Clause 16
Equality Bill
6:45 pm
Vera Baird (Solicitor General, Attorney General's Office; Redcar, Labour)
Because we are right and they are wrong, basically.
Amendment 200 would prohibit unfavourable treatment of a woman because she was breastfeeding, whatever the age of the child. That is less draconian than the earlier amendment. It would, in a sense, be a protected characteristic all on its own, but in fact breastfeeding is, as I have set out, only one aspect—albeit an important aspect—of maternity.
We favour supporting the period of 26 weeks with special protection, for the reasons I have given about bonding and the health advantages of exclusive breastfeeding during that time, but that does not mean that someone who is treated badly because she is breastfeeding a baby of over six months is unprotected. That will be direct discrimination on the ground of sex, as clause 13 makes clear. She will need a hypothetical comparator, but it is usually obvious that she has been treated less favourably than he would have been. There has been a successful claim of direct sex discrimination on exactly that basis, brought by a former mayor in Trafford, which as I recall was about breastfeeding in the mayoral limousine.