Can an employer justify ‘positive discrimination’ on grounds of age?

Employers are permitted (but not compelled), where more than one candidate for a job or promotion is equally qualified, to choose a candidate on the basis that they are from a protected group. Also, the Equality Act 2010 does allow positive measures to prevent or compensate for disadvantages linked to a protected characteristic, such as age. This could include advertising positions in publications whose readership is known to be of a particularly under-represented group in the employer’s workforce, or encouraging people of such an group to take up training facilities for that industry.