Equality Bill [HL]

As he mentioned, in the second part of his amendment the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, says that the duty he is proposing would not be imposed on the Scots Parliament if the matter is within its competence. I was not able to speak to the amendments to Clause 7 which I hoped to move today, because the House progressed very rapidly last week and passed Clause 7. I will therefore not be able to do that until Report, if it seems necessary. The Scottish Parliament can set up a commission of its own under Clause 7, and take competence to deal with devolved matters. The United Kingdom commission set up by this Bill, however, can still operate on devolved Scottish matters if it gets the agreement of that Scottish commission. That is the proposal. None of that has yet happened, of course. I therefore suggest to the noble Lord that the second part of his amendment is not right. The Scottish Parliament might have competence to do certain things, but might not have taken that competence and decided to allow the United Kingdom commission to do it. I hope I understand that correctly. If I am right, possibly this amendment is not absolutely correct.