Clause 10
Equality Bill
11:45 am
Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
I was going to through the example that I gave. It may be argued by some people that someone cannot be of the religion, criteria having been set on that, if they are gay. That is basically what I am saying. For example, there is a provision in the Bill, which I think we all support, whereby a religious test could be required for some employment. The definition of religion is given in the Bill. Prospective and actual employers might be under the impression that they can say, “This person does not practise the right sort of religion.” I do not want to name any particular religions, because it gets invidious, but I fear that I may have to.
Let us take Catholicism as an example—I do not say that this occurs, but one can see how it might. Such an employer would say that someone has to be a Catholic in order to work for them. That person might indeed be a Catholic but, if they are gay, it could be the view of the employer that they do not fulfil a religious criterion because orthodoxy in that religion—Catholicism might not be a good example—cannot include someone who is gay or, more frequently, expresses a sexual orientation that by definition leads them to be outside the religion. An amendment that we will come to later deals with that. So a potential employer will say, as they have in briefings to this Committee, that they do not seek to discriminate against people who are gay, but that they want to be able to discriminate against people who have gay sex.
John Masonrose—