Equality Bill

My Lords, I turn to something which the noble Lord, Lord Alton, said when he was talking about the Jedi and candidates. I am accepting of this in principle, but the raw data are often not enough to change things. For example, I often had candidates who did not want to be categorised. They fiercely wanted to be Conservatives, which was all that they wanted to be. They did not want to be pigeon-holed anywhere. One could say that each party should have so many minority ethnic candidates, but quite often whether we are changing mainstream society and getting our candidates into mainstream seats is as important. To have candidates who are elected where there is a large minority ethnic community is not the same as getting minority ethnic candidates elected where there is a small minority ethnic community. These things are important as well. I am not sure that the raw data will give the whole picture. The Minister is right. Each party has to work on this unceasingly.