Avoiding racial discrimination

This page explains how employers should avoid unlawful discrimination in their recruitment and employment practices while seeking to prevent illegal working, by carrying out the appropriate document checks on all of their employees.

It is important to remember that the UK population is ethnically diverse. Many people from ethnic minorities in this country are British citizens, and many non-British citizens from black and minority ethnic communities are entitled to work here. Therefore, you must not assume that someone from an ethnic minority is an immigrant, or that someone born abroad is not entitled to work in the UK.

Employers who refuse to consider anyone who looks or sounds foreign are likely to be unlawfully discriminating on racial grounds. If document checks are carried out only for prospective employees who by their appearance or accent seem not to be British, this too may constitute unlawful racial discrimination. If a tribunal upholds a complaint of racial discrimination, there is no upper limit on the amount of compensation that the employer can be ordered to pay.

Employers have a legal duty under current race relations legislation to avoid unlawful discrimination on racial grounds, and are therefore advised to carry out document checks on every prospective employee. The best way for employers to make sure that they do not discriminate is to treat all job applicants in the same way at each stage of their recruitment process.

Code of practice and further advice

The government has published a code of practice for employers on how to avoid unlawful discrimination in their recruitment and employment practices while seeking to prevent illegal working. This code of practice is one of the guidance booklets that you can download from the right side of this page.

The code of practice also tells employers where they can get further advice on preventing discrimination, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission.