Equality Bill [HL]

I am now in the happy position that I have at last given pleasure to the noble Lord, Lord Lester, and have given dissatisfaction to the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, which she knows most people in this House, on all Benches, have difficulty with. Let me deal with the difference between the definition that we propose in Part 2 of the Bill and the definition that currently exists in the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations. The difference, as Amendments Nos. 169 and 211 highlight, is that we have removed the word ““similar””, as the noble Baroness correctly identified, from the definition of ““belief””. It now reads,"““any religious or philosophical belief””," rather than, as in the regulations,"““any religious or similar philosophical belief””." I assure the noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Lester, that there is no sinister motive in that. The intention behind the wording in Part 2 is identical to that in the employment regulations. However, in drafting Part 2, it was felt that the word ““similar”” added nothing and was, therefore, redundant. This is because the term ““philosophical belief”” will take its meaning from the context in which it appears; that is, as part of the legislation relating to discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief. Given that context, philosophical beliefs must therefore always be of a similar nature to religious beliefs. It will be for the courts to decide what constitutes a belief for the purposes of Part 2 of the Bill, but case law suggests that any philosophical belief must attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance, must be worthy of respect in a democratic society and must not be incompatible with human dignity. Therefore an example of a belief that might meet this description is humanism, and examples of something that might not—I hope I do not give any offence to anyone present in the Chamber—would be support of a political party or a belief in the supreme nature of the Jedi Knights. I hope that this provides some assurance on the change of definition of ““religion or belief”” that we have adopted and I hope that the noble Baroness will therefore feel content to withdraw the amendment.