Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 103:"Page 7, line 15, leave out paragraph (d)." The noble Lord said: In moving Amendment No.   103, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 104, 105 and 106. These amendments seek to amend—indeed, to expand on—the responsibility of the commission for giving information and advice to those affected by its activities. They are introduced at the behest of the Federation of Small Businesses, which is concerned that its members—who are repeatedly told that they are the engine of British commerce—fear that they will find themselves unwittingly falling foul of the legislation because they lack the technical expertise to interpret the Bill without help. Amendments Nos. 103 to 105 are purely consequential, leaving out paragraph (d) and then renumbering the references to subsequent paragraphs. The reason for leaving out subsection (2) is that it is reinstated after the new subsection (2), which is the substantive amendment. We entirely agree with the Government that the commission should disseminate information, guidance and advice about the operation of the legislation. The Government might have considered altering the word ““may”” to ““shall””, but perhaps that would impose too onerous a duty on the commission and leave it open to litigation if it did not vigorously pursue each of the several points. As drafted, however, the Bill lacks specificity. The amendment requires the commission to provide advice or guidance without charge, and to do so in a timely manner, because someone—a member of the public or an employer—who needs advice wants it right away, or as nearly right away as is reasonably possible. The phrase ““in a timely manner”” does not impose any arbitrary or prescriptive time limit on the commission. It proposes one of several methods of providing that service, all of which are in line with modern commercial practices. The commission is going to preside over a complex act, imposing onerous duties on both employers and members of the public. It also consolidates and ensures the enforcement of the rights of individuals and indeed what the Bill as drafted called ““communities””. The average person will not have the skill and expertise to find out his rights and duties on his own without great   difficulty. The amendment simply takes up the Government’s offer in the Bill to enable the commission voluntarily to give guidance and to specify in more detail how this should be done. The amendment does not ask the commission to do anything that it probably would not do anyway, and is most certainly neither unduly prescriptive nor onerous. The amendment expands on the way in which the commission provides the facilities that the Bill proposes should be made available. I beg to move.