Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward amendments to the Equality Act 2010 to include caste as a protected characteristic.

This Government completely opposes any discrimination because of a person’s origins, including any perceptions of their caste.

The Tirkey v Chandhok case in 2014 established that it is likely that anyone who believes that they have been discriminated against because of caste could bring a race discrimination claim under the existing ethnic origins limb of the race provisions in the Equality Act because of their descent.

The Government considers, having also taken into account over 16,000 responses to a 2017 consultation on this issue, that the Tirkey judgment serves as a welcome clarification of the existing protection under the Equality Act – helping to deter those inclined to treat others unfairly or unequally because of conceptions of caste.