The implementation of the provisions prohibiting age discrimination in the provision of services and public functions under the Equality Act 2010, which were due to come into force in April 2012, has been postponed. Any ban is unlikely to come into effect before October 2012.
The Government has announced that it has delayed the decision on implementing a proposed ban on age discrimination in the provision of services, which it had envisaged bringing into force in April 2012. Therefore any ban is unlikely to come into effect before October 2012. Ministers are still considering the scope for, and content of, any exceptions from the ban, in the light of responses to a consultation in 2011. The Government believes it to be preferable to spend time to get the decision right and ensure that businesses and others affected will also have more time to prepare and adjust as necessary. With age being used as a risk factor in many financial services and insurance products, with the latter sometimes being utilised by employers in benefit schemes such as long-term ill health insurance, no doubt the wait to see what the proposed exception for financial services providers will look like will be an anxious one.
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