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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, I assumed that the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, wholly supported the noble Baroness, Lady O’Cathain. She can rest assured that at no stage did I think there was a cigarette paper between them. The noble Baroness, Lady Turner, is right: the harassment is an important point. My response to the noble Lord, Lord Lester, is to recite all the reasons why we say Clauses 46 and 47 are important and should be in the form that they are in the Bill. Many of those arguments were fully recited when we were in Committee. I could add a few things about that, but I want to make it clear at the beginning that, even though I do not accept the premise upon which the noble Lord puts those matters, we would want to take them away and come back with a full response. We will do so between now and the next stage of the Bill. If that suits the House, and bearing in mind that it is 7.25, I will not seek to weary noble Lords with a 10-minute exposition of why the Government’s case is a consummation devoutly to be preferred.