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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am quite sure that the Minister will not be surprised when I say that I support my noble friend, because we had similar concerns in Committee. The Minister at that stage pointed out that there was a defect in the idea that the respondent should be funded by legal aid. My noble friend’s amendment seeks to remedy that, and she has come up with a better amendment than mine was. Funnily enough, although I do not think I mentioned the matter in Committee, we also had concerns about the possible breach of the convention on human rights. At the end of the day, if the respondent is not in a position to defend his case properly, he might be in some difficulty. I shall be very interested to hear what the Minister says in response.