Equality Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Peyton, for an interesting and important contribution to our deliberations. I do not feel at all ““landed”” by this Bill; quite the opposite. It is an enormous pleasure to be taking the Bill through Parliament, especially as I have spent much of my life working on issues to do with discrimination and equality. The Bill originated as a Department of Trade and Industry Bill, so one might argue that it is the Lord Chancellor’s Department taking it through on behalf of that department. My noble and learned friend will be participating in further stages of the Bill; and, had he been able to, he wished to do so at earlier stages. It is my personal view that one of the jobs of junior Ministers is to take a Bill through Committee to enable those more senior to reflect on the strategic approach that we need on Report and at Third Reading. My noble and learned friend is far from not taking his responsibilities seriously on the Bill. I could not agree more that the appointment of the chairman will be important. I do not know whether anyone has someone in mind, but I am sure that a lot of thought will go into ensuring that the right person is found. I also recognise what the noble Lord said about putting things more briefly. The noble Lord will know from his own experience that one of the things about parliamentary counsel is that they do not use three words when one will do. In fact, sometimes I have been in the opposite camp of arguing to add a couple of words, which would certainly have made the passage of some of my previous Bills easier through your Lordships’ House. As the noble Lord and the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, will know, we have already undertaken to look again at Clause 3 to see what we can do around that issue. The noble Lord described going from one extreme to the other. My ambition for the end of this Bill is that I can firmly place him in the middle. I do not know whether I will achieve that aim, but that would be my ambition—that the noble Lord feels that the Bill is where it should be. The clause sets out the duties of the commission in a reasonably succinct way. It is important to do that because we have in Parliament a long and proud tradition of giving individuals legal protection against discrimination, which goes back to the 1960s. We also know, not only as parliamentarians and legislators but also as citizens, that rights on their own are meaningless if people do not know what rights they have. That is particularly true of the most vulnerable in our society. We need to make sure that we enjoy the standards that we hold dear in this country of equality and fairness. We have legislated for them, and we need to ensure that people are aware of them. Where we have high-quality, consistent advice that raises awareness and improves understanding, there is no doubt that, in a sense, we do not have as much reliance on the courts to decide what is lawful and what is not lawful. That applies as much to individuals who may want to protect their rights as it does to employers and to service providers who have responsibilities under the law. We have tried to set out in this clause the duties of the commission in a way that is easy to understand; that is clear about what it is doing; and that recognises the importance not only of having rights but also of ensuring that people are aware of them. That is why it is important to do so. We think that what we have done in   the Bill is provide a much more flexible response from the commission—a proportionate response that means that we can make sure that it deals with particular issues as they arise in a much more succinct and coherent way. In a sense, this is all about the framework for doing so. I will always look at the wording to make sure that we have got it in exactly the   right place, but I agree with the noble Lord, Lord   Lester, that it is really important as it sets out the framework for the Bill. Despite his important contribution, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment at this stage.