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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, I should like to pay tribute to the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor. I have already paid tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, but the noble Lord the Lord Chancellor needs special tribute paid to him. He was willing to listen to the argument with an open mind. Having listened to it, he came to the conclusion that the Joint Committee on Human Rights was correct. What he has achieved is not a charter for litigation on human rights, all, but the same kind of approach as that used by the commission chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Lockwood in tackling issues of law where individual victims were there, but did not need to be brought into the proceedings. The example that I am sure the noble Baroness will remember relates to sex discrimination in education. Birmingham, as with the Northern Ireland authorities, was effectively not providing girls with equal opportunities to boys in single-sex schools. There was no need for a 10-year-old girl to bring the case. The EOC was able to seek by way of judicial review a declaration that the law was being breached. As a result, the public authority knew where it was and therefore the need for individual litigation was discouraged. The same will now happen on the human rights side, but it will in no sense alter the victim test where there are breaches of convention rights, nor will it involve any claim by the commission for damages or anything of that kind. Therefore, the Lord Chancellor directed himself admirably and we are all very grateful to him. On Question, Amendment agreed to.