Clause 1 - Exclusion of candidate selection from 1975 act
Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Bill
10:45 am
Mr Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I rise to support the amendment moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead. She explained well the concern that gave rise to the group of amendments, with which I very much agree. In removing the selection of candidates for various offices from the field of employment discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, we risk re-importing an opportunity for people to commit discriminatory acts that otherwise would have been regarded as unlawful, particularly given how the law has developed during the past 25 years.
In particular, we must ensure that some of the guidance that is given to constituencies, certainly in the case of the Conservative party, can be retained and strengthened while ensuring that it remains consistent with the law. The risk is that otherwise we could not refer to discrimination law in such guidance. The rules and best practice for the selection of candidates published by the Conservative party contain a substantive reference to discrimination law in section 10, even though they might not have been entirely satisfactory in their application. The intention is to deliver the non-discriminatory approach in selection committees referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead.
As has been referred to elsewhere, it is important to note that Conservative party selection committees often see candidates at an initial stage and perhaps at a second stage, but the decision is made by all members of three months' standing at a special general meeting. That is unusual. We are not, as would be the case in normal employment practice, dealing with people who are experienced in undertaking employment selection, or with a small number of people who could be trained. We are potentially dealing with the whole membership of a Conservative constituency association, many of whom will have had no previous experience of selection and who come to it with their own views and, inevitably, prejudices. It is therefore important that we do not simply have the ability to retain the present guidance, whose cutting edge is to try to achieve non-discrimination in the forms and administration of the process, the questions asked of candidates and the way in which candidates are presented to committees. We must also be able to take action to remove discriminatory questions at general meetings of Conservative associations, which decide the selection of candidates. If the Bill is not amended as my hon. Friend proposes, we may lose the opportunity to prescribe to Conservative associations the questions that cannot be asked.