Solicitor general Vera Baird has said the Equality Bill will promote fairness "to a level which we have never seen before".
Speaking at the all-party parliamentary group on equalities, Baird (Lab, Redcar) said the Bill was "very good" and would simplify existing legislation.
The legislation reduces nine pieces of current legislation down to one, she explained, and streamlines race and gender laws.
The Bill also promotes socio-economic equality, puts a duty on all local authorities to deliver further equality and places pressure on businesses to disclose gender pay gaps, she said.
Speaking to ePolitix.com after the meeting of the APPG on equalities, Anne Begg (Lab, Aberdeen South) said that campaigners have been "waiting a long time" for this legislation. "I am glad it is here at last," she said.
The first green paper on the proposals was a "backwards step" for people with disabilities, she argued. But now the Bill is "totally different".
"It has been revolutionised. There is a recognition that disability has to be treated differently. It is not an asymmetric discrimination."
