Equality Bill [Lords]

My hon. Friend must be clairvoyant. I was coming to that point. Issues involving parenting, caring and work are complex. They affect many of our constituents, so they should concern us all. A question that is still being asked is whether the duty to promote equality between women and men will ensure that caring responsibilities are recognised by public bodies with duties applying to their employment practices and the way in which they design their services. I understand that the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland deals with caring as a separate strand, and has a positive duty relating to public bodies, including the promotion of equality"““between persons with dependants and those without””." Caring is often not even visible to employers. Many carers do not like to ask for time off, or indeed for flexibility, but the Bill will allow them to do so. Many currently feel that caring is not seen as a reason for time off in their workplaces. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Alison Seabeck), I hope that the Committee will consider whether the duty to promote equality could be extended, and whether caring responsibilities could become an extra and, perhaps, a particularly important strand of the commission’s work. It is welcome that the new single statutory commission has human rights in its title. We should celebrate that. With that institutional support, the work on equality and human rights can be linked. As we know, discrimination and lack of equality waste the potential of individuals and represent a loss to our nation, which we can now quantify in terms of GDP. In the past 30 years, we have made steady but at times slow progress on reducing inequality and attacking discrimination, although much more progress has been made under Labour Governments than under Conservative Governments. As Labour Members have said, it has been disturbing to hear the views of what is becoming known as the dinosaur tendency. As my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley said, Members should be clear about their terms. I understand that the reason why bibles have been removed from patients’ lockers in NHS hospitals is to prevent cross-infection. If a patient in the NHS wants a bible, the idea is that they ask for one. They are then provided with one that has been properly disinfected following use by other patients. Therefore, it has nothing to do with political correctness. That has been quoted twice by Opposition Members. It is rather silly that they do that type of thing. In contrast, my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Angela Eagle) gave an excellent exposition of the work of Labour’s women pioneers over the past century. Since 1997, we have abolished section 28 and introduced civil partnerships. Today, many of my hon. Friends have emphasised the importance of ending discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services. Like them, I welcome the fact that our Government have accepted amendments to the Bill in the other place which allow the Secretary of State to make regulations that prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. We are indeed glad that there is widespread support for these measures in Parliament and beyond and I add my support to that. Looking forward, measures are proposed to outlaw age discrimination in the workplace, and the Women and Work Commission will report early next year. Like many hon. Members, particularly those on the Labour Benches, I welcome the Bill, which is the biggest step forward for the law on equality for many years and creates a body, wherever it is located—I hope that it will be in the north-west—that will integrate the three pillars of equality, diversity and human rights and work to promote good relations.