Clause 51 - Public authorities: general
Equality Bill [Lords]
12:45 pm
Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman’s remarks fall into two broad groups. The first is the definition of “public authority”. That has already been debated extensively in another place and will, I am sure, be discussed further in Committee. I draw his attention—although I know that I do not need to—to subsection (2)(a), which defines a public authority as one that
“includes any person who has functions of a public nature”.
Organisations such as local authorities, which are established with a specific public remit, would clearly be regarded as public authorities.
The hon. Gentleman’s question begins to press when he asks whether other groups that may not naturally be regarded as public authorities may on certain occasions be public authorities for the purpose of the law and their responsibilities. That pertains particularly to the question of religious organisations. Would a faith group, for example, be regarded as a public authority? It would not be regarded as a public authority in itself, but a parish group or a faith group that had a contract with a local authority to provide a particular public service because it fitted the local authority’s aims and objectives and accorded with its social objectives, perhaps to provide support to young families or young children, would, in exercising its function as part of the contract, act as a public authority and have the obligations that a public authority would have.