Race Discrimination in the Provision of Goods, Facilities and Services

Part III of the RRA also covers any ‘goods, facilities or services’ which are offered to the public or a section of the public. This means, for instance, the services and facilities offered by hotels, boarding houses, pubs and restaurants, banks, insurance companies, credit houses and hire purchase firms, transport authorities and local authorities. A recent case has also held that it might cover the investigation of crime too. Direct or indirect discrimination by any such organisation will be unlawful.

Any contract (for example, to buy goods or supply services) which includes a term which discriminates on racial grounds is void and can be amended by applying to the County Court to strike out that term formally.

Exceptions in Provision of Goods, Facilities and Services

There are a number of situations where race discrimination remains lawful:

Any arrangement where someone takes a child, elderly person or someone needing special care and attention into his or her home to be looked after (for example, fostering children).
Goods, facilities or services provided outside Britain, or insurance arrangements to cover a situation outside Britain. (But the services of, for instance, a travel agent in this country, even though it arranges foreign travel, will still be covered).
Charities and voluntary organisations whose main purpose is to provide benefits for a particular racial group (but these organisations will not be allowed to discriminate on grounds of colour, only on grounds of race, nationality or national or ethnic origin).
Special arrangements can be made for members of a particular racial group who have particular needs for education, training, welfare, and so on (for example, language classes).
Discrimination on grounds of nationality, place of birth or length of residence is permitted in:

(a) selecting people to represent a particular place or country in a sport or game;

(b) deciding who is eligible to compete in any sport or game, according to the rules of the competition.

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