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Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 188:"Page 45, line 9, after ““constitutes”” insert ““—" ““(a)   ”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, at Second Reading on 15 June, I set out the current position on harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act. It was confirmed that it did not currently expressly cover harassment. Your Lordships were also informed that most instances of harassment already fall within the concept of discrimination because of the way in which case law has developed. In Committee on 13 July, my noble friend Lady Scotland of Asthal confirmed that we were still waiting for the Sex Discrimination Act to be amended by the regulations implementing the Equal Treatment (Amendment) Directive introducing an expressed statutory concept of harassment in relation to employment and vocational training. The Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 came into force on 1 October this year. My noble friend also announced the Government’s intention to ensure that a prohibition of harassment is expressly included, alongside the provisions in Clause 82 prohibiting sex discrimination in the exercise of public functions. There would also be a comparable provision in Clause 83 which introduces a gender duty so that the duty places a specific obligation on public bodies relating to the elimination of harassment, paralleling that already in the Bill for discrimination. These amendments fulfil both these intentions. We are aware, in the context of sex discrimination, that we are not yet extending the protection against harassment for the provision of goods, facilities and services. However, we believe it is more appropriate for us to deliver this as part of the implementation of the European directive on the principle of equal treatment between women and men in the access to and supply of goods and services, commonly known as the gender directive. The Government are doing this in the context of the work on discrimination law review. We are also considering the best mechanism for the directive’s implementation. I beg to move.