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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, it is always amusing to have one’s words quoted back at one, and I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Hendon, for recalling them. The second limb of this amendment is met entirely by the Government’s amendments, because they have now secured what is called an appropriate degree of independence in their amendments to the Bill. So far as the first words are concerned, I now realise that the disadvantage of my own words is that they do the very thing that the noble Baroness rightly deprecates, which is to involve the courts in unnecessary litigation about what is or is not the public interest. That would not be desirable. The public interest is defined in the Bill we are debating as the equality and human rights provisions that have to be interpreted and applied by the commission and the courts according to law, and if the commission were to frustrate the statutory objects or act contrary to law, it would be subject to judicial review. Neither the first nor second limb is necessary now.