Part of Equality Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 1:45 pm on 18 June 2009.
John Penrose
Shadow Minister (Business, Innovation and Skills)
1:45,
18 June 2009
The Minister is giving a full explanation. Can I test her with another example, to ascertain whether I have understood the provision correctly? I keep on referring to Saga, because they have been active in providing examples for us. From what I understand so far, if a Saga holiday was being advertised and a 30-year-old applied to go on it, under the Minister’s first example, Saga would not be able to say, “No, you can’t come.” However, under her second example, it might be able to say, “No, you can’t come because we operate a system where all the booze is free and there is an open bar policy on our holiday.” That statement would be based on a set of assumptions, based on evidence that people in the older age range tend to drink much less than those in the younger age range, and that would materially impact on the costs of providing the holiday. Is that the sort of example that she feels would fall within the rules that she has just laid out?
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During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
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