Age Without Limits welcome the Women and Equalities Committee report on The Rights of Older People

Ageism is often overlooked, despite being the most common form of discrimination in the UK. We have seen some great progress today, on getting ageism on the agenda - the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee have released an important report on The Rights of Older People.

We are pleased to see that they recognise the strong evidence of the impact of widespread age discrimination in the UK. The report supports many of our calls on the government as part of our Age Without Limits campaign which is supported by the Centre for Ageing Better.

Our CEO Dr Carole Easton OBE, who presented our campaign to the Women and Equalities Committee last year, says “The Centre for Ageing Better welcomes this report and urges the government and relevant bodies to action the report’s recommendations as soon as possible.”

The Committee set out to examine the extent to which ageist stereotyping and discrimination is preventing older people from fully participating in society. They have looked at a range of areas where government and governing bodies could do more to tackle ageism.

Highlights from the report:

• Call for a Commissioner for Older People in England - Wales and Northern Ireland already have commissioners who are improving the lives of older people and protecting their rights. As we have been calling for, it is time for the inequality experienced by England’s older population to end.
• Representation of older people on television - The report is also recommending that Ofcom (the regulator for the communications services in the UK) do a similar review to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). They suggest that increased age diversity in the broadcasting workforce, both on-screen presenters, entertainers and production staff behind the scenes, has the potential to significantly reduce ageist attitudes in the media.
• Ageist stereotypes in the media and advertising – AWL is supporting the ASA's research project to consider the nature and extent of harm and offence caused by ageist depictions of older people in advertising with a view to strengthening its regulatory approach, which the Committee are now championing too.
• Press standards – The report backs our call to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) to include ageism in their code of practice – all other protected characteristics are covered by the code with one notable exception from that clause, age.

Carole responds, “We are pleased to see the committee recognise that existing age discrimination protections are inadequate and rarely enforced. Since we founded the country’s first national anti-ageism campaign last year, Age Without Limits, we have been inundated with people telling us how they have been phased out from employment and opportunity by ageism. Tackling age-based prejudice will allow millions more people, now and in the future, to fully realise their potential as they get older - to the benefit of themselves as well as employers and the economy more widely.” 

We want to thank each and every one of you supporting the campaign so far - we can all continue to change the future for the better by noticing and challenging ageism.