By Lynda Macdonald
Brightmine editor: Lilia Dangi, Legal Editor
Hiring decisions carry significant legal risk, and HR teams must ensure every stage of recruitment is free from unlawful discrimination.
Under the Equality Act 2010, employers must not treat job applicants unfavourably because of a protected characteristic—and both direct and indirect discrimination can arise from job adverts, selection criteria, interview questions or the use of certain recruitment practices.
Our Employment Law Compliance Guide to Discrimination in Recruitment and Selection provides HR professionals with clear, expert-led guidance on how to avoid these pitfalls. It explains the legal impact of the Equality Act on recruitment, outlines your obligations when assessing candidates, and details best‑practice steps—such as making reasonable adjustments for disabled applicants, avoiding prohibited pre‑offer health questions, and ensuring recruitment processes do not disadvantage under‑represented groups.
Give your hiring managers the confidence to run fair, consistent and fully compliant recruitment processes with our comprehensive Brightmine employment law guide.
In this guide, learn about:
- Overview of the recruitment process
- Overview of the impact of the Equality Act 2010 on recruitment
- Direct discrimination
- Discrimination by association
- Discrimination because of a perception
- Indirect discrimination
- Indirect discrimination and justification
- Indirect discrimination – gender
- Indirect discrimination – race
- Indirect discrimination – religion
- Indirect discrimination – disability
- Indirect discrimination – age
- Harassment
- Victimisation
- Discrimination claims
- Employer’s liability for discriminatory acts
- Disabled candidates
- Discrimination arising from disability
- Duty to make reasonable adjustments
- Justifying discrimination arising from disability
- Positive discrimination and candidates with a disability
- Questions about disability and health screening
- Pregnant job candidates
- Positive action – general provisions
- Positive action in recruitment and promotion – specific provisions
- Occupational requirements
- Occupational requirements relating to religion
- Information gathered for monitoring purposes
- The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment
- Keeping records
- Employment agencies and executive search businesses
- Ensuring instructions are free from discrimination
- Future developments
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About the author
Lynda Macdonald
Lynda Macdonald has worked for more than 20 years as a self-employed, freelance management trainer, adviser and writer specialising in employment law.
She regularly designs and conducts training courses on all aspects of employment law for a range of managers and supervisors in all sectors of industry.
Prior to setting up her own business in employment law and management training/consultancy, she worked as an HR manager in the oil industry for more than 10 years. She is also appointed as a panel member of the employment tribunal service in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Lynda is a university graduate in language and a chartered fellow of the CIPD. She has an LLM degree in employment law and practice.
Lynda has written numerous books on various aspects of employment law, all of which have been published by major national publishers. She has co-authored several other books, and currently contributes extensively to various HR and employment law hard-copy and online products.
Lilia Dangi
Legal Editor, Brightmine
Lilia joined the Employment Law and Compliance team as a Legal Editor in March 2025.
Lilia has over 10 years’ experience in HR, with a strong background in employment law, compliance, and governance. She has worked across major organisations including Deloitte, Santander, and Unilever, advising on complex employee relations matters, immigration and change management.
Lilia also brings experience as a CIPD tutor, delivering modules on employment law and workforce planning. She holds a Law degree, a Law Masters in Corporate Governance, and is a certified Company Secretary and CIPD Associate.
Connect with Lilia on LinkedIn.