Equality Bill [HL]

My view is that all those areas of unfair treatment ought to be covered in a single Equality Bill. I spent four years with Professor Sir Robert Hepple and others seeking to produce such a Bill, which was approved by this House but died in the other place. So I have no doubt that the object of the amendment should be pursued. In a sense, the Government have made difficulties for themselves by including Part 2. It would have been wiser not to include religious discrimination at all, but there are obvious political reasons why that particular form of unfair discrimination was regarded as pressing. But by including Part 2, there is immediately the powerful argument from everyone else who is not covered in relation to goods, facilities and services: ““What about these other strands?””. There are no good reasons, other than technical reasons and lack of parliamentary time, why those other strands should not be included. Some of those strands would be technically easier to include than others. Gender reassignment would not be technically difficult to include; marital status would not be difficult. Age would be more difficult, especially, as we will find later, in the area of employment. There is   also a powerful case to include sexual orientation discrimination, which we will consider later. I entirely liked the way that the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, moved the amendment—a moderate and probing way. If ways can be found of including in the Bill some of the simpler examples in addition to religion—I am talking not about politics but about technique, drafting and getting it right—for marital status and gender reassignment, so much the better. If that cannot be done—no doubt the Minister will explain to us, now or hereafter, if that is the case—the Committee would need firm assurance that the discrimination law review, to which we all look forward, will lead to a Bill that one way or another covers all the   main forms of unfair treatment that we call discrimination, and that that will be introduced during the lifetime of this Government.