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15 February 2024

Pontins served with unlawful act notice after race discrimination investigation

We have served Pontins holiday parks with an unlawful act notice following an investigation launched in May 2022. Our investigation found multiple instances of race discrimination against Irish Travellers. We have published these findings in our report.

Pontins, owned by Britannia Jinky Jersey Limited, was found to have committed several breaches of the Equality Act 2010. These included:

• Creating and maintaining a list of common Irish surnames labelled as ‘undesirable guests’ and instructing staff to decline or cancel bookings made under those names.

• Introducing rules requiring guests to appear on the electoral register, a practice found to be discriminatory against Gypsies and Travellers, who are less likely to be on the register.

These discriminatory practices occurred between 2013 and 2018, and were supported by senior managers.

We remain concerned about Pontin's current terms and conditions, which still includes electoral roll checks. We have found these terms to be discriminatory towards Gypsies and Travellers.

Now that we have issued Pontins with an unlawful act notice they must, by law, produce an action plan to set out how they intend to meet our recommendations.

This action plan must be produced by 5pm on Tuesday 9 April 2024.

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Equality and Human Rights Commission Third floor, Windsor House, 50 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0TL
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