Clause 4
Equality Bill
2:45 pm
An amendment to outlaw discrimination on the basis of a person’s genetics or family medical history.
I rise to speak to the amendment standing in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green. It relates to the suggestion that there should be an additional protected characteristic—specifically that of genetic information, including family history—to protect those who might suffer from genetic discrimination.
The Committee will know that the matter is a live issue these days not only in this country, but in the United States. It was the subject of consultation in the discrimination law review, the issue being that those who are genetically susceptible to a condition might be discriminated against in the provision of insurance in a way that really damages their life chances. Insurance is just one way, but it is the most well known.
We are talking about genetic predisposition, and such people do not get the coverage of the disability protected characteristic. They would be pre-symptomatic. They would not be exhibiting symptoms. Indeed, they would not yet have the condition, but the likelihood might be such that it was significant enough to worry those doing actuarial calculations on behalf of insurers and would deny such people insurance and leave them to be discriminated against. Moreover, they could be discriminated against if the information became available in respect of applications for work, as employers might not want to take on someone whom they considered possibly being at high risk of not being able to continue at work indefinitely or for a specific time.
The matter was subject to consultation and the Human Genetics Commission, which the Government set up to advise them on
“new developments in human genetics and their influence on individual lives, with a particular focus on social, ethical and legal implications”,
responded to the discrimination law review, arguing that discrimination on the grounds of genetic information should indeed be prohibited. I shall take the Committee through some of its reasons for making that decision because it is important that we recognise the strength of the case for such grounds to be included in the Bill.
The commission said:
“Unfair discriminatory treatment of groups or individuals on grounds of genetic difference is unacceptable”.
We could say that using the adjective “unfair” means that it is automatic that we would describe something that is unacceptable as unacceptable. However, I can say more than that: there is a public interest in ensuring that, rather than creating a group of people about whom it might be argued that it is justifiable to discriminate against them on narrow or even broad actuarial grounds, it is wrong to allow the development of a group of people—a genetic underclass—who are not able to get insurance or find it difficult to get employment. The alternative is that we could ban the discrimination and share the risk on those actuarial calculations of insurance, for example.