Occupational requirements, protected characteristics and AI screening in Great Britain

Automated screening tools make it easy to add a hard filter: show only candidates who meet a set rule. If that rule is a protected characteristic, such as sex, religion or belief, or a particular disability, the Equality Act 2010 allows it only in narrow cases. The main one is the occupational requirement exception in paragraph 1 of Schedule 9. This page explains how it works in Great Britain.

The short answer: an employer does not break the listed work provisions by applying a requirement to have a particular protected characteristic only if it shows, having regard to the nature or context of the work, that it is an occupational requirement, that applying it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, and that the person does not meet it, or the employer has reasonable grounds for not being satisfied that they do (Sch 9 para 1(1)). The burden is on the employer to show each point.

The three conditions

• An occupational requirement: judged by the nature or context of the work, not by what a tool or a past hiring pattern suggests.
• Proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim: the employer has to show this too (para 1(1)(b)).
• The person does not meet it: or the employer has reasonable grounds for not being satisfied that they do. For a requirement to be of a particular sex, the "reasonable grounds" alternative does not apply (para 1(4)).

For gender reassignment, the requirement is read as a requirement not to be a transsexual person, and for marriage and civil partnership as a requirement not to be married or a civil partner (para 1(3)).

Which decisions it covers

For employees and applicants, the exception applies to these parts of section 39 (para 1(2), s39):

• the arrangements for deciding to whom to offer employment, and not offering employment (s39(1)(a) and (c));
• access to opportunities for promotion, transfer or training or any other benefit, facility or service, and dismissal (s39(2)(b) and (c)).

It is not listed for the terms on which employment is offered (s39(1)(b)), an employee's terms of employment (s39(2)(a)) or other detriment (s39(2)(d)). Paragraph 1(2) also lists provisions on contract workers, partnerships, LLPs, office-holders and others.

Religious employers

Two further paragraphs deal with religion:

• For employment for the purposes of an organised religion, paragraph 2 allows certain requirements (for example relating to sex, marriage or sexual orientation) where applying them engages the compliance or non-conflict principle, meaning it is done to comply with the doctrines of the religion or, because of the nature or context of the employment, to avoid conflict with strongly held religious convictions of a significant number of the religion's followers (Sch 9 para 2).
• An employer with an ethos based on religion or belief may require a particular religion or belief if, having regard to that ethos and the nature or context of the work, the same three conditions as paragraph 1 are met (Sch 9 para 3).

What this means for AI screening

Because the exception depends on the nature or context of a particular job, a filter on a protected characteristic set once and reused across many roles is hard to fit within it. Points to check:

• List every hard filter or knockout question in each tool and note any that turn on a protected characteristic, directly or by asking for it.
• For each one, record the job, why the characteristic is an occupational requirement for it, and why applying it is proportionate.
• Check that a filter set for one role has not been copied to others.
• Remember that the exception covers requiring the characteristic itself. Filters on other factors that disadvantage a group are judged under the indirect discrimination rules instead, covered on our Equality Act and AI at work page.

For encouraging or, as a tie-breaker, preferring under-represented groups, see positive action and the tie-breaker rule. For questions about health or disability before a job offer, see health questions before a job offer, and for hiring tools generally, AI in hiring.

This page covers Great Britain and is general information on the law as at 2 November 2026, not legal advice.