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Change the Equality Act 2010 to make regional accent discrimination unlawful

Submitted by Elaine Carozzi on Monday 30th November 2020

Published on Tuesday 8th December 2020

Current status: Closed

Closed: Tuesday 8th June 2021

Signatures: 38

Relevant Departments

Tagged with

Dignity ~ Equal ~ equality ~ Equality Act ~ Individuals ~ Mental health ~ mentalhealth ~ Promoting ~ Promotion ~ Test ~ testing ~ Tests ~ UK

Petition Action

Change the Equality Act 2010 to make regional accent discrimination unlawful

Petition Details

The Act protects against discrimination because of race, nationality and ethnic origins. However, because people with different regional accents may share the same nationality or race, when 'comparators' are applied, regional accent discrimination is not unlawful.

Additional Information

The part of the UK a person comes from should also be a protected characteristic, so any discrimination due to regional accents is also unlawful.

This Act's purpose, which is protecting individuals from unfair treatment and promoting a fair and more equal society, is not met when people are discriminated due to their regional accent.

As Lady Hale commented in 2006: "a protected characteristic is either immutable or so fundamental to human dignity that a person should not be compelled to change it". Regional accents meet this test.

Accent discrimination can affect individuals' mental health, wellbeing and livelihood.


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