Age: Discrimination

Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 9 June 2025.

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Photo of Baroness Verma Baroness Verma Conservative

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support and promote Age Without Limits Day across government departments, and whether they plan to develop a strategy to address ageism in society.

Photo of Baroness Smith of Malvern Baroness Smith of Malvern Minister of State (Education), Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

We acknowledge the commitment of the organisers of the Age Without Limits Day and will follow it with interest. Ageism has no place in our society where we want to see and build inclusion, not exclusion.

The Equality Act 2010 has strong protections that enable people to challenge age discrimination across a range of fields, including recruitment processes. These protections make it unlawful for an employer, service provider or someone exercising public functions to treat a person less favourably because of age, unless this can be objectively justified.

Any older person who may have been personally discriminated against because of age may also contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS), the government helpline established to provide free bespoke advice and in-depth support to individuals with discrimination concerns. The EASS can be contacted via their website - http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/, by telephone on 0808 8000082 or text phone on 0808 8000084. The EASS has the ability to intervene on an individual’s behalf with a service provider to help resolve an issue. The EASS can also advise people who wish to take their complaint further on their options.

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War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.

From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.

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