Equality Bill

My Lords, we too have edited our notes down. I am just reading through them and cannot see any reference to one of the noble Baroness’s amendments. I am hoping that somebody will send me a note about it. I am going to speak to government Amendments 114ZC, 115ZA, 135AB, 136ZZD, 136ZZE, 136ZAA, 136ZAB, 136ZAD, 136ZAE, 136ZAF, 136ZCA, 136ZCB and 136ZCD, which reflect the recommendations made in paragraphs 11 and 13 of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee’s third report of Session 2009-10. I shall speak first to government Amendment 114ZC. This seeks to achieve the same aim as the noble Baroness’s Amendment 114ZB, in response to the committee’s question whether it would be appropriate for the exceptions to the equality duty relating to judicial functions or those relating to parliamentary bodies to be removed or limited by statutory instrument. This amendment limits the power in paragraph 5 of Schedule 18 so that it cannot be used to remove these exceptions from Schedule 18. Primary legislation would therefore be required to remove or limit these exceptions. While there is no difference between the intentions of the noble Baroness’s amendment and this one, we think that the wording of our amendment provides more precise clarification. Government Amendment 115ZA reflects the committee’s recommendation that the power in Clause 150 to amend the list of public bodies subject to the duty, as referred to by the noble Baroness, should not be capable of listing the judicial and parliamentary bodies that are currently excluded from the scope of the duty by Schedule 18. The intention behind this amendment is the same as that behind Amendment 115A, which the noble Baroness spoke to. Again, however, we think that our wording provides greater clarity on this important matter. I turn now to Amendment 135AB, which reflects the recommendation made in paragraph 11 that the power in Clause 150 should be subject to the affirmative procedure. The amendment is seeking the affirmative procedure to apply to the power to make changes to the list of bodies subject to the equality duty, except where we simply want to amend the entry for a body whose name may have changed or where a body is removed because it ceases to exist. We think that it will be more appropriate for the negative procedure to apply in these particular cases. To have to use the affirmative procedure for such minor issues is likely to be a waste of valuable parliamentary time. Of course, if Parliament wishes to debate any use of this power, it can still choose to do so by praying against a negative resolution order. The noble Baroness asked about removing exemptions on organisations such as security services, Armed Forces and so on. We are retaining a measure of flexibility because those organisations are susceptible to change and because they could change their names or merge. Amendment 135AA—this was missing from my notes—would delete what the Government have proposed and our Amendment 135AB would amend it. Amendments 136ZZD, 136ZZE, 136ZAA, 136ZAB, 136ZAD, 136ZAE, 136ZAF, 136ZCA, 136ZCB and 136ZCD ensure consistency with the Welsh and Scottish Ministers. I therefore invite the noble Baroness not to move Amendment 135AA.