Clause 56 - Organisations relating to religion or belief
Equality Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
I shall think carefully about and reflect on the comments made by the hon. Gentleman. I understand that a great deal of effort has gone into ensuring that wherever possible the legislation before us is consistent with the different pieces of legislation covering different areas of discrimination, whether employment or race relations.
Many propositions in the clauses that we have discussed today are transposed from other legislation from other areas, so if the hon. Gentleman is raising a potential contradiction, I should need to study it carefully. However, I understand that in order to be practical, all provisions have been brought together as comprehensively as possible. I promise the hon. Gentleman that I shall consider his point carefully.
A second difficulty and complexity that the hon. Gentleman adds is that the belief or view must be strongly held. How would anybody assess whether the view was strongly held?
Most interestingly of all, the third complexity is that, in the example I gave, the view must be held by a significant number of Christians. How many Christians should one have to consult? Those that belonged to that particular church, the whole diocese, the rest of the country, the global Church? There is no definition of how one should assess what is a significant number of Christians.
Keeping the provision as a test of causing offence makes matters clear and simple, makes them work in practice and, again, helps to strike the balance between principle and practicality.