Clause 12
Equality Bill
4:00 pm
Mark Harper (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Forest of Dean, Conservative)
It is good to see you in the Chair this afternoon, Lady Winterton. You missed our exciting debate on this very subject this morning. We, however, did not, so I will be brief.
The only point that I would like to make at this stage is that, as we did this morning, we appear to have quickly moved on to schedule 9, which we will debate in due course. I will only mention it briefly, Lady Winterton, so as not to test your patience. It seems to me that all the points that the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon has made, most of which I do not agree with, we can debate when we get to schedule 9; we can debate paragraphs 2 and 3 of that and the extent to which organisations can do the various things that he is suggesting they can. It seems that, under both this clause and the previous one, he is trying to pre-empt that debate and to set down much wider conditions than are necessary for this case.