Equality Bill

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):

Text of Equality Bill with Explanatory Notes, and Parliamentary proceedings (link to parliament.uk);

Government's summary of the proposals: A Fairer Future - The Equality Bill and other action to make equality a reality (pdf file, link to equalities.gov.uk)

How does the Bill change the law?

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:

Objective justification test

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:

in employment, this will be a higher threshold than the present test. In other words employers will 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' will be a harder test for service providers to pass compared with the 'reasonable opinion' citerion used at present (More on new justification test for service providers..).

Remedying the Malcolm case

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.)

Reasonable adjustments by service providers

It would be easier to claim reasonable adjustments from service providers (More on lower threshold for reasonable adjustments).

Discrimination by association and perception

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...)

Single equality duty

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.)

Transparency

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.)

Definition of disability

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'...)

Tribunal recommendations

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.)

Multiple discrimination

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.)

Recommended changes not in the Bill

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:

Greater extension of legal definition of 'disability'

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?

Equality Tribunals

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.

External links

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.

Govenment proposals

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, and Work and Pensions Committee

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.

Top