Equality Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, for raising this issue again. I understand her concern, as I understand the concern of my noble friend Lady David, to ensure that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and all of the issues connected with that are properly recognised within the commission. That wording is not in the Bill because it does not need to be. The noble Baroness will already have heard me talk about lists and my concern not to end up with a number of different conventions being mentioned. I suspect that, if we accepted this amendment, we would end up with a whole series of further amendments asking for the inclusion of other conventions or issues in the Bill. As we have already indicated, it is very important that the commission take its responsibilities seriously. As the noble Baroness will know from my work on the Children Bill, I am a strong proponent of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. I simply say that it does not need to be mentioned in the Bill for the reasons that I have given. That is not in any way to indicate that there is not a strong commitment to it; it is just that it does not need to be there. I resist the amendment because I do not want to end up with lists. It is on that basis that I ask the noble Baroness to withdraw her amendment.