Equality Bill

My Lords, the Government have done something splendid in moving beyond the old discrimination law. Old discrimination law on direct discrimination went something like this: if I went into a pub with someone who was black and I was rejected because of my association with that person, that would be discrimination on racial grounds—in other words, it would be because of my association with my black friend—or if went into a pub and I was thought to be black when I was not and I was discriminated against for that reason, again I would have a remedy under the old Race Relations Act. But because of the way in which the Sex Discrimination Act was structured, a woman or man had to show that the discrimination was on the ground of her sex, not on the ground of an association with someone else. What the Government have done is admirable. They have produced a more general and less cramped test of causation—to use that legal word. The test is whether the less favourable treatment is because of a protected characteristic. Later we will have a debate about "on the grounds of" and "because of". But that does not matter. My point is that the noble Lord, Lord Ouseley, is correct in saying that his amendment is not radical and does not significantly changes the law. We can decide after we have heard the Minister whether or not we need language to spell it out. The substance of the amendments is correct. I entirely agree with the noble Lord, Lord Low, on what he said about disability discrimination.