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Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 115:"Page 26, line 13, leave out ““requirement, condition”” and insert ““provision, criterion””" The noble Baroness said: My Lords, Amendment No. 115 replicates one proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Lester, in Committee. At that time, we resisted the amendment as we believed it preferable to use ““requirement, condition or practice””, as in the Bill, rather than ““provision, criterion or practice””, words derived from European directives and used in the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. However, further discussions have taken place between the noble Lord and others. They have convinced us that, for the sake of consistency, in this instance we should adopt the words now proposed. We are grateful to the noble Lord for raising the issue. I beg to move.