Whilst there have been some improvements in legal protection for people living with HIV, other developments have failed to respect the human rights of people living with HIV and people's rights are frequently ignored or undermined. We are continuing to campaign for changes in the law to protect people living with HIV from discrimination and working to help people and organisations in the UK understand and respect the needs and rights of people living with HIV.

The Equality Act

NAT warmly welcomes the new and comprehensive Equality Act, something which we have advocated for for a long time. The main provisions of the Act, which will replace the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, will come into force in October 2010.

Amongst the important provisions in the new Act is the prohibition of discrimination by perception and association. This protection will make a real difference to the partners, families and carers of people living with HIV, as well as to those sometimes thought to be HIV positive such as gay or bisexual men.

NAT also welcomes the new single Equality Duty, which will replace the current Disability, Race and Gender Duties from April 2011. For the first time this single Duty expands the areas where public authorities have to promote equality to include sexual orientation, age, religion and belief.   NAT's review Where is HIV in Disability Equality Schemes makes a series of recommendations to ensure that public authorities take steps to include people living with HIV under the new single Duty.
 
NAT is pleased that the Government has introduced provisions to protect people from dual discrimination. Many people experience discrimination based on their HIV status and sexual orientation and/or ethnicity and so we welcome this new development.

NAT is delighted by the Government’s inclusion within the Act of measures to strengthen employment tribunals’ enforcement powers. Currently employment tribunals can only make recommendations that directly benefit the person who has been discriminated against. As around 70% of employees involved in discrimination cases leave the organisation, this ties the hands of tribunals. The Act will allow employment tribunals to make wider recommendations in discrimination cases, which will benefit the wider workforce and help to prevent similar types of discrimination occurring in the future.

We are also very pleased by the inclusion within the Equality Act of a ground breaking clause that will for the first time see the prohibition of health questionnaires prior to an offer of employment. This is a significant step forward towards the end to discrimination in recruitment for people living with HIV. NAT worked with politicians from all parties to secure this outcome, playing a key role in the campaign to prohibit the use of these questionnaires that have enabled less scrupulous employers to filter out applicants with a disability or long term health condition.  Read NAT, THT and Rethink's Joint Submission to the Work and Pensions Committee on the importance of outlawing these questionnaires.

Click here to read the Equality Act in Full

Discrimination and schools

The 2005 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA 2005) makes it illegal to discriminate against people living with HIV from the point of diagnosis. This means that schools cannot discriminate against pupils or staff because they are HIV-positive. It also means that schools should make reasonable adjustments to ensure people living with HIV can work or study at the school.

Despite these legal protections, there are still cases where children are refused a place or excluded and staff are sacked or not employed solely because they are living with HIV.

We are campaigning for the Department of Children Schools and Families to provide specific guidance to schools on HIV. You can read a summary of this campaign here.

On World AIDS Day 2008, NAT launched a petition calling on the Government to end HIV-discrimination in schools.  Over 1500 people signed the petition.  You can view the closed petition here.  The Government will now have to provide a response to the petition which you can read here.

We are also helping schools to understand their duties and the role they can play in creating a supportive environment for pupils and teachers living with HIV. You can find out what we are saying directly to schools here.

HIV and Employment Research Project

NAT has long been involved in campaigning for a fair deal for people living with HIV at work. But there are still some information gaps about how people living with HIV experience employment. NAT has responded by commissioning new and independent research to examine the issues.

The research will investigate the employment experiences of two key groups affected by HIV in the UK: gay and bisexual men and Black Africans. Information for the study will be gathered in two ways: by conducting six exploratory focus groups (small group interviews) and an online survey of gay men.

The research is being conducted by Nicola Douglas, an independent researcher with over 10 years experience of conducting social research, including work with people living with HIV, in consultation with Professor Jonathan Elford at City University, a distinguished academic in the HIV research field. The project has received ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee of City University, London.

Our report summarising the research, Working with HIV, shows that overall the picture is a positive one, but discrimination does still go on and many people living with HIV are unaware of their employment rights.

NAT is now working to educate employers about the rights and needs of people living with HIV and to ensure that people living with HIV also know their rights in employment.

Find out more about workplace discrimination.

Blood donation

Currently in the UK any man who has ever had sex with another man (MSM) is permanently banned from giving blood. Similar exclusions apply to anyone who has ever been paid for sex and anyone who has ever injected drugs.

NAT is not convinced by the justifications for the ban on MSM giving blood and wrote to the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) requesting that they conduct a proactive and comprehensive review of all their lifetime bans.  NAT is particularly concerned that the UK look at experiences of other jurisdictions which have moved to a time-limited ban on MSM blood donation. 

Whilst there have for some time been many voices on different sides of this argument, NAT's intervention was instrumental in securing a review by SaBTO, currently underway, of whether to alter the position on the lifelong ban on MSM donating blood.

• newer and more reliable testing technology made earlier estimates of risk outdated,
• equalities legislation required SaBTO to reassess their policies in light of new anti-discrimination obligations, and
• keeping the issue 'under review' was inadequate as a response to concerns; a commitment to a proactive, comprehensive and timetabled review of the evidence was necessary.

For the exchange of letters with SaBTO, which secured the current review, see below:

12 November 2008  Letter from NAT to SaBTO asking that SaBTO undertake a review of the lifetime bans currently in place in relation to blood donation.

8 December 2008  Response from SaBTO to NAT

19 December 2008  Follow-up letter from NAT to SaBTO

24 February 2009  Response from SaBTO to NAT

12 March 2009  Press Release by National Blood Service ‘Blood policy review to follow new research'

11 December 2009 Letter from NAT to SaBTO following SaBTO’s public meeting on the issue of lifelong blood donation exclusions

20 January 2010  Response from SaBTO to NAT