The Claimants are firefighters entitled to benefits under the Firefighters' Pension Scheme, and the Appellants are Fire and Rescue Authorities that implemented public sector pension reforms, including transitional protection for existing members of the scheme on the grounds of age. The terms on which this protection was made available were established to be directly discriminatory on the grounds of age, and the issue arose as to whether paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 22 to the Equality Act 2010 ("EqA") provided the Appellants with a defence to the claims of age discrimination because the discriminatory transitional protection provisions were contained within a statutory instrument. At a preliminary hearing, the ET concluded that the Appellants were not entitled to rely on the EqA provision as a defence to the claims of age discrimination. The Appellants appealed.

The EAT held that the ET did not err in law in its construction of section 61 of the EqA or its impact on the availability of the defence provided by paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 22. Accordingly, the appeal would be dismissed.