ABSTRACT
This category was introduced into the 1976 Act as a result of the House of Lords’ decision in Ealing LBC v CRE,23 a case on the 1968 Race Relations Act, which prohibited discrimination on grounds of ‘national origin’, but not ‘nationality’. The House of Lords held that a Polish national, whom the Council had refused to put on their housing list, had no claim under the 1968 Act. Lord Cross stated: ‘It is not difficult to see why the legislature in enacting the ... Act used this new phrase “national origins” and not the word “nationality” which had a well-established meaning in law. It was because “nationality” in the strict sense was quite irrelevant to the problem with which they were faced. Most of the people against whom discrimination was being practised or hatred stirred up were in fact British subjects.’ Section 78 of the 1976 Act provides that, unless the context otherwise requires, ‘“nationality” includes citizenship’. Consequently Polish, or any other, nationals, or citizens, are protected under the 1976 Act.24
