Genetic discrimination prevented only by a voluntary insurance code

The UK has no statute banning genetic discrimination, unlike the US with GINA or Canada with its Genetic Non-Discrimination Act. Insurers' use of predictive genetic tests is limited only by the voluntary ABI Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance, on a three-year review cycle as of 2025 and binding only its signatories, and employment protection is indirect through the Equality Act 2010. The state is meanwhile normalising population genomics: the Generation Study is sequencing 100,000 newborns, and the 23andMe breach, fined £2.31m by the ICO in 2025, showed how genomic data leaks. The Progress Educational Trust and academics have called for legislation, and no organisation owns the campaign.

Newborns sequenced today carry that data for eighty years and more, under a code an industry board can rescind. Fear of genetic disadvantage measurably suppresses research participation and screening uptake, which undermines the UK's genomics strategy itself.

A statutory prohibition on genetic discrimination in insurance and employment, plus statutory rules governing law-enforcement access to research genomic databases.

// State-led: Instrument: statutory prohibition on genetic discrimination plus law-enforcement access rules.

No statute bars genetic discrimination, only a rescindable industry code, and nobody owns the campaign; foreign models exist and the stakes stay contained for now.