Equality Bill

My Lords, I strongly support Amendment 101D moved by the noble Lord, Lord Low, which seeks to remove the Armed Forces exclusion from the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act. The noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, also very much wanted to support this amendment. As the noble Lord has said, the matter was strongly pressed when she was a member of the Disability Rights Task Force, but unfortunately, although she would have liked to be here, the hour has grown too late. The military has a narrow view of what constitutes disability. Perhaps I may expand on that. The military believes that all forces personnel must be fit to be deployed instantly to any part of the world and to be fully operational in whatever circumstances they happen to find themselves. Some people believe that inclusion in the DDA would mean that the military would have to consider blind soldiers, submariners in wheelchairs and so on. They have not grasped the concept of genuine occupational requirements. It is perfectly reasonable for the military to impose a fitness standard for new recruits and, providing that the standard can be justified, people who do not meet it could be rejected. The DDA permits this. However, the military has a blanket ban on disabled people. Everyone should be considered on their merits. It is worth noting that when Sir Bert Massie was chair of the Disability Rights Commission and spoke to military commanders, they were shocked to learn that facial disfigurement counted as a disability. Ironically, the many soldiers who have been burnt in the course of their duty would be protected if the military were subject to the DDA. When the Act was first passed, the uniformed police and the fire service were also excluded. They used the same defence that is now used by the Armed Forces. From 1 October 2004, the exemptions for the police and the fire service were abolished, and it is interesting to note that the performance of both has continued to improve. A recent report in the press showed that the Armed Forces were doing a great deal to retain soldiers who have been injured in Afghanistan. To a large extent, the military is already beginning to implement some of the principles of the DDA, and surely the exclusion of the military from the Act makes less and less sense as the years pass. I suspect that part of the anxiety within the military is the fear of appearing in civilian courts because of the belief that civilians cannot possibly understand the rigours of military life. This is the same belief that was applied to gender and race, but the military is now subject to the law regarding both; disability is still the exception. I urge noble Lords to think again about this exclusion anomaly and to support the amendment.