Clause 51 - Public authorities: general
Equality Bill [Lords]
12:45 pm
Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General, (Assist the Home Affairs Team); Beaconsfield, Conservative)
I hear what the Minister says. There may be a certain inevitability to it, and I do not intend to press the amendment to the vote. However, there is something slightly odd about this. When we introduced employment protection, we made special provision for the security services, enabling people to bring complaints about unfair dismissal and discrimination within their organisations. I think that that has worked well. I appreciate that this is a difficult matter, but the extent of discrimination in the field to which this measure could apply seems very wide. Is that necessary, when it could be dealt with on a national security basis? Notwithstanding what the Minister said, subsection (3) extends beyond that consideration, otherwise it would have spelled it out explicitly.
The matter having been ventilated, I shall go away and think about it. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.