Clause 51 seeks to repeal a number of provisions in the Equality Act 2006. I am puzzled by the clause, because most of the provisions that it seeks to repeal have nothing to do with the regulatory burden on business. As was pointed out by my hon. Friend the Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock (Sandra Osborne), in repealing the good relations and general duty provisions that currently apply to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, we will make no difference to business directly, but will change the context and undermine the equalities philosophy which I believe is important for a successful economic recovery. I shall say more about that in a moment.
Elsewhere, through changes in regulations, the Government are directly attacking some of the principles that protect employees and guarantee labour market equality. They are consulting on proposals that have resulted from the red tape challenge: proposals to remove employer responsibility for third-party harassment, to ensure that decisions by employment tribunals will no longer apply to all employees, and to remove the use of the statutory questionnaire. When I asked the Secretary of State about those proposals earlier this evening, he seemed to say categorically that none of them would appear in the Bill. We will hold him to that, because watering down equalities legislation is certainly not a recipe for economic growth. On the contrary, labour market justice and fair access for all to employment opportunities are a prerequisite, not a problem, for economic success. An unequal recovery which fails to make the most of everyone’s talents and take steps that encourage and support employee loyalty, and which therefore fails to stimulate productivity, is no recovery at all.
I am sorry that the Government have missed an opportunity to link—proactively, ambitiously and imaginatively—labour market justice with economic success in an explicit way. The Bill could have included measures to improve employment opportunity and labour market justice. Measures that tackle occupational segregation and introduce the anonymising of application processes have been shown to improve access to the labour market, yet there is no sign of any such provisions. The Government also have a social mobility strategy that they are supposed to be promoting, but that, too, is in no way reflected here, or even mentioned.
The Bill presents an opportunity to create the conditions for an equal, not an unequal, recovery—a recovery that promotes, supports and makes use of the talents and contributions of all. I regret that the Secretary of State has thus far failed to take that opportunity, but he still has time to correct the omission. I say to the Government that if Ministers do not bring forward amendments to create the genuine conditions for economic recovery and equal opportunity in the labour market during the passage of the Bill, we most certainly will.
9.16 pm