Sex discrimination for pension lawyers

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
Produced in partnership with Elizabeth Ovey of Radcliffe Chambers
Practice notes

Sex discrimination for pension lawyers

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Produced in partnership with Elizabeth Ovey of Radcliffe Chambers

Practice notes
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The current position and how we got here

As in other areas of discrimination law which apply to pension schemes, the law on sex discrimination has been heavily influenced by European law. In this area, three different strands of European law helped to develop UK law:

  1. •

    case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU)—in relation to how CJEU judgments apply in the UK, retained eu law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL(RR)A 2023), s 6 sets out new tests and procedures to apply when UK courts consider whether to depart from previous decisions of the CJEU. Previously, when considering whether to depart from retained EU case law, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal (together, the Higher Courts) applied the test of whether it appeared 'right to do so'. REUL(RR)A 2023 amends s 6 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EU(W)A 2018) so that once the new provisions are in force, the Higher Courts must have regard (among other things) to specified factors. For more detailed guidance on whether CJEU judgments are

Elizabeth Ovey
Elizabeth Ovey chambers

Barrister, Radcliffe Chambers

Elizabeth has a general Chancery practice with particular emphasis on pensions (developing from the trust side of her practice) and on retail financial services (developing from an early specialisation in building society law). She also does a considerable amount of professional negligence work in these areas and other areas in which a Chancery background is of assistance.

Her first substantial involvement in pensions law came when she was instructed in relation to a small miners’ pension scheme during the days of the miners’ strikes in the 1980s and she has done an increasing amount of pensions work since those days. She is a contributing editor of Halsbury’s Laws vol. 80 (Personal and Occupational Pensions) (2020). She is now on the Lexis PSL pensions section editorial board and is a contributor to Lexis PSL through a series of practice notes on various aspects of discrimination and occasional case analysis. 

Her financial services work involves in particular constitutional matters relating to mutual societies, regulatory issues and drafting standard terms and conditions to comply with the developing requirements relating to unfair contract terms. She is a joint editor of Wurtzburg and Mills on Building Society Law (looseleaf edition) and a co-author of Retail Mortgages: Law, Regulation and Procedure (2013).
 
A particular highlight of her professional negligence practice was a trip to the House of Lords in Johnson v Gore Wood [2002] 2 AC 1. 

She continues to deal with other Chancery matters.

She sits as a fee-paid judge of the Upper Tribunal.

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
Sex discrimination definition
What does Sex discrimination mean?

The concept that it is unlawful for an individual to discriminate against another on the grounds of his or her sex.

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