Queen’s Speech

My Lords, as a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, I declare an interest and welcome the thrust of the Government's proposals for the equality Bill, on which I shall concentrate my remarks. I stress that in this context equality does not mean sameness. It means that there must be fairness to enable everyone to celebrate their differences and fulfil their potential without being blocked or hindered by attributes over which they have no control, such as race or disability. If the new legislation succeeds, everyone in our diverse society will know that it is there for us, if and when we need it. However, the legislation needs to go beyond traditional approaches to equality. The current economic climate means that reducing economic inequality is more important than ever. We must protect the most marginalised people in our society, who are liable to carry the heaviest burden during an economic downturn. While recognising the pressures on businesses at present and that they need space to enable them to recover, they must do so in a way that maintains an approach that embraces the ethos of fairness. In this respect, I welcome the fact that the Bill will include a ban on age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services but, even now, I hope that the Government will ensure that that is in the Bill or, if it is not, that regulations are brought in swiftly. Otherwise, the Bill will be greatly weakened. In respect of the proposed public-sector duty, I am delighted that the Government propose to streamline the three existing separate duties into a single equality duty. I hope that the legislation will apply that duty to any and all organisations that deliver public services and/or are substantially funded from the public purse, and that they will be required to act proactively to implement the new requirements. The new duty should provide for more citizen involvement to enable individuals to be active in holding public authorities to account. However, just as it is important for the new legislation to recognise the economic circumstances in which we live, it is also important to ensure that the new duty is feasible and not unduly burdensome on smaller public-sector organisations that are under enormous pressure to deliver cost efficiencies. However, that must not be allowed to be an excuse for not implementing the requirements of the new law. I hope we will monitor progress on that and will keep it at the forefront of our minds. Applying the duty to all organisations that provide a public service and/or receive substantial public funding should help address the vexed questions around the responsibilities of private-sector organisations that provide long-term care. I very much hope that the new law will also address the position of carers, who play a vital part in our society but who are frequently unjustly discriminated against. The ban on associated discrimination, together with this legislation, should improve their situation quite a lot. The commission is also looking for the legislation to strengthen the role of inspectorates to monitor the requirements of the law, following the excellent example of Northern Ireland. On positive action, the concept of allowing employers in all sectors to select a candidate from an underrepresented group in a tie-break is absolutely right. Indeed, I may go further and say that they should be required to take such action, but I believe that this is as far as one should go in this direction. I would be opposed to any requirement compelling employers to employ someone who was not the best candidate, merely because of an imbalance in the employee profile. The Children’s Society makes a very good point when it suggests that schools are an ideal place to promote awareness of equality policies. Perhaps the new law should build in a requirement to include equalities as a subject in the national curriculum. That would really be positive action. Perhaps the most important change which the Government propose relates to transparency. Some public sector organisations publish clear information about their progress on important equality issues, and I pay particular tribute to the Greater London Authority and its constituent organisations in this regard. Such transparency allows the proper monitoring of progress as well as the identification of best practice. Procurement can indeed be used as an effective lever to deliver public policy on equalities in the private sector. There is further scope to ensure compliance by requiring private sector organisations, of a size to be determined, to share meaningful statistical information on gender differences in pay and employment with employees, managers and shareholders. Firms should be compelled to explain any pay gap and the actions being taken to address it. Religion and belief need to be treated with the utmost respect, but in some ways differently from the other strands or domains that come under the remit of the Bill. In this, I agree with noble Lord, Lord Lester. The thresholds for incitement to hatred and harassment need to be higher because of the possible effect on freedom of speech. Religion and belief are also the only domain in which one person’s belief can be totally opposed to that of another person, particularly regarding sexual orientation and gender. We must also be mindful if someone abandons their religion or belief and is still subject to discrimination or hatred. This has evolved into a form of ethnic or racial hatred, for which the full force of the law must apply. As a nation, particularly today, we can be proud that 60 years ago, after the horrors of World War Two, this country, led by Sir Winston Churchill, was party to establishing the human rights convention. We need to ensure that the high ideals in this convention are fully integral to life in the UK today. As Eleanor Roosevelt, another of its founders, emphasised, human rights must apply not only to government or at the top level of society but in the smallest of places, such as the hospital ward and the care home, where respect for a person’s dignity must be upheld. The proposed equality Bill will build on what has already been achieved, and by putting new powers together with existing legislation in a single Act, it will make policy and the law easier to understand, implement and enforce. It must focus on outcomes, with measures that will enable its success to be measured against the real changes achieved in communities, public services and beyond. I end by quoting from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is the bedrock on which the equality legislation is built and which underlies all its messages: "““Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible … In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others””." That is the true meaning of equality in a democratic society.