Equality Bill

My Lords, I welcome very much the Government’s initiative to provide for claims of combined discrimination. Indeed, it has been welcomed by organisations representing disabled people. The organisations would also welcome some clarification that disability will always count as one single, protected characteristic with respect to claims of combined discrimination, in line with the Minister’s Answer to the Written Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Lester, on 19 October 2009. He asked whether, ""a person disabled by both physical and mental impairment should be treated as having one relevant protected characteristic ""if he alleges that he has been discriminated against because of a combination of those forms of impairment"." The noble Baroness, Lady Royall, replied: ""If a person is disabled by both physical and mental impairments, these impairments should be treated as the protected characteristic of disability with respect to any claims for discrimination that they may wish to make"." There is an element of uncertainty in this answer in that it begs the question whether the compositing of claims in respect of disability, which it envisages, is limited to the case where claims based on both physical and mental impairment are combined. The Minister concluded in more general terms by saying: ""Even though a single claim may involve a number of impairments, provided that the person met the definition of a disabled person … this would be treated as disability discrimination".—[Official Report, 19/10/09; cols. WA 38-39.]" This speaks in quite general terms of a number of impairments, without reference to whether they are physical or mental. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm on the record, when she replies, that all impairments or any combination of them, whether physical or mental, will be treated as the single protected characteristic of disability in claims for discrimination.