ABSTRACT
Legislation specifically covers race, religion or belief, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, disability and will cover, in due course, age. The definition of ‘disability’ is discussed in Chapter 16. The principal domestic legislation is the Race Relations Act (RRA) 1976 and the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) 1975. In addition (deriving from European Directives), there are statutory instruments covering religion or belief (in force since 2 December 2003) and sexual orientation (in force since 1 December 2003). European legislation specifically covers sex,1 racial and ethnic origin,2 nationality,3
and religion and belief, disability, age and sexual orientation.4 However, this European legislation is limited in that most of it extends only to employment matters.5
