Equality Bill

My Lords, I hear what my noble friend has said and the best thing for me to do would be to respond to him in writing. I return to the amendment from my noble friend. I would agree with her aim of encouraging further increases in employment among the over-50s, however I am not convinced the proposal would achieve this. First, we must remember that age discrimination does not only affect older people. The Fair Treatment at Work Survey 2008, which gathered comprehensive data on perceived unfair treatment in the workplace, showed that 17 per cent of 16 to 24 year-olds believed that they had been treated unfairly at work compared with 11 per cent of those aged 50 and over. Requiring businesses to have particular regard to the number of over-50s they employ could risk unfairly disadvantaging the young. Secondly, particular firms or industries may have different age profiles, not because employers are acting in a discriminatory fashion, but because the work involved is more attractive to older or younger workers or perhaps because of the nature of the work itself. We must of course challenge outmoded stereotypes, but businesses are themselves diverse, and there may well be legitimate reasons for them to have varying age profiles. Thirdly, a reporting requirement on businesses will inevitably create additional costs. One could draw an analogy here with gender pay reporting, but the rationale for that policy rests on a very long-standing piece of law, the Equal Pay Act 1970. The EHRC has been working closely with business representative groups to develop voluntary reporting measures as outlined last week and we have said that we will consider introducing a statutory reporting requirement only if this does not happen voluntarily. The clear rationale, engagement with stakeholders and fully mapped-out process which exist for gender pay reporting do not exist for my noble friend’s proposal and I am, therefore, unable to support it. I ask my noble friend not to move her amendment.