Equality Bill [Lords]

As always, my hon. Friend comes up with an extremely intelligent and sensible suggestion, but surely the debate in Parliament would have more impact if it were to debate a report by the commission. That is something that we can discuss in Committee, although that is not an offer to serve at this stage. Clause 28 refers to legal assistance, and subsection (1) enables the commission to give assistance to an individual who is the victim of discrimination or"““who is or may become party to legal proceedings””." Will the cost of that assistance come from the commission’s budget, or could it be funded by the Legal Services Commission, and what will be the relationship between the two? Clauses 36 to 38 refer to dissolution, the transfer of property, rights and liabilities, and to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981. What about the existing commissions’ ongoing cases? It is important during the transition period that the three commissions are not deterred from launching new actions, and it is equally important that existing legal actions are pursued with the usual professionalism, resources and commitment. What is the Minister’s view on that, and can she perhaps suggest that at least those particular points will be taken care of? The then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry wrote to several MPs in February, announcing the Government’s equalities review, which will run in tandem with the Department of Trade and Industry’s discrimination law review. The equalities review will be chaired by Trevor Phillips and will report in 2006 at the earliest. It will review all equality legislation, so is it sensible—a point made well by my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry)—to go ahead with the Bill before we see the findings of those reviews? I and my Front-Bench colleagues support the broad outlines of the Bill, but it is vital to get it right in every respect, so it would be sensible to await the findings of the review.