Clause 49 - Section 48: exceptions
Equality Bill [Lords]
12:00 pm
Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
I begin by thanking the hon. Gentleman for the constructive tone in which he has introduced his amendments. I shall explain in a moment why the Government oppose them, but he has well known views in this area, and he has applied his mind in a very focused way to the particular issues in hand. I am not aware of any particular reason why the Government’s response to the report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights would not have been appropriate. My hon. Friend the Minister for Women and Equality and I will look into why there was no response, and will come back to the hon. Gentleman and other members of the Committee on that subject in due course.
The report examined the wider question of the potential exemption of faith schools in general from the protection of this legislation, which is rather different from the kind of exclusion to which the hon. Gentleman has referred in his amendments. He will forgive me for being slightly pedantic about the phrase that he used about the harassment provisions, but the Government did not “remove” those provisions from the Bill. They were removed by his hon. Friends and hon. Members on the Conservative Benches, against the better judgment of the Government. However, we have concluded that it would be better for that matter to go before the discrimination law review and, we hope, for us to achieve a consensus on the way forward.
Amendment No. 155 would clearly confine the curriculum exception to religious instruction and religious education, and amendment No. 153 would not exempt action related to the curriculum or to religious worship that could be regarded as subjecting a pupil to detriment. If either or both amendments were accepted, that would allow claims of discrimination about aspects of the curriculum when the curriculum is broad, fair and well balanced. The provisions are in place to protect the curriculum.
We do not believe that the concept of individual rights should be used by those who may not agree with particular aspects of the curriculum in our schools as a means of challenging existing school policies of inclusiveness and diversity in the curriculum that are set out in statute. The Education Act 2002 provides for a basic curriculum that every maintained school is required to follow. There would be considerable concern if there were a suggestion that the way in which dancing, singing, music, physical education or even science lessons were taught should be changed to avoid challenge on the grounds of the religion or belief of certain children or their parents. That would clearly be unacceptable. However, such challenges would be permitted if the amendments were accepted.