Clause 24
Equality Bill
1:00 pm
Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
As the Solicitor-General will be aware, I agree with her. Such a move would indeed be regression because it would narrow the definition. I want to probe her further on this question as it is relevant to my amendments.
I believe that the conjunctive approach would be a significant narrowing because violation of dignity is a personal and subjective thing. Whatever one thinks of the objective test and the extent of that in the legislation, it is harder for violation of dignity to be dealt with subjectively than it is to deal with the environment question. One can see evidence of an environment and that can be objective, whereas one’s own dignity, and whether it has been violated, is much more difficult to judge. I agree that there is a difference, but does the Solicitor-General accept that, on that basis, it might be more than just a slight difference?