Clause 16
Equality Bill
Public Bill Committees, 16 June 2009, 6:30 pm
Vera Baird (Solicitor General, Attorney General's Office; Redcar, Labour)
As my hon. Friend has guessed, despite our original intention, we have acknowledged the unintended consequences. We do not believe that everyone will discriminate against women in such a way. None the less, one can envisage how things might go wrong.
We propose the amendments to remove doubts about the wording and to avoid risking the effective delivery of our policy, which is unchanged. We consulted business representatives as well as those who raised concerns, and everyone seems to be broadly content with the amendments. I hope that they will be supported by both sides of the Committee.