My Lords, I rise to support Amendment 21 in the name of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth. I fully support the requirement in the amendment to report on the impact on family relationships and functioning, for the reasons that have been articulated in the debates we have been having this evening. Until now we have not discussed in any detail the impact on faith communities, so I am going to concentrate on that.
As we have heard, larger families are strongly prevalent within some faith traditions and cultures, which leads to legitimate concerns about the differential ways this policy will be felt throughout society. There is an issue of equality for children born into families of faith. This measure will disproportionately affect families where, perhaps because of the parents’ faith, there is a devout desire to avoid contraception and abortion. As we have heard and discussed this evening, family planning is not infallible and many people of faith and other like-minded people are concerned that unexpected pregnancies could lead to a rise in the number of abortions. This point was made by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth earlier.
As my noble friend Lady Lister pointed out, the most damning evidence about the differential impact of this measure on equality grounds comes from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. I declare an interest, in that I am a former commissioner of EHRC. It says:
“The proposed changes may have a disproportionate negative impact on people from particular ethnic or religious groups … The impact assessments and human rights memorandum which
accompany the Bill do not assess the effect of the Bill on equality and human rights in sufficient detail to enable proper scrutiny of the legislation”.
It is not kidding.
Disgracefully, the Government have resisted all pressures to conduct cumulative impact assessments of these measures, giving impact assessments only for individual measures. Even within that, however, I was staggered to find that there had been no attempt to conduct an equality impact assessment on the two-child policy. The short section in the IA on the impact on protected groups mentions gender and disability in passing, acknowledges that ethnic minority households may be more likely to be impacted, though offers no detail, but makes no reference at all to the protected characteristic of religion and belief. Can the Minister explain why there is no such reference, when even a cursory glance at the data suggests the possibility for significantly differential impacts on the grounds of some protected characteristics, particularly religion and belief?
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Since the impact assessment did not tell us, we can look at the 2011 census data, which indicate that Muslim and Jewish families are the religious groups with the largest number of families with three-plus children. On average, the figure is 31%; among Jewish families it is 52%; among Muslims 60%; and among Christians 28%. The EHRC points out that this may put the Government at risk of breaching Articles 2 and 5(e)(iv) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The commission goes on to note the point made by my noble friend Lady Lister that Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 imposes a public sector equality duty requiring government departments and Ministers to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations—the three aims of the PSED. This is an ongoing duty that applies throughout the policy-making process, from the development of options and draft proposals through to legislation and implementation.
The EHRC wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions asking him how the DWP planned to improve its analysis, and offering its help. In his response, the Secretary of State simply said that the Government had used,
“the most robust analysis available to give a good assessment of … the impacts of the reforms”,
contained in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. As the EHRC points out, though, the DWP analysis fails to demonstrate proper consideration of the effect of Clauses 11 and 12 on any of the three aims of the public sector duty. Nor is it clear how the impact of the proposals will be monitored and tackled if adverse impact is identified during implementation. This point was behind the amendment tabled by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth.
The EHRC analysis suggests that this policy,
“could have an adverse impact on some religious groups, in particular those for whom family planning may be against their religious teachings. This may mean that children in some religious communities are more likely to be brought up in poverty”.
The commission’s conclusion is stark:
“Until the Government shows that it has properly considered the potential impact of these proposals on equality, and how any adverse effects can be mitigated, as required by section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, we recommend that Parliamentarians vote to oppose the Question that Clauses 11 and 12 stand part of the Bill”.
That is a very serious position to be taken by a statutory body such as the EHRC.
I have two simple questions for the Minister. First, why did the Government make no attempt to analyse the impact on the grounds of religion and belief, as they are required to do—or, if they did, why was it not published, as my noble friend asked? Secondly, why did the Secretary of State fail to respond to the EHRC when it pointed out the deficiencies of his department’s analysis and offered to help?
Given the above, I hope that at the very least the Minister will accept the amendment and show good faith, at this late stage, so that at least the Government can monitor the impact on faith communities.