Equal opportunities and recruitment advertising

Job advertisements must not be worded in such a way that they directly or indirectly discriminate against or discourage applications from a particular group.

It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a candidate for a job because of their age, disability, race, religion or belief (or lack of belief), sexual orientation, gender reassignment, gender, marital status (including civil partnership), trade union membership or non membership, or status as a fixed term or part time worker, in any part of the recruitment process – in job descriptions, person specifications, application forms, during interviews, in tests, or in short-listing.

Even if an advertisement does not directly discriminate against a particular group, it may indirectly discriminate if, for example:

The job requirements are in effect discriminatory to a particular racial group
The proportion of employees in a particular group who can comply is considerably smaller than the proportion of employees in other groups who can comply
An employee or applicant suffers a detriment because they cannot comply with the candidate specifications
An employer cannot demonstrate that the requirements are objectively justifiable.

Legal exceptions

An employer may deliberately discriminate in advertising and recruitment if:

The job requires a particular type of person for reasons of decency, privacy or authenticity in dramatic performances, then the advertisement may be selective on the grounds that the job requires a 'genuine occupational qualification'. For example, where the job requires a woman rather than a man to be a care assistant at a women's refuge
It involves positive action to provide training for work to a particular gender or minority group who are under-represented in a particular job. However, the selection of potential employees should still always be made on merit.