Meaning of 'Religion or Belief'

As Brian Quinn presented in BHA Group Representatives Annual Meeting 2010 (Voice in the Community.ppt):-

Religion or Belief

“In the Equality Act*, religion includes any religion. It also includes a lack of religion, in other words employees or jobseekers are protected if they do not follow a certain religion or have no religion at all.

……

Belief means any religious or philosophical belief or a lack of such belief.

……

Humanism is a protected philosophical belief.”

               

                The Equality Act – What’s New for Employers?   ACAS 2010

*: refers to the Equality Act 2010 (wikipedia). 

Equality Act 2010

The full Equality Act 2010 at Equalities.gov.uk. The Equality Act 2010 (PDF). 

Protected Characteristics are "Religion or Belief" 

PART 2

EQUALITY: KEY CONCEPTS

CHAPTER 1

PROTECTED CHARACTERISTICS

4 The protected characteristics

The following characteristics are protected characteristics—

age;

disability;

gender reassignment;

marriage and civil partnership;

pregnancy and maternity;

race;

religion or belief;

sex;

sexual orientation.

Source: page 16 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/pdfs/ukpga_20100015_en.pdf

10 Religion or belief

(1) Religion means any religion and a reference to religion includes a reference to

a lack of religion.

(2) Belief means any religious or philosophical belief and a reference to belief

includes a reference to a lack of belief.

(3) In relation to the protected characteristic of religion or belief—

(a) a reference to a person who has a particular protected characteristic is

a reference to a person of a particular religion or belief;

(b) a reference to persons who share a protected characteristic is a reference

to persons who are of the same religion or belief.

Source: page 18 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/pdfs/ukpga_20100015_en.pdf

Equality Act 2010 (c. 15)

Part 2 — Equality: key concepts

Chapter 1 — Protected characteristics

Over at ACAS site I've found:-

What is the definition of a philosophical belief?

To be protected under the Equality Act, a philosophical belief must:

• be genuinely held
• be a belief and not an opinion or viewpoint, based on the present state of information available
• be a belief as to a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour
• attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance
• be worthy of respect in a democratic society, compatible with human dignity and not conflict with the fundamental rights of others.

Humanism and atheism are examples of philosophical beliefs. 

Source: ACAS  (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3133