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ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the publication of the government's Equality Bill.
Commons leader Harriet Harman said: "Labour is the party of equality and we've done more than any government to promote fairness and equality. The new Equality Bill continues that tradition.
"A level playing field with greater equality and opportunities is important for each individual, for a strong economy and for a cohesive society.
"The recession has put a focus not just on people's fears for today but on their hopes for tomorrow. That hope is for a fair and equal society which is stable and prosperous.
"It was Labour governments that introduced the Race Relations Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, new legal rights for disabled people and changed the law to allow gay and lesbian "civil partnerships". Labour governments always stand up for equality. When the Tories were in government they did nothing to press forward on equality – instead they brought in the notorious homophobic 'clause 28'."
Conservative Party Response:
Conservative spokesperson for women Theresa May said: "Too many British people face discrimination because of their race, gender, religion, age and background, and Conservatives want action to bring that to an end.
"But we're concerned that too many of the proposals in this Bill will be bureaucratic and expensive without providing real results. For example, Labour's proposal for compulsory pay audits for all companies, rather than those proven to have broken the law, will simply waste time and money without making any difference to pay discrimination. This Bill needs to contain real action to actually clamp down on discrimination, rather than exercises in box-ticking without proper enforcement."
Stakeholder Response: Association of British Insurers
Nick Starling, the ABI's director of general insurance and health, said:
"Insurers oppose unfair discrimination. But outlawing the use of age would lead to higher insurance costs for all customers, as insurers would have insufficient information to fully assess the risk, and less choice for consumers.
"We dispute the government's claim that one in five older people have trouble getting motor or household insurance. Our research shows that 99 per cent of older customers can obtain motor insurance, with 98 per cent able to buy travel insurance. We will be monitoring secondary legislation carefully to ensure that insurers remain able to offer competitively priced products to all ages."
Stakeholder Response: Age Concern & Help the Aged
Michelle Mitchell, charity director for Age Concern and Help the Aged, said: "The Equality Bill will be gladly received by the millions of older people who suffer age discrimination on a daily basis. It is a milestone in the battle for fairness in later life.
"But the Bill only gives ministers the power to ban age discrimination in services if they wish.We want to see an unbreakable legal commitment to introduce new rights, across the public and private sectors.
"Age discrimination in health and social care services can literally mean the difference between life and death. Because of their age, older people are being denied vital treatments with no legal protection. Each day older people are refused financial products like travel insurance for no better reason than the date on their birth certificate.
"The Equality Bill offers a huge opportunity to bring an end to unacceptable ageist practises. We warmly welcome it. But until the promise of new rights is irreversible, we will continue our campaign for fair treatment.
"Many politicians and employers have already recognised that a national default retirement age no longer makes sense and the majority of the public want to see it abolished too. The Equality Bill is the perfect opportunity for the government to end this blatant form of discrimination."
Stakeholder Response: British Humanist Association
The British Humanist Association (BHA) has today welcomed the government's Equality Bill but has also described it as a 'missed opportunity' for improving equality for non-religious people in the UK, with many of its provisions retaining privileges for religions and its failure to abolish endemic discrimination against non-religious people in our education system.
Hanne Stinson, BHA chief executive, said, "Like other organisations working to promote and realise equality for all of us in society, we welcome this new Equality Bill as a step forward, with new and greater protection against discrimination and inequality in a number of areas. However, it appears that the government has missed this vital opportunity to ensure equality for non-religious people and acceded yet again to the demands for privilege from the religious lobby."
"If we are serious about achieving equality, we must have a law that does not exempt religious groups and institutions from prohibitions on discrimination except in very restricted circumstances – yet this Bill, in fact, retains wide exceptions for religions, allowing them to discriminate in many ways. 'Faith schools' are still allowed to select their pupils on religious grounds – despite a wealth of evidence that this leads to social, religious and sometimes ethnic segregation and inequality. There is also evidence that current exceptions in law for religious employers who are contracted to provide public services mean that suitably qualified, non-religious people are barred from applying for jobs, or face discrimination in their jobs, because they do not believe in a god or say they go to church. That religious groups are granted similar exceptions in the new Bill is extremely worrying."
Stakeholder Response: National Childbirth Trust
Belinda Phipps, chief executive NCT, said: "We are delighted with the content of the Equality Bill submitted to Parliament today. The NCT, along with other breastfeeding supporter organisations, are on the road to campaign victory for breastfeeding mothers.
"We believe mothers should have the freedom to choose to feed their child when they need to be fed in whatever way they choose. Breastfeeding is a natural, healthy way to feed babies. One of the barriers identified in initiating and maintaining breastfeeding is society's negative attitudes - in particular towards breastfeeding in public places - with nine out of ten mothers currently stopping breastfeeding before they want to.
"The Bill will enable mothers to feel confident in breastfeeding their baby in public places such as cafes, restaurants or shops free from the potential embarrassment of having the owner ask them to stop.
"NCT also welcomes moves to reduce gender inequality at work, and the new single public sector equality duty on public bodies who could exemplify best practice in the employment of pregnant women and new mothers, meeting all of their needs including breastfeeding breaks."
Stakeholder Response: Skills for Justice
Skills for Justice said: "Many organisations in the justice sector already have targets to address under-representation by particular groups, so we welcome the new Bill which will build on action already being taken to achieve these.
"Skills for Justice is helping these organisations to accelerate their progress toward achievement of gender equality targets, having secured over £500,000 of funding for 576 women to undertake a range of training and development aimed at increasing earning potential and improving career prospects through the Women and Work: Sector Pathways Initiative. Women are broadly under-represented across the Justice sector, particularly at middle and senior management levels.
The outcomes of the project include supporting individual women to get in and get on in the sector, and facilitating organisational development and culture change through developing women at different levels. New managers will receive first line management training, middle managers will train as coaches/mentors, and senior managers will receive executive coaching – in which they will develop an action plan to address equality and diversity in their organisation.
"Funding will continue until 2010/11, and we would welcome continuation to enable more women to develop to their full potential. We would recommend the initiative be extended to include both male and female employees from BME backgrounds."
Stakeholder Response: Unite
Diana Holland, Unite's assistant general secretary for equalities, said: "We welcome the publication of the Equality Bill and the recognition that the commitment to fairness and equality will not be a casualty of the global economic crisis.
"This Bill is an important landmark in the struggle for equality at work. While it does not go as far as we would like in all areas, it does include positive commitments from which workplaces, communities, families and individuals can benefit.
"We will continue to press for the Bill to include stronger action on equal pay to close the gender pay gap and rights for union equality representatives as the missing link to equality for men and women workers at the sharp end.
"The challenge for the government is to ensure fairness and equality is at the heart of the response to the global economic crisis. Discrimination and unequal pay are a cost to our economy which we cannot afford today or for future generations."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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