"Talking about sexual orientation to the people at the top of this organisation is like being in the 1950s and saying you’re pregnant,” says Laura Netson, a diversity manager for a large retail company. “The top of the business is heavily made up of men and they tend to be funnier about it.”

Five years after regulations were issued outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, Netson (not her real name) believes that many organisations are either paying lip service to the legislation or are too nervous to do anything for fear of causing offense or creating a backlash. The same, she says, is true of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations, which were also introduced in 2003.