Discrimination and the law in the public sector
Here you will find out about discrimination: what it is and how and when it occurs within the public sector.
Discrimination broadly means that a person is treated differently from other people in a similar situation, and that the different treatment ‘has no objective and reasonable justification’.
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Examples of discrimination in public authorities
Where public authorities are concerned, discrimination occurs when the delivery of public services, or the devising and implementation of policies and procedures, results in the unfair treatment of an individual or group of people.
In this context, examples of discrimination might include the following:
- A student with dyslexia, who wishes to study for a degree in English, is told by a university that it does not accept dyslexic students on English degree courses. Meanwhile, other students with similar qualifications are offered places.
- A person with a mobility impairment is told that she cannot board a bus because her walking aid would take up too much space.
- A public library has a policy of not allowing dogs onto its premises. The library management fails to make a ‘reasonable adjustment’ to enable a customer with an assistance dog to enter the library.
These are examples of direct discrimination.
- A school has a rule that pupils must not wear headgear in school, which could exclude Sikh men and boys who wear a turban, or Jewish men or boys who wear a yarmulka, in accordance with practice within their racial group.
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