Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 213:"Page 43, line 30, at end insert ““or sexual harassment””" The noble Lord said: We have moved to Part 3 of the Bill. The purpose of these amendments is to include sexual harassment as well as sex discrimination in relation to the duty. This is all very technical, but I shall deal with it in a non-technical way. The EU equal treatment directive covers sexual harassment as well as sex discrimination. Unfortunately, the Law Lords decided in their great wisdom in a case called Pearce that sexual harassment was only included within the Sex Discrimination Act if it was in fact sex discrimination. They did not recognise the separate concept of sexual harassment. Such a concept had been recognised, for example by a Scottish Court of Session in a case called Porcelli, but that did not find favour with the Law Lords. I understand the position is that the Government are to implement the directive in equal treatment regulations that are now in draft and are due to come into force in October. In that case, Council Directive 2000/78/EC will be implemented by the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005. When that happens, the Minister will be able to tell us that these amendments will not be necessary because harassment and sexual harassment will be included within the scope of the legislation. As I am sure the Minister knows, the problem is that the Equal Opportunities Commission has criticised the draft regulations for not going sufficiently far to implement the directive. I shall not go into all the reasons now, but for example the regulations talk of harassment being on the ground of sex. The EOC says that those words are not found in the directive. The regulations also refer to something being,"““reasonably considered as having an effect””." The commission states that the directive does not do that. It is worried that if one were to take the draft regulations as they stand, they will not properly implement the directive. My first question is this: are my amendments necessary in order to include sexual harassment in Part   3? I think that the answer should be ““yes””, but it may also be, ““but not before Royal Assent because it will be dealt with in the regulations””. In that case, my second question will be: are the regulations now in draft form good enough? Do they properly implement the directive? An answer needs to be given, but not necessarily this evening. I beg to move.