Even in the light of the new Equality Bill there are, approximately, still 250 age discrimination cases pending review in the UK.

Harriet Harman’s broad extention of existing anti-discrimination legislation, two weeks ago, was created to prevent discrimination in all it’s forms in the provision of goods and services.

Nevertheless, confusion still abounds. A landmark case is currently under review in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the ruling will decide whether the government has implemented it’s age discrimination legislation correctly.

If the ECJ find that the leglislation doesn’t do enough to prevent instances of age discrimination in the workplace then the government must ammend the Equalities Bill accordingly, as well as review those cases waiting enquiry.

Nony Ardill, the legal policy adviser at Age Concern, has said that she would encourage people to press cases if the ECJ findings proved successful and praised the review as a way of bringing clarity, “to the muddled issue of whether forced retirement breached the 2000 EU framework”.

The ECJ’s findings will be available in September this year.