The legislation essentially makes it unlawful to:

• discriminate directly against anyone - that is, to treat them less favorably than others because of their age - unless objectively justified; 
• discriminate indirectly against anyone - that is, to apply a practice which disadvantages people of a particular age unless it can be objectively justified; 
• subject someone to harassment. Harassment is unwanted conduct that violates a person's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them having regard to all the circumstances including the perception of the victim; 
• victimise someone because they have made or intend to make a complaint or allegation or have given or intend to give evidence in relation to a complaint of discrimination on grounds of age; 
• discriminate against someone, in certain circumstances, after the working relationship has ended. Upper age limits on unfair dismissal and redundancy will be removed. There will be a national default retirement age of 65, making compulsory retirement below 65 unlawful unless objectively justified. Employees will have the right to request to work beyond 65 or any other retirement age set by the company. The employer has a duty to consider such requests. 
• There are limited circumstances when discrimination may be lawful such as genuine occupational requirements, objective justifications, exceptions and exemptions.

 Direct discrimination is less favourable treatment because of someone's age. This includes discrimination in offering employment or dismissal. It also affects offers of promotion and selection for training, and the terms and conditions such as holiday entitlement. Employers must no longer ask for dates of birth on application forms, nor for dates of education.

Terms in recruitment advertising will need careful review so that no terms are used which directly or indirectly discriminate against younger or older workers. Job descriptions requesting a particular number of years experience in a role or function are also not permitted, as they indirectly discriminate against younger applicants. Employers must also consider whether they qualifications that they are requesting are appropriate as the nature of the qualification and its availability (either very recent or long ago) could also be discriminatory. Placing of advertisements should also be carefully considered, so that advertising jobs in a magazine which is aimed specifically at a particular age group could also be seen as discriminatory. Employers using employment agencies will also need to review the agency’s policies to ensure that it acts in accordance with the company’s equality and diversity policies.

It is not unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age if:

• there is an objective justification for treating people differently - for example, it might be necessary to fix a maximum age for the recruitment or promotion of employees (this maximum age might reflect the training requirements of the post or the need for a reasonable period of employment before retirement);
• where a person is older than, or within six months of, the employer's normal retirement age, or 65 if the employer doesn't have one, there is a specific exemption allowing employers to refuse to recruit that person; 
• the discrimination is covered by one of the exceptions or exemptions given in the regulations - for example pay related to the National Minimum Wage;
• there is a genuine occupational requirement that a person must be of a certain age - for example, if you are producing a play which has parts for older or younger characters.
• Employers must ensure that all employees are trained in the new rules, so that harassment is avoided. This includes the use of derogatory terms and the exclusion of some employees from social events by selecting meeting places suitable only for young employees.

For more information go to: http://www.agepositive.gov.uk/