Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 175:"Page 28, line 17, leave out ““49”” and insert ““49(1), (2) and (5)””" The noble Baroness said: In moving government Amendment No. 175, I shall speak also to government Amendments Nos. 177 and 178. In doing so, I will resist Amendment No. 176 standing in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Lester of Herne Hill and Lord   Dholakia, with which they are grouped. The intention and effect of our amendments and Amendment No. 176 are very similar: essentially, they are that small-scale landlords as defined in Section 50 should not be able lawfully to harass occupiers or those applying to be occupiers of premises. In bringing forward the amendment, we are responding to the concerns of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. We believe that by making such harassment unlawful, while continuing to protect the right of the small landlord lawfully to discriminate in deciding to whom he will let his property, we are improving the balance of our proposals. No one will be obliged to share his home with or let it to someone whose beliefs are antipathetic to his own, and we continue to believe that that is right. Nor will he lawfully be able to harass an occupier or applicant on those grounds. That may mean that there is potential difficulty where the beliefs of one party to such an arrangement change, so that they feel harassed by something which formerly they accepted. But we are confident that in those circumstances the definition of harassment, and particularly Clause 47(3)(b) that contains a stipulation that action should only,"““be regarded as having that effect having regard to—""(a) B’s perception, and""(b) all the other circumstances””," means that our proposals allow for such circumstances to be resolved sensibly. I look forward to hearing what the noble Lord, Lord   Lester, has to say on Amendment No. 176. As I see it, in addition to what we have proposed, it would allow a person managing premises to harass an occupier, which would avoid the potential difficulty that I have just mentioned. Having considered that, as I have said, we have come to the view that our proposals offer adequate protection in that respect. For that reason, subject of course to the discussion that we will have, I ask the noble Lords, Lord Lester and Lord Dholakia, to reconsider Amendment No. 176.