The Equality Act is contributing to a ‘divided Britain’, according to research which reveals increasing numbers of unsuccessful employment tribunal claims for race discrimination.
Researchers from the social cohesion campaign group Don’t Divide Us found that between 2017 and 2024, there were 5,523 tribunals that included a discrimination claim based on the protected characteristic of race – tripling over the period.
Despite the rise in workplace race discrimination cases, the rate of success has remained largely unchanged since 2017, with only 5% of claims upheld.
The findings are contained in a Don’t Divide Us report, launched later today, titled The Equality Act Isn’t Working: Equalities Legislation and the Breakdown of Informal Civility in the Workplace.
The research looks at the origins of the Equality Act 2010, and suggests that its “expansionary logic” undermines case law and contributes to a grievance culture where people resort to “lawfare” to resolve “petty disputes and imagined slights”.
Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, the report’s lead author and director of Don’t Divide Us, said: “The Equality Act has achieved the exact opposite of its stated aim, making the UK a less tolerant and less equal place.
“It provides the legal scaffolding that supports this surge in workplace discrimination claims, the overwhelming majority of which have been found groundless.
“Instead of bringing greater fairness, equality and harmony, the EA has been a major vector for curtailing the fundamental freedoms for citizens to speak their mind, and to appear before the law as equal,” she continued.
“As we examine in our case studies and analysis section, the Act has handed inordinate power to those making malicious and bogus claims, or to thin-skinned people wilfully misinterpreting perfectly innocent comments or interactions.”
The report’s key findings include:
- There has been a steady increase in employment tribunal hearings based, in whole or in part, on race discrimination
- Tribunal applications for claims of race discrimination have increased from 165 in 2016-17 to 1,202 in 2023-24
- While the number of race discrimination claims pursued has tripled, only 5% on average have been upheld.
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The research also includes in-depth case studies looking at examples of when race discrimination claims have been upheld or dismissed by employment tribunal panels.
Don’t Divide Us was formed in 2020 in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests. Its aim is to ensure that “common-sense voices on racism and anti-racism are not stigmatised and remain as respectable views in public discourse”.
Equality and human rights barrister, and co-author of the report, Anna Loutfi, called the Equality Act a “spectacularly unsuccessful attempt at social engineering by the state” which undermines centuries of common law.
“The EA’s prioritisation of subjective rather than objective tests is contributing to increasing fractiousness in workplace culture and relationships,” said Loutfi. “Far from reducing racial tension and disparity, the Act and its offshoots, including the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and positive action programmes, are entrenching division.
“In pivoting the law away from prohibiting discrimination towards ensuring ill-defined ‘equality’, the EA 2010 has opened the door to political engineering,” she continued. “The Act was never oriented towards the pursuit of racial equality; instead, it has driven a ‘mission creep’ of continuously expanding rights, which has the opposite effect from that intended,” she continued. “We urge the government to conduct a review into the EA 2010, with a view to eventual repeal.”
Inaya Folarin Iman, director of The Equiano Project, added: “The Equality Act 2010 has fundamentally transformed social relations in Britain, yet this legislation receives very little scrutiny, because who disagrees with ‘equality’?
“But, in truth – as this rigorous, detailed and necessary report demonstrates – the Act is undermining equal relations between citizens and must be urgently re-examined.”
The report’s recommendations include, in the short term, the immediate repeal of the PSED and positive Action provisions in the Equality Act; the removal of subjective elements in equality law tests, and a full legal review of the Act.
In the longer term, the report’s authors call for the repeal of the entire system of codified protected characteristics enshrined in the 2010 Act, and, more radically, “the repeal of the 2010 Act in its entirety, in favour of a domestic return to the common law presumption of universal equality before the law (irrespective of race or any other social determinant)”.
A spokesperson for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “We have a statutory duty to monitor and advise on the effectiveness of our equality laws. While progress has been made towards a fairer country, we know challenges to equality remain and our society has not stood still.
“Increases in litigation may indicate an issue with how the legislation is being interpreted, and we consider all evidence carefully when we advise government and parliamentarians on the effectiveness of the Equality Act. However, a post-legislative review of the Equality Act is a decision for the UK government and parliament.”
A government spokesperson said: “The UK has a longstanding history of tackling all forms of discrimination and harassment. We are proud of the Equality Act 2010 and the rights and protections it affords individuals of all backgrounds, and will continue to uphold its provisions.”
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