Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 169A:"After Clause 45, insert the following new clause—"    ““AGE    In this Part ““age”” refers to a person’s chronological age, or to a group of persons of similar chronological age to which a person is presumed to belong.”” The noble Baroness said: In moving Amendment No.   169A, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 171A, 173B, 212V and 213A. These amendments extend protection from discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the grounds of age, marital status and transgender status. They are probing amendments to ask the Government to commit themselves to getting rid of the hierarchy of protection that exists. I know that there will have to be some exceptions. I am fully aware of that. This is a very complex issue, but I want to make sure that the commitment is there. I do not intend to move Amendment No. 173B. The Equality Bill will protect people from discrimination in these fields on the grounds of religion or belief. There is already protection on the grounds of race, gender or disability. But those who face similar discrimination on the grounds of their age, sexual orientation or transgender status do not receive protection. The Equality and Diversity Forum, with which I agree, urges the Government to harmonise this legislation across all strands so that people, whatever their characteristics or type of discrimination they face in, for example, healthcare, would receive the same protection. In introducing this legislation, it would be very unfair to leave people out because they do not comply with one strand but do with others. The amendment levels up the protection offered to all groups. It is in line with the commission’s overall aim of tackling equality and diversity per se. We want to see well-thought-out legislation that will protect legitimate benefits or concessions, as I said at Second Reading. The forum welcomed the Labour Party manifesto commitment to a single equality Bill, the establishment of the discrimination law review and the Government’s acknowledgement that more needs to be done to tackle ageism in financial services. But we do not know what the timetable for change will be and some action is needed urgently. So we hope that the single Equality Act, which presumably is where that legislation might lie, will be brought to Parliament as quickly as possible and, I hope, before the next Queen’s Speech. In the field of age discrimination, which is the area that I am most interested in, current plans for legislation will extend only to discrimination, employment and training. However, evidence gathered by these amendments is intended to create the level playing field that I mentioned. We would like to see the Government use this Bill as an opportunity to outline their intention to introduce protection in the provision of goods, facilities and services. So we need a clear statement of intend from the Government. Help the Aged and Age Concern, among others, show that older people face discrimination in many areas, including social care, housing and hospital treatment, as well as with many commercial services. The forum believes that that is unacceptable and that   older people are not protected from such discrimination. It is worrying that those who have changed their gender seem also not to be protected. There are no express provisions prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of gender reassignment in the other fields covered by the Sex Discrimination Act. So a member of the transgender community could claim discrimination under the SDA if he is refused a job, or sacked because of his transgender status, but if, for example, he is refused access to a hotel room or a drink in the pub there is currently no protection under the law. I know that amendments being proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Alli, and supported by Stonewall, will be aimed at bringing in legislation around sexual orientation. Those amendments cover the remaining two strands not currently protected by law. So, we would like to see the Government outlining their intention to introduce protection against discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services, with a clear statement of intend to tackle this issue, and with the recognition that there will be exceptions and that a lot of further work needs to be done in those areas. I beg to move.