Equality Bill [HL]

In this series of amendments, the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, and other noble Lords seek to either remove or reduce the power of the Secretary of State to intervene in the work of the commission. In general terms, I sympathise with their objectives. It will be recalled that, at Second Reading, I complained of lack of independence of the commission and I also spoke about it this afternoon. As I said, I have the utmost sympathy with the amendment and agree with it in many respects. My only problem with this particular group of amendments is that somewhere along the line they might knock out the involvement of the Government where it might be necessary for the Government to stay involved. For example, subsection (3) states:"““The Commission shall comply with a direction of the Secretary of State to advise about the effect of the enactment””," and so forth. From time to time, it might be important for the Government to have the benefit of the CEHR’s expertise. After all, running the commission is quite an expensive undertaking. If all that information is gleaned and then the Government would like part of it to help them it would be a pity if that could not happen. I hope that between now and Report noble Lords who feel strongly about this matter on one hand and the Government on the other hand will come to an arrangement whereby they reach a compromise. They should try to remove those cases where government interference is really objectionable. However, some cases, such as the one that I just mentioned, could be lived with—perhaps ought to be lived with. That would be a great step forward because these are important amendments and principles are involved.