Single Equality Bill

There is to be a single Equality Act for Great Britain, bringing disability, sex, race and other grounds of discrimination within one piece of legislation. The proposals for this include some major changes to disability discrimination law.

Equality Bill proposals

Under its manifesto the Government is committed to introducing a single Equality Bill during this Parliament. It proposes to do this in the parliamentary session 2008-09. The Government issued a Green Paper in June 2007 consulting on proposals, and has reviewed them in the light of the responses it received. Proposals for the Equality Bill, announced in summer 2008, now include:

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.)
greater transparency, including an obligation on public authorities to report on disability employment, strengthening the requirement for public bodies to tackle discrimination through their purchasing functions, and a 'kite-mark' on equality for the private sector (More on transparency.)
on enforcement, a tribunal will be able to make a recommendation benefitting the wider workforce, even if it is no longer relevant for the individual - probably because he has left. (More on recommendations.)
the Government is exploring further how to allow discrimination claims to be brought on multiple combined grounds (More on multiple discrimination.)
it is also considering further the question of allowing representative actions.

The Government said in June 2008 that it proposes to continue to work closely with stakeholders over the coming months in preparing for the introduction of the Bill.

Links for current Government proposals :
Government reponse to the Discrimination Law Review (July 2008): www.equalities.gov.uk/publications/Government_Response_to_the_consultation.pdf
Framework for a Fairer Future - The Equality Bill (June 2008): www.equalities.gov.uk/publications/FRAMEWORK%20FAIRER%20FUTURE.pdf
Speech by Harriet Harman (June 2008): www.equalities.gov.uk/publications/Oral%20statement%20260608.pdf
EHRC response and further links: www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/projects/newequalityact/Pages/newequalityact.aspx

Discrimination Law review - Green Paper and responses

Green Paper proposals

The summer 2008 announcement follows a Green Paper issued by the Government in June 2007, consulting on its proposals for a Single Equality Bill for Great Britain. The Green Paper is at www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1511245.

Many of the Govenment's proposals were contentious and there will be some changes before a Bill is introduced to Parliament next session (see above for some of the current proposals, but this website has not yet been fully updated for the Government response to the consultation). Proposals in the Green Paper included the following:

The different 'justification' tests for disability discrimination would be replaced by a single objective 'justification' test (para 1.46-1.53). The new test would be whether the conduct is a 'proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim'. The Government says that:
- in employment, this would be a higher threshold than the present test. In other words employers would not find it so easy to justify less favourable treatment (More on new justification test for employment..);
- service providers could potentially use a wider range of circumstances than at present to justify their conduct, but 'proportionality' would be stricter than 'reasonable opinion' which is used in the current test (More on new justification test for service providers..).
It would be easier to claim reasonable adjustments from service providers. (More on lower threshold for reasonable adjustments.
Apparently not to broaden the definition of disability as recommended by the Disability Rights Commission, apart from removing the list of 'capacities' (More on DRC recommendation to widen definition of 'disability'...)
Still no protection for people 'perceived' as having a disability or 'associated' with a disabled person - subject to the outcome of the European Court decision in Coleman v Attridge Law.
There could be changes to dispute resolution in employment and service provision.
There would be very major changes to the disability equality duty (DED). (More on changes to DED..)
There should be no purpose clause. A purpose clause is recommended by the DRC. The EHRC wants to go further and include a statement of basic principles either in the first Chapter of the Single Equality Bill or in a 'Bill of Rights'. (More on purpose clause or Statement of Principles..)

The Green Paper is the outcome of the Discrimination Law review, which has been working in parallel to the Equalities Review (below) and informed by it. There is more background on the Discrimination Law Review website at www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/dlr/. See also initial News Release 25/2/05: 'Review of causes of discrimination announced (link to Cabinet Office website).

Responses to Green paper

The Disability Rights Commission responded that the proposals fail to remedy deficiencies in existing anti-discrimination law, and listed changes it would like to see: A Framework for Fairness Response (on archived DRC website). See also its earlier Single Equality Act Green Paper briefing (link to archived DRC website). Also part of the review process are the Disability Right's Commssion's recommendation to extend the definition of disability and its education consultation.

There was also a response from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (link to Word doc on EHRC website). The Commission regrets that the proposed scope of a new equality act, as reflected in the Green Paper, falls far short of ministers' stated ambitions when the DLR was established and the expectations they had created for new legislation which is coherent, simple and derived from fundamental principles.

There are numerous other responses, such as from the Discrimination Law Association (link to pdf), Law Society, and TUC.

Equalities review

An Equalities Review chaired by Trevor Phillips reported in February 2007. This was a "root and branch review to investigate the causes of persistent discrimination and inequality in British society". It aimed to inform both the modernisation of equality legislation, towards a Single Equality Act; and the development of the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights.

The Review's final report is available on its website - www.theequalitiesreview.org.uk. It says amongst other things that equalities legislation needs to be simpler, more coherent and more outcome-focused. It supports an approach of simplification and harmonisation. It also believes that there should be a strong, integrated public sector duty, covering all equality groups, with a focus on outcomes and not process.

The DRC response (link to archived DRC website) said that while simplification is always desirable, it shouldn't be achieved at the cost of watering down existing duties on race, gender and disability. Such an outcome would be regressive and unlikely to achieve the report's aims.

Older documents from the DRC: DRC Responds to Equalities Review interim report (link to archived DRC website) (8/6/06), and the initial DRC submission to the Equalities Review (link to archived DRC website) (31/1/06).

Single Equalities Act - previous history

The Disability Rights Commission had said that it believed a Single Equalities Act was the best way to tackle discrimination facing different groups of people and welcomed the debate generated by Lord Lester's Bill (below). The DRC's Chair also indicated that such an Act is required to support the work of the proposed new EHRC (Press Release (link to DRC website) 12/05/04).

The Government previously declined to commit to a Single Equalities Act. The subject is discussed in its November 2004 response to the consultation on the EHRC (then called the CEHR): www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/equality/project/ (para 76ff in the response). The great majority of respondents to the consultation highlighted concerns about the disparate protection provided by the existing legislative framework, and most pressed for the Government to introduce a consistent and harmonised framework for equality.. However concerns were expressed by most private sector respondents that this would distract the CEHR and Government from the important task of working with business to ensure compliance and bedding down of significant new areas of employment discrimination law.

In January 2003 Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC had introduced a Private Members Bill, the Equality Bill 2003. It proceeded from the House of Lords to the Commons but was not passed. The Bill was drafted privately setting out "a single framework for eliminating discrimination and promoting equality between different people, regardless of their racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sex, marital or family status, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, age or disability". It is available on the Parliament website (external link). There is more on the bill, including the text and explanatory notes, on the website of the Odysseus Trust (external link).

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