The Act prohibits discrimination and harassment in relation to nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

The protection afforded by the Act extends to the recruitment process and confirms that an employer must not discriminate against a person in: 1) the arrangements they make for deciding whom to offer employment, 2) to the terms on which they offer employment, or 3) by not offering employment.

So, what does this mean for you? In relation to deciding whom to offer the role and the terms you offer, it is clear – you need to ensure that you are not being discriminatory. For example, you should not decide to appoint one applicant over another simply because of their race or gender (or any other protected characteristic). Equally, the terms you offer should not be discriminatory. For example, you should not decide to offer a female candidate a lower salary simply because of her gender.

What is less clear is what is meant by the “arrangements” you make, and the scope of this is very wide, ranging from the format and content of application forms to the location and timing of interviews. For example, a disabled person may argue that you have failed to make reasonable adjustments if you decide that interviews will only be conducted in a first floor meeting room and the building does not have a lift.

If a business is found to have been discriminatory in its recruitment process, an Employment Tribunal will award compensation for the injury to feelings (the amount of distress the discriminatory act caused up to £33,000 but commonly in the region of £10,000) and loss of salary, that is the salary that the business would have paid had the person discriminated against been given the job.