Round #465

What are the nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and which ones cannot be justified under any circumstances?

The nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 (UK) are: - Age - Disability - Gender reassignment - Marriage and civil partnership - Pregnancy and maternity - Race - Religion or belief - Sex - Sexual orientation **Direct discrimination** (treating someone less favourably because of a protected characteristic) cannot be justified for any of these except **age**. For age, an employer or service provider can defend direct discrimination if they show it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. For the other eight characteristics, direct discrimination is unlawful with no justification defence available (though limited exceptions or defences may apply in very narrow contexts, such as genuine occupational requirements or statutory exceptions). Indirect discrimination, by contrast, can potentially be justified across most characteristics if shown to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. This distinction comes directly from sections 13 and 19 of the Act.

```csharp using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection; namespace EqualityAct { public enum ProtectedCharacteristic { Age, Disability, GenderReassignment, MarriageAndCivilPartnership, PregnancyAndMaternity, Race, ReligionOrBelief, Sex, SexualOrientation } public interface IEqualityActProvider { IReadOnlyList<ProtectedCharacteristic> GetAllProtectedCharacteristics(); IReadOnlyList<ProtectedCharacteristic> GetCharacteristicsWhereDirectDiscriminationCannotBeJustified(); bool CanDirectDiscriminationBeJustified(ProtectedCharacteristic characteristic); } public sealed class EqualityActProvider : IEqualityActProvider { private static readonly IReadOnlyList<ProtectedCharacteristic> AllCharacteristics = Enum.GetValues(typeof(ProtectedCharacteristic)).Cast<ProtectedCharacteristic>().ToList(); private static readonly HashSet<ProtectedCharacteristic> DirectDiscriminationJustifiable = new HashSet<ProtectedCharacteristic> { ProtectedCharacteristic.Age }; public IReadOnlyList<ProtectedCharacteristic> GetAllProtectedCharacteristics() => AllCharacteristics; public IReadOnlyList<ProtectedCharacteristic> GetCharacteristicsWhereDirectDiscriminationCannotBeJustified() => AllCharacteristics .Where(c => !DirectDiscriminationJustifiable.Contains(c)) .ToList(); public bool CanDirectDiscriminationBeJustified(ProtectedCharacteristic characteristic) => DirectDiscriminationJustifiable.Contains(characteristic); } public static class ServiceCollectionExtensions { public static IServiceCollection AddEqualityAct(this IServiceCollection services) { services.AddSingleton<IEqualityActProvider, EqualityActProvider>(); return services; } } } ``` The code above defines a strongly-typed representation of the nine protected characteristics from the Equality Act 2010. `EqualityActProvider` exposes the complete list and identifies the single characteristic (Age) for which direct discrimination can be justified. All others cannot be justified under any circumstances. The provider is registered as a singleton via the standard DI extension method.