The information contained on this page represents the situation as of 1 January 2011 and is a summary of the country report produced by the country expert from the network. The summary can be downloaded here as well.

Contact: 
Aileen McColgan
E-mail: aileen.mccolgan@kcl.ac.uk

The United Kingdom (UK) comprises England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (NI), with the term Great Britain (GB) used to refer to England, Wales and Scotland. The UK is a parliamentary democracy, based around the core principle of parliamentary sovereignty. It has neither a written constitution prescribing a formal separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers, nor an entrenched constitutional bill of rights. However, an extensive set of constitutional conventions establish what has been described as an unwritten constitution, backed by a long tradition of adherence to rule of law ideology.

There is no definition in statute or case law of “race” or “racial origin”: the legislation prohibits discrimination on “racial grounds”, which are defined as to include colour, nationality (including citizenship), and ethnic and national origins (s.9 Equality Act 2010). The meaning of “ethnic origins” and “ethnic group” has been clarified by the UK courts through precedent.

Individuals who consider they have been discriminated against can bring legal proceedings, with cases involving allegations of employment-related discrimination (public sector and private sector) going to the employment tribunals (industrial tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal in NI), and complaints concerning any other unlawful discrimination (by public sector or private sector bodies) going to the civil courts. The main remedy available is damages, which are calculated as in civil proceedings for tort.