Equality Bill

My Lords, in moving Amendment 114ZB, I will also speak to the other amendments in our name. These amendments are in line with recommendations from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. I welcome the fact that the Minister tabled amendments on Friday which would meet with some of these recommendations and address most of the concerns raised by our amendments. Amendment 114ZB is tied into Schedule 18, which is about the public sector equality duty exceptions. Our amendment, following a recommendation by the DPRRC, would ensure that only primary legislation could amend the list of exemptions in this schedule with reference to judicial and parliamentary functions. We are very pleased that the Government have now accepted that there is no need to retain flexibility in this instance. Furthermore, perhaps there is a case for suggesting that it might be inappropriate for a Minister to be able to alter the exceptions relating to other organisations. Can the Minister clarify, for example, when there might be a case for removing the exemptions relating to the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service, the Government Communications Headquarters and part of the Armed Forces? Is there a specific need to retain the flexibility that regulations would allow, or does she agree that this sort of decision should be subject to primary legislation? Our second set of amendments in this group, Amendments 115A and 135AA, add a similar power which is awarded to Clause 150(1). This subsection would allow the Minister to update Schedule 19 to include or exclude different bodies. In accordance with the recommendations from the DPRRC we tabled Amendment 115A. It would exclude judicial and parliamentary bodies from the regulation by which amendments can be made to the schedule and so make them subject to the public sector equality duty. Amendment 135AA would mean that the reduced power would also be subject to affirmative resolution for greater scrutiny. We welcome the Government’s amendments which, like ours, are designed to meet this recommendation. I apologise; I have been editing my notes as a result of today’s events and I think that I have probably edited them too much. However, the government amendments retain the negative power for the changes that occur when an entry is removed just because it has ceased to exist, or because it has changed its name. That seems sensible. Have the Government had any response from the DPRRC about whether this would meet its concerns? It seems a critical factor in knowing what their response is. Furthermore, what consultation has occurred with the devolved Ministries about the changes to their powers here? I beg to move.