Retirement Age of 65 is Lawful

In R (on the Application of Age UK) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills [2009] EWHC 2336 (more commonly known as the "Heyday case"), the High Court held that the UK's default retirement age of 65 under regulation 30 of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (the Age Regulations) was lawful. The High Court also held that regulation 3 of the Age Regulations, which allows employers to justify direct discrimination on the ground of age, is also lawful.

It was the High Court's view that adopting a designated retirement age was not a disproportionate means of achieving the Government's social policy objectives. However, it strongly indicated that the position would have to change after the forthcoming governmental review in 2010.

While the default retirement age of 65 therefore remains lawful for now, the High Court made a number of remarks which suggest that it will not survive for long. In particular, the judge commented that, "in the light of changed economic circumstances" since 2006, any attempt to keep a default retirement age of 65 beyond the review now scheduled for 2010 is unlikely to meet the proportionality test under the EC Equal Treatment Framework Directive (No.2000/78).