Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, before I start, I declare an interest as president of the Royal Mencap Society and joint chairman of the All-Party Group on Learning Disabilities. Like the majority of noble Lords—I exempt the noble Earl, Lord Ferrers—I warmly welcome the Bill as another significant milestone towards the creation of a truly inclusive society. I trust that the noble Earl will support me a little later in what I say about learning disability. Although the Bill creates the potential for a better society, it is a potential that still needs to be realised. It is   easy to get bogged down in the technicalities of the Bill, but, as a disability rights campaigner, I have an overriding concern that the lives of disabled people and, more specifically, those with a learning disability, will be made better by the creation of a Commission for Equality and Human Rights. The new commission must be even more effective than the Disability Rights Commission is now, transforming the current inequalities into improved life chances for people with a learning disability. I listened carefully to what the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor said—unfortunately, he is not now in his place—but I ask the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, to go further in her summing up in allaying some of the fears that people with a learning disability have about what in practice the new commission will mean to them. It is worth reminding the Government and your Lordships that, despite some recent improvements, people with a learning disability remain among the most marginalised in our society. There is still a long way to go before they can enjoy the same opportunities, choices and respect as other people. People with a learning disability are 58 times more likely to die before the age of 50 than the rest of the population. Only one in 10 has a job, compared with five out of 10 of all disabled people, and the gap appears to be widening. Nearly nine out of 10 people with a learning disability are victims of harassment and hate crime every year. There are countless more equally shocking statistics, but my point is this: people with a learning disability are already struggling to get their voice heard. Many are still discovering that they have a voice at all. The expectation that they should be listened to, that their views count, that they can make their own choices about their own life and expect to have those choices realised is a new one. With that new expectation comes the realisation that they do not even have the same life chances as most other disabled people. They, and I, need reassuring that those new expectations will not be dashed and that learning disability issues will not be marginalised in a much larger commission, just at the point when they appear to be turning the corner in the long fight for equality. When the DRC becomes one among six, it is absolutely vital that people with a learning disability do not become just one among hundreds. The Minister will know from her work with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 that giving people with a learning disability the same nominal rights as other people does not mean that you are giving them the same opportunity to use those rights. Simply giving people with a learning disability the same nominal access as everyone else to the new commission and its decision-making powers will not lead to the truly inclusive society for which we all strive. My concern about the accessibility of the future commission has not been helped by the lack of an easy-read version of the Bill. It is all too simple and convenient to put that down to an oversight and to say, ““These things happen, after all””, because it keeps happening—it has happened with every disability-related Bill that I have been involved in for the past two years. It happened with this Bill’s White Paper, when the easy-read version was published eight weeks after the full version, thus effectively excluding people with a learning disability from the consultation. It is happening again now, despite this being the second time that the Bill has had a Second Reading and despite the DRC calling very publicly for an easy-read version of the Bill, way back in April. Many of us, including the noble Lord, Lord Carter, who is unfortunately not present today, have raised the issue on a number of occasions. The lack of an easy-read version of the Bill gives the clear impression that people with a learning disability are not part of the planning process. It gives the clear impression to all those with a learning disability and their families and carers that they are at best an afterthought and that their views do not count. I remind your Lordships that the foundation stone of the Valuing People learning disability strategy is the phrase, ““Nothing about us without us””. I hope that, in   her response, the Minister will be able to say something positive to reassure me and the 1.5 million people with a learning disability that the Government are determined to consult them effectively throughout the process. People with a learning disability must be given meaningful opportunities to help to shape the new commission and its work. It is about them—it must not be without them. There are some other reassurances that the Minister could give in relation to the organisational arrangements for the new commission. First, I should be grateful if she could confirm that at least one person with a learning disability will be on the new disability committee. A reserved place on the committee is as important to people with a learning disability as having a disabled person on the main board is for all disabled people. Secondly, I hope that the Minister will be able to confirm that the Learning Disabilities Action Group will continue in the new commission. The group plays an important role in the DRC in ensuring that people with a learning disability are properly consulted. I am sure that an early indication of support for a continuation of the Action Group would avoid much unnecessary anxiety about the future. Finally, I am looking for the Minister to make it clear that there will be an effective and coherent read-across between the various duties placed on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights through the Bill and the very important public sector equality duties that many of us in the House helped to shape as part of the new disability discrimination Act. I hope that she might include in that reassurance some comment on whether, as recommended by the DRC, it might be better to amend Clause 11 to include disability in the mainstream community relations provisions. Having stressed my need for some timely reassurance that the new commission represents a good deal for people with a learning disability, I should also stress that I remain extremely optimistic that a Government who have done so much for disabled people over the past few years, will not fluff this opportunity and that this great potential will be realised for everyone. I am confident that, at the end of the process, we will have a new organisation better able to take forward the equality and human rights agenda for the next generation but also better able to listen to the most marginalised in our society and respond to their needs. Equality as a concept can only have one outcome; that is, equality for all.