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Equality Bill [HL]

I apologise to my noble friend for interrupting her earlier. I am delighted that I did not succeed in cutting her off, because we learned a great deal about human rights and I know nothing about them, really. I shall try to be as brief as possible on this huge group of amendments. We have heard clear and comprehensive explanations and some telling points have been made. I shall try to remain coherent, if that is possible—bear with me. First, Amendment No. 47, regarding the future of the Disability Committee, is of huge concern to disabled people. Unless it is written into the Bill that disabled people specifically must be consulted in the five-year review, we can have no confidence that their views will be given due weight. Regarding Amendments Nos. 51 to 53, spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, and my noble friend Lady Wilkins, disability organisations thought that the deal struck on the Disability Committee meant that the five-year review would be open and objective, not based on any assumption about whether the committee would continue. But the Bill appears to state the opposite. I thought that I saw encouraging nods from the Minister—and I see another encouraging nod, so I am even more encouraged. My question would have been: if participants in the review called for a permanent committee, or continuation for 10 years and a further review, how could that be done without a change in the Bill? Perhaps her nod means that she is backing the change in the Bill. I am cheered. Amendment No. 54 is important. It is not acceptable to propose abolition of the key disability guarantee in the Bill, thereby significantly altering the structure and remit of the CHR without coming back to Parliament to obtain approval. Amendment No. 76 on independent living has been well covered by the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, and my   noble friend Lady Wilkins, particularly regarding human rights. She and I were involved with disabled people’s problems over housing and the serious concerns about too many people receiving residential care, when alternative support might have been more   appropriate. Under the Human Rights Act, authorities are unlikely to be able to insist upon a care package that institutionalises a disabled person merely because it is the cheaper option. Indeed, I am advised that avoidable or unnecessary institutionalisation could be vulnerable to a challenge involving Article 8. I strongly support removing us, as disabled people, from Clause 10 and 20 and putting us with everyone else in Clause 11. I meant to put my name to Amendments Nos. 94, 95, 97 and 98, in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Carter and Lord Addington. By mistake my name has inadvertently been added to Amendments Nos. 88, 90, 91 and 92, in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Lester, the noble Baroness, Lady   Falkner, and the noble Lord, Lord Addington, relating to Clause 11. Also, I am afraid that I did not put my name to Amendment No. 113, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart. However, I shall return to the amendments in question. There is nothing that the CHR could do under Clause 10 that it could not do equally well, if not better, under Clause 11. That would have the added benefit that disabled people who faced multiple prejudice due to their race, religion, sexuality or gender would be more comprehensively included. My name is intentionally to Amendment No. 112. The amendment asks for clarification of the status of legacy codes of practice and, specifically, whether they will be valid for the purposes of judicial proceedings until CEHR replaces them with new codes. It may seem like a minor point, but that is one on which disabled people, in particular, seek firm assurance. I shall leave human rights as my noble friend has covered that point beautifully. On Amendment No. 167, I feel strongly about the DRC transitional commissioner. At Second Reading, the Minister justified the anomaly of the DRC transitional commissioner’s short term of office by reference to the establishment of the Disability Committee. I can see no logic in that, as the transitional commissioner has a backward-looking role and is concerned with the effective transfer of expertise, whereas the Disability Committee has a forward-facing role, taking forward new disability initiatives from CEHR. We know that it can take some time for a new commission to reach its full staff complement and to establish new working practices. I would have thought that we would not want to lose the expertise of the DRC transitional commissioner during such a critical period. I understand that three commissions agreed that the terms of all three transitional commissioners should be on a common basis and provide similar opportunity to contribute to the success of the CEHR in its early days. I hope that the Minister will reconsider this point too. As I very well know, the Minister is very much a listening Minister, as is the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, so I hope that during the passage of the Bill, with a few tweaks and one or two definite changes, we shall improve a basically good Bill.