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Equality Bill [HL]

I was most grateful to hear the way in which the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, put the amendment. It has great sections to do with Scotland, and I note that the wording has been slightly altered. No doubt there is some good legal reason for that. My first thought on looking at the amendment and seeing the way that it extends protection against discrimination to all those other categories is that perhaps there would be an enormous extra cost involved, but the noble Baroness tells me that Scotland already has this duty and perhaps it is not breaking the bank in Scotland. However, the Government will have to look at whether or not the measure will increase the numbers of people which a public authority employs in order to ensure that none of this discrimination takes place.