Clause 8 - Equality and diversity
Equality Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Meg Munn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Sheffield, Heeley, Labour)
The clause sets out the first of the core duties of the new commission. The aim is to ensure that the Commission for Equality and Human Rights is fit for purpose for modern Britain and to provide the commission with flexibility and responsiveness, while making clear its unique duties under the equality enactments. One of the key reasons for establishing the commission was the need to deliver institutional arrangements capable of responding to the challenges of future years. Already, our existing system has reached the limits of what it can achieve. We have three commissions for three areas of equality law: disability, gender and race. However, there is nothing for other areas of equality law: sexual orientation, age—when that is enacted—and religion or belief.
We have a more sophisticated understanding of concepts such as equality and diversity today. By equality, we mean equal treatment or opportunity for two people who can be compared on grounds of, say, race or gender. Diversity, on the other hand, borrows from human rights principles. It recognises the sometimes unique needs of individuals and when fair opportunity or treatment cannot be determined through comparison with another individual. We believe that both equality and diversity have a legitimate place in the range of duties of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
In requiring the new commission to promote equality and diversity, in subsection (1)(a), and to
“encourage good practice in relation to equality and diversity”,
in subsection (1)(b), we have provided it with the scope to address and respond to new or emerging equality or diversity issues. Equality and diversity, in that respect, are not defined with reference to existing discrimination statutes, but can include areas not yet regulated by statute.
The commission is also required to promote equality of opportunity. The duty in subsection (1)(c) reflects the provisions in existing anti-discrimination legislation and particularly the public sector duties. It is not limited to the six equality strands and, together with the equality and diversity elements of the clause, it will enable the commission to encourage good practice in specific areas where legislation does not render practices unlawful. For example, it may promote equal treatment for all, regardless of sexual orientation, in the provision of goods, facilities and services.
Subsection (1)(d) places a duty on the commission to raise awareness and promote understanding of the provisions of the equality enactments and, in particular, of the rights available to individuals under them. In that way, the commission will be able to provide information and advice through a variety of media to individuals and organisations.
Subsection (1)(e) places a duty on the CEHR to use its unique enforcement mechanisms to encourage the equality enactments. Elsewhere in the Bill, we have provided the commission with a more flexible range of powers than are available to the existing commissions in order to enable it to carry out its enforcement duties. The commission is required to work towards eliminating unlawful discrimination, under subsection (1)(f), and unlawful harassment, under subsection (1)(g), as defined in the equality enactments.
Subsection (2) defines terms used in the clause. Of particular note are the definitions of diversity and equality. Diversity means recognising that each individual is different and that specific action may be required to achieve equality. Equality, on the other hand, means recognising that groups of individuals may experience different treatment when compared with other individuals because of particular attributes that they have and that this comparison may define the action necessary to achieve equality.
Subsection (3) provides that the commission may
“promote the favourable treatment of disabled persons.”
That recognises that the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 is alone among our anti-discrimination laws in that it requires action to be taken for disabled people in order to tackle inequality. It requires bodies to make reasonable adjustments. Subsection (4) defines the term “disabled person” for the purposes of part 1 of the Bill by referring to the definition of disability in part 1 of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Taken together, the provisions of the clause set out one of the core duties of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights: to drive efforts to ensure equality and diversity are embedded in the fabric of our workplaces, our economy and our communities.