IT HAS been over a decade since the Conservative-led government scrapped statutory discrimination questionnaires — a vital tool that once empowered workers to challenge inequality in the workplace.

Back then, as an employment lawyer, I saw first-hand how this straightforward measure helped workers stand up to discrimination from bad bosses. With the Employment Rights Bill making its way through Parliament, our new Labour government has a golden opportunity to right this wrong.

The statutory equality questionnaire was part of the groundbreaking Equality Act 2010, introduced under the last Labour government. These questionnaires allowed workers who believed they had been discriminated against to obtain key information from their employers, including about how others in the workplace were treated.

This information often then became the backbone of their legal cases in employment tribunals.

This helped to protect workers, both individually and collectively, from being discriminated against in relation to age, disability, sex, race, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnership.

Scrapping these questionnaires formed part of a wider set of Tory attacks, under prime minister David Cameron, on the protections and principles Labour had enshrined in the Equality Act 2010. The dismantling of key protections for workers and discriminated groups — justified by reducing the “burden on business” — was in reality the flip side of the austerity measures that the Tory-led coalition drove through.

It was designed to leave workers with fewer rights and worse economic conditions.

As you can imagine, these statutory questionnaires were not popular with bad employers. The weak, evasive answers that companies often provided, or their failure to respond at all within the eight-week time limit, often smoked out discriminatory practices and spoke volumes at employment tribunals.

For workers, however, the questionnaires were invaluable. When the Tory-led government consulted on scrapping them, an overwhelming 83 per cent of respondents opposed the idea. But the Conservatives ploughed ahead regardless.

Trade unions, equality campaigners and employment lawyers issued repeated warnings that removing the equality questionnaire would weaken workers’ ability to challenge discrimination and effectively give unscrupulous employers a green light to discriminate at will.

As the Discrimination Law Association put it at the time: “Without the kind of information which individuals can only obtain through written questionnaires … in many cases it will be almost impossible to prove discrimination.”

And they were right. By ditching the questionnaires, the Tories tilted the scales of justice even further in favour of employers, leaving workers to navigate an uphill battle. Without this formal mechanism, individuals struggled to obtain the information necessary to substantiate their claims.

Many — particularly those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and who weren’t in a trade union — simply couldn’t afford alternative means, like getting expensive legal advice.

Countless victims of discrimination were left without recourse to justice. Discriminatory working environments and practices were left unacknowledged and intact.

Scrapping the questionnaires deliberately went against the development of the pushback against workplace discrimination. The statutory questionnaire procedure had its roots in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, and eventually the 2010 Equality Act.

Beyond the moral imperative of removing barriers to justice, reinstating these questionnaires would also make practical sense.

As they could be issued before employment tribunal proceedings began, the questionnaires often clarified issues early on.

That led to quicker resolutions when an employer knew they didn’t have a leg to stand on or because the claimant concluded that there was little evidence of discrimination and they had little chance of winning any case.

Since their abolition in April 2014, access to justice for discrimination victims has been significantly impeded. This move was a clear demonstration of the Conservatives’ preference for corporate interests over basic rights.

In 2025, the need to tackle the discrimination that the statutory questionnaires were all about is as relevant and pressing as it was back when Labour introduced them and when the Tories scrapped them.

That’s why I’ve tabled an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill to reinstate statutory discrimination questionnaires for workers. This will be debated in Parliament in the coming weeks and I hope to build broad support for it, both inside and outside of Parliament.

Restoring them would provide victims of workplace discrimination with a fair, transparent process for gathering information. It would reinstate a simple, cost-effective measure and one that good employers have no reason to fear.

Reversing the Tories’ shameful decision would send a powerful message that under Labour, justice, equality and transparency in the workplace matter again.

Richard Burgon is the MP for Leeds East. Follow him on X @RichardBurgon.