nor an entrenched constitutional bill of rights but an extensive set of constitutional conventions establish what has been described as an unwritten constitution. The English, Welsh, Scots and Irish have historically been regarded as the four major ethnic groups in the UK but the UK has always been a country of migration, and the increase in the size and variety of different ethnic groups since the late 1940s, added to the constant influx of migrant labour from EU and non-EU states, has made the UK a multicultural state. Certain ethnic minorities, including the native Traveller communities, continue to suffer from high rates of unemployment, social exclusion and poverty. Media campaigns against asylum-seekers and Travellers/Gypsies, including Roma, have contributed to greater hostility towards these particular groups. The events of 11 September 2001 and the London suicide bombings in July 2005 had a similar impact upon British Muslim community. Following the Referendum result in June 2016 in which the UK voted to leave the EU, an increase in hostility towards EU migrants has been reported. Some prejudice also exists against disabled persons and gay/ lesbian/ bi-sexual/ transgendered people and age discrimination is not unknown. In recent years, however, there has been much wider social acceptance of the rights of gay men and women to full equality across the political and media spectrum. Following the introduction of civil partnership legislation in 2004, the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 placed same-sex couples on an equal footing with heterosexual couples as regards civil marriage from March 2014 in England and Wales. Similar legislation was passed in Scotland in February 2014 but the NI Executive has not introduced, and does not intend to introduce, such legislation. In Northern Ireland the ongoing tensions between the Unionist/Protestant majority and Nationalist/Catholic minority continue to generate sectarian division, though much less so than during the period of “the troubles”. Sectarian divisions also feature in parts of Scotland. The UK traditionally permitted very limited scope in law for preferential treatment for disadvantaged groups, but since 2000 a series of positive duties have been imposed upon public authorities to promote equality of opportunity on the grounds of race/ethnicity, disability and gender, while a similar duty in Northern Ireland extends across all of the six equality grounds (sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion/belief and age). Positive action strategies have been adopted at national, regional and local level across the various equality grounds and private employers are also subject to monitoring requirements and obligations to take action to remedy under- representation of either of the two main communities (Catholic and Protestant) in Northern Ireland. The Equality Act 2010 significantly extended the ability of employers and others to adopt positive action measures to promote equality, and imposed a single cross-ground general equality duty on all GB public authorities.
- Published:
- Corporate author(s): Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (European Commission) , human european consultancy , Migration Policy Group , Universiteit Utrecht
- Personal author(s): McColgan, Aileen ; Vickers, Lucy
- Themes: Fundamental rights
- Subject: age discrimination , anti-discriminatory measure , application of EU law , equal pay , equal treatment , gender equality , maternity leave , national law , parental leave , paternity leave , pension scheme , report , sexual discrimination , sexual harassment , social security , United Kingdom
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| ISSN 2599-9176 | ISBN 978-92-79-85558-0 | DOI 10.2838/92888 | Catalogue number DS-02-18-613-3A-N |
- Released on EU Publications:
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