Belief Discrimination Following Forstater v CGD Europe

Introduction

Religion/belief is one of the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010. Whilst we generally agree on the definition of a religion, belief has proven to be much more complex.

There is not a list of beliefs in the Equality Act 2010, and therefore case law must be applied to determine whether a particular belief is ‘protected’. This was demonstrated in the recent case of Forstater v CGD Europe and others [2022].

In this webinar we will look at the definition of belief, and then we will focus on a range of case law to explore what is, and is not, found to be a belief.

We will look in particular at the Forstater case, and how the law was applied in reaching the judgment on this. We will then conclude with some guidelines on how to manage potential discrimination on the grounds of belief.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Definition of a belief
• The definition in the Equality Act
• The Forstater case
• It is a belief?
• Looking at a range of case law where a belief has been found to be covered by the definition in the Equality Act
• It is not a belief?
• Looking at a range of case law where a belief has not been found to be covered by the definition in the Equality Act
• Conclusions
• How to define a belief

This webinar was recorded on 11th August 2022