Equality Bill

My Lords, I was sorry to hear the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, suggest that the clause was "writ in water" if it was not legally enforceable by some individual. It followed, I suppose, my noble friend Lord Morris of Handsworth, who said that he was disappointed that there was a lack of legal enforceability in this clause. Of course, they are absolutely right, but that is by no means unprecedented. It has been a common situation and the clause, if it is useful, should not be removed simply because it is not enforceable by an individual in a court of law. In the several parts of Clause 1, a number of institutions are mentioned, particularly local authorities, which are democratically responsible through councillors to the general public. The local press will or may be interested on behalf of the public in whether a local authority that is listed follows the instructions of Parliament—I call them instructions deliberately to be strong about this matter—that may not be legally enforceable by individual court actions but are intended to mean something. Doubts have been expressed as to the precise meaning of this clause with reference to socio-economic inequalities. There have been interesting aspects to the debate on that issue. However, the clause is completely supported by precedent. I recall that, years ago when various industries were taken into public ownership, Clause 1 would invariably say something like this—I will quote from the Bill establishing the Central Electricity Generating Board: ""The CEGB’s principal duty is to develop and maintain an efficient, co-ordinated and economical supply of electricity"." Almost all these Acts had a clause of that kind, which was meant to be an aspiration and a target, not something that was legally enforceable by criminal or civil action. The clause was sometimes referred to by lawyers—it is not a bad phrase just because it comes from a lawyer—as "a duty of imperfect obligation". It indicates to the bodies themselves—in this case they are listed in the clause—and to the people to whom they are responsible, that the clause means something.