My understanding is that you can ask about personal attributes appropriate to the job. Generic questionaires where all employees are asked the same thing regardless of what the job entails are not allowed anymore. Of course you can pre-empt this by having a person specification in the job description; eg must be able to lift and move heavy objects on a regular basis, must be able to carry goods up stairs...

The Equality Act is a good piece of law but it as all others must still adhere to H&S so questions can be asked where the job risk assessment [that should be in place and should have been part of the info used to create a person spec - job spec] indicates the need However I am afraid that in most cases 'best practice' will not be in place and guidance etc will be sort from those other than H&S professionals so we will have many gaps which will have to be reactively managed by [ as usual] the production managers concerned