
| Home | Overview | Disability | Employment | Services | Education | Benefits | Business | Advice | Links | More... |
|
These pages do not apply outside the United Kingdom.
|
The Government has published a single Equality Bill for Great Britain. If passed, this will bring disability, sex, race and other grounds of discrimination within one piece of legislation. The proposals for the Bill also include some major changes to disability discrimination law. This web page focuses on these proposed changes. The Bill does not apply to Northern Ireland.
| Main links (April 2009):
|
Assuming the Bill is passed before the general election, and assuming that plans are not changed by whoever wins the election, most of the Bill is expected to come into force in Autumn 2010. However, the Government envisages that some parts will be delayed until Spring 2011 and beyond.
Both Tories and Liberal Democrats have criticised the timing of the Bill, given the recession. Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, has said "This is no time for the government to be introducing rather pointless, bureaucratic legislation." (Personnel Today article, 28/4/09).
As well as bringing together the different strands of equality law into one piece of legislation, the Bill makes numerous changes to current law. Some of the main changes as regards disability discrimination law are as follows:
A single objective 'justification' test will replace the different tests currently used. To rely on the justification defence, the employer/service provider etc will have to show that its conduct is a 'proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim'. The Government says that:
New ways to claim for disability discrimination are to be introduced - 'discrimination arising from disability' and 'indirect discrimination'. These would replace 'disability-related discrimination' which was very severely curtailed by the House of Lords decision in LB Lewisham v Malcolm (More on New heads of discrimination.)
It would be easier to claim reasonable adjustments from service providers (More on lower threshold for reasonable adjustments).
Direct discrimination or harassment based on association or perception are to be unlawful. That applies to employment, but also to other areas such as services and education. This proposal implements the European Court decision in Coleman v Attridge Law, but also goes beyond it. (More on discrimination by association and perception...)
There is to be a single equality duty on public bodies, embracing grounds such as sexual orientation and religious belief as well as race, disability and gender. (More on single equality duty.)
The Government wants there to be greater transparency, including an obligation on public authorities to report on their disability employment rate, and a strengthening of the requirement for public bodies to tackle private sector discrimination through public procurement policies (More on transparency.)
The Government proposes not to broaden the definition of disability as recommended by the Disability Rights Commission, but will remove the list of 'capacities' (More on changes to definition of 'disability'...)
A tribunal will be able to make a recommendation benefiting the wider workforce, even if it is no longer relevant for the individual claimant - probably because the individual has left the employer. (More on recommendations.)
The Government is consulting on a proposal to allow, to a certain extent, claims for multiple discrimination - e.g. discrimination for being a disabled woman. (More on multiple discrimination.)
Various changes to the law have been proposed which are not in the Bill, largely because they are not currently accepted by the Government. Some of these proposals will doubtless be raised as the Bill goes through Parliament.
An important current source of recommendations which in various respects go beyond the Bill is the April 2009 report of the Work and Pensions Committee (House of Commons): The Equality Bill: how disability equality fits within a single Equality Act (link to parliament.uk).
I will mention just two recommendations (not in the Bill) which seem to me particularly important:
The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee has renewed calls for protection to extend to everyone who has (or has had) an impairment without requiring the effects of that impairment to be substantial or long-term. For more, see: Wider definition of disability?
To address the current difficulties in bringing discrimination claims on provision of services, the Work and Pensions Committee recommended the introduction of Equality Tribunals which would deal with both employment claims and services claims.
The changes contained in the Equality Bill (published April 2009) were mostly announced in Summer 2008, following consultation on a Green Paper issued in June 2007.
Equality Bill links: Government Equalities Office website: www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_bill.aspx
Parliamentary proceedings (link to parliament.uk), including text of Bill with Explanatory Notes, proposed amendments, and links to debates and Committee proceedings;
Framework for a Fairer Future - The Equality Bill (link to equalities.gov.uk), June 2008
Government response to the Discrimination Law Review (pdf file, link to equalities.gov.uk), July 2008
Speech by Harriet Harman (June 2008): www.equalities.gov.uk/publications/Oral%20statement%20260608.pdf
Original Green Paper (link to communities.gov.uk), dated June 2007.
EHRC pages on the Equality Bill (link to EHRC website), including Briefings with the EHRC response to the Bill, and numerous links. There is also an EHRC consultation on Guidance on the Equality Act (deadline 7th June 2009).
Report of Work and Pensions Committee (House of Commons): The Equality Bill: how disability equality fits within a single Equality Act, April 2009.
Homepage | DDA in outline | Meaning of "disability" | Employment | Goods and services | Education | Human Rights Act | Proposed changes | Social security | Advice | Links | What's new | Site index | Disclaimer
© Allan Tyrer 1999-2009
Last updated 5th June, 2009
Proposed changes
Equality Bill
Disability
Wider 'disability' definition?
Employment
Services
Education
Disability Equality Duty
'Transparency'
Basic equality statement
Remedying Malcolm
DDA 2005