UK law currently allows employers to discriminate if the employment “is for the purposes of organised religion” and a particular sexual orientation is necessary in order to comply with “the doctrines of the religion” or to avoid conflict “with the strongly held religious convictions of a significant number of the religion's followers”.
This means that a religious organisation is not exempt from the law, but can continue to discriminate when recruiting for clearly defined jobs where the work itself is for the purposes of the religion.
Note that the European Commission believes that the Directive has not been correctly implemented. This means that the exemption given to religious organisations is particularly susceptible to challenge.
