Schedule 9
Equality Bill
6:45 pm
Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey and Wood Green, Liberal Democrat)
I will be brief because I think that the hon. Gentleman has made almost all the points I would like to make. However, I shall use this opportunity to speak because the measure flies in the face of the intent of the legislation. As the hon. Member for Forest of Dean said, the provision is not mandatory; it simply makes it legal for an employer to retire somebody without consequences. The measure is an exception in the Bill and it should not be an exception. One of the problems with centring the measure around a particular age is that it creates the attitude around that age that it is the end of the useful working period of somebody’s life. That will therefore lead to discrimination and enable people to use that exception to terminate people’s employment.