UK Parliament / Open data

Equality Bill

Proceeding contribution from Lord Howard of Lympne (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 2 December 2009. It occurred during Debate on bills on Equality Bill.
Alas, the Solicitor-General is not prepared to help the House in that way, so I fear I must continue. Very many of my constituents' jobs depend on the continuing success of Saga. That continuing success is called into question by the provisions of the Bill as it stands. Saga has built its highly successful business on niche marketing and exclusively servicing the needs of people aged 50 and over. Last year it provided a range of services to some 2.7 million people. Its robust and highly popular brand is based on trust, quality, dependability and value for older people. It focuses on understanding and then designing bespoke services to meet the changing needs and demands of its target market of people aged over 50 in the UK, a demographic group consisting of about half the electorate, and forecast to grow from 21 million today to 25 million by 2020. It does not design or market products and services to other age groups. Saga, of course, welcomes the principles behind the Bill, as do I, and supports the measures to combat unfair discrimination that denies people the ability to live life to the full, but as I say, the Bill as it stands risks negatively affecting its customers' ability to buy the holidays that they want and the financial and other services that they need at a competitive price. Although I refer in these remarks to Saga, I have no doubt that other companies will suffer in a similar fashion if the Bill is not amended or secondary legislation is not introduced. Saga's insurance business, for example, if forced to offer premiums to all age groups, would become less competitive for the over-50s because they would have to bear the extra costs of quotations for the under-50s. Understanding older savers means that Saga can offer better terms. Its holiday business currently serves only the over-50s, and the popularity and enjoyment of its holidays depends in part on their being exclusive to the over-50s, rather than open to all age groups. Specialist advice services for long-term care funding and other services such as Saga Independent Living, which offers home care services, provide relevant and targeted training for staff that concentrates on the particular needs of elderly clients, such as special dementia training. It could not offer the service to all age groups without impairing the bespoke and tailored service that it has developed. Research suggests—I will not go into the details of the research, although I have it available—that people are perfectly happy for there to be special offers and products tailored for particular age groups, such as discounted tickets for cinema or leisure facilities, cheap days at DIY stores, concessionary rates for hairdressing and so on. Indeed, the Government themselves seem to follow those principles. The enhanced ISA allowances for older people in the 2009 Budget, and public transport travel concessions such as the national free bus pass and the older person's or younger person's railcard bear witness to the fact that the principle is accepted by Government themselves. In their Green Paper the Government responded to the points put by Saga in the consultation exercise by setting out three tests for any legislation on age discrimination. They said that""it must be a proportionate response to a real problem and not create unnecessary burdens on the private, public or voluntary sectors;""it must not have the unintended consequence of prohibiting positive benefits for either younger or older people, such as youth clubs or clubs for older people, holidays catering for people of particular ages, or concessions and discounts which help younger or older people;"" and""it must pass a 'common sense' test."" The Green Paper sensibly and specifically accepted the desirability of niche marketing. It said:""There will always be a need for age-specific facilities and services."" Indeed, it said—[Interruption.] I am very happy to give way to the Solicitor-General, because she looks as though she is about to rise.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
501 c1201-2 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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