Equality Bill [HL]

I have considerable sympathy with the EOC and with this amendment. I shall try to explain how I see the position so that I can be corrected when I am wrong. Under the European Communities Act 1972, any legislation that is relevant to an issue has to be read and given effect in accordance with European Community law. For example, if one looks at the Sex Discrimination Act, it does not say that in giving assistance to individuals the EOC can assist them to go to Luxembourg to have a test case before the Court of Justice. However, it was long ago established that the EOC could do that because its power under Section 75 of the SDA is stretched by the European Communities Act to cover EU legal matters. The same applies to the list of statutes in Clause 35(1). If they have an EU penumbra and directly affect rights, they are to be read and given effect in accordance with EU law. All of that is fine, except that lawyers like me have to read the whole mass of rubbish of one kind or another in order for the citizen to know what the law is. I therefore hope that the Minister will be able to tell us that when the golden age of the new, big, single equality Bill occurs, efforts will be made to ensure that EU law is, where possible, incorporated into it so that, as far as possible, men and women will have to read   one Bill, rather than thousands of different regulations, directives and Luxembourg decisions. To that extent, I have sympathy with the amendment in so far as it is concerned with discrimination issues. I know that the Minister hates lists of any kind, but she has one in Clause 35(1). The problem is that if one has a list other people start adding to it, as the Minister rightly predicted. If one starts adding matters beyond discrimination to the list, it goes beyond the scope of the equality side of the Bill. I notice that in Clause 35(2) the equality and human rights enactments mean the equality enactments and the Human Rights Act, so there, at least, there is a broader notion than in the list in Clause 35(1). In short, I hope that when we get the big Bill, we will be able to incorporate all the relevant material into it, and consolidate it all in a user-friendly way. Meanwhile, I hope that the Minister will be able to explain how she draws the line between her list and the wider list in the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Gould of Potternewton.