Clause 54 - Instructing or causing discrimination
Equality Bill [Lords]
5:15 pm
Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
I look forward to further discussions about amendments that have not been tabled. It might help if I set out briefly what subsections (1), (2) and (3) cover.
Clearly, it is wrong to instruct someone to do an unlawful act—I do not think that anyone disputes that—and that is covered by subsection (1). It is also clearly wrong to cause someone to do an unlawful act; that, we believe, requires a significant degree of influence. It is clearly wrong for people to influence others in that way. That is covered by subsection (2). We say that persuading a person to do an unlawful act, even when one has no power to cause them to do so, is wrong, too. The distinctive aspect of subsection (3) is that it deals with the fact that a person need not have the power to make discrimination happen in order to encourage it. We should not allow people to encourage unlawful behaviour.
The hon. Gentleman may feel that we have gone in for overkill, but I think that we are making sure that every angle of the issue is covered. I would have thought that he would be enthusiastic to make sure that there were no loopholes through which people could wriggle. The provision is genuinely an attempt to eliminate the possibility of people influencing others to do unlawful things. Through the three measures that I have just set out, we seek to cover each and every angle, so that no one can escape the law.