Equality Bill [Lords]

We can see that there is genuine consensus on the Bill both inside and outside the House. My hon. Friend the Minister and the Government are to be congratulated on bringing the work on the legislation to this stage with that level of consensus. That is good. I agree with my hon. Friend the Minister that there is no real need for the Bill to create a separate committee for London. As the MP for a Greater Manchester constituency, I think it is important that we all support the basing of the commission in Greater Manchester and acknowledge that doing that in no way downgrades any of its functions. Manchester is a great area in which to live and work, and the Worsley constituency is a very convenient place from which to travel if one is based in Manchester. The public sector duty to promote gender equality is vital and I hope that we will see public authorities in their role as employers taking proactive steps to improve the position of women in employment. As I noted on Second Reading, there are a great many issues for them to concentrate on. The duty to promote equality will help to deal with the way in which caring affects people’s ability to work. That has just been mentioned by the hon. Member for South-West Surrey (Mr. Hunt). As we know, carers are a key group in our society, accounting for 10 per cent. of our population, and in some age groups, carers’ ability to work is affected by their caring responsibilities. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland has a separate strand to promote equality between those with dependants and those without. Although there is to be no separate strand on caring responsibilities in the work of the new CEHR, I hope that it will become a priority for the new commission, as it is for the Government. The Bill is the biggest step forward in the law on equality in many years. There is vital work for the new commission to do and it is important that it can be done in an integrated way, encompassing equality, diversity, human rights and work to promote good relations. I hope that in doing that work in an integrated way, the commission will also be able to take a broad view of equality in ways that will help other groups who suffer discrimination in employment—for example, people who face the difficulties of balancing work and caring responsibilities. Among the many things that we can do for carers, it is key to ensure that they can look forward to some of the serenity to which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State referred. Serenity is a quality that we could all use a bit more of in our lives.