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Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment etc.) (General Qualifications Bodies) (Alteration of Premises and Enforcement) Regulations 2007

My Lords, it would be ridiculous of me to say anything negative about these regulations. When we were doing the pre-legislative scrutiny on what became the 2005 Act, I clearly remember that it was asked whether exam bodies should be brought within the scope of the Act, because they have an excellent record for meeting the standards of people who are taking exams. I think that I was the first person in that committee to say ““yes””. The fact that they had a good record in the past does not mean that legal protection for the future should be removed. Indeed, successor bodies under previous regulations have. I think I know what the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, was saying. The system that we have to enforce disability legislation with a heavy legal test probably is a fault that we cannot correct now. I have never really liked it. I hope that the Minister can reassure the noble Baroness on her point and confirm that the defence of reasonableness, which has always been behind the legislation, is embodied in these regulations and the negative procedure that goes with them and that, basically, we now have one legal test or process running across the whole sector. We should not have the usual potholes in the road of getting a disabled person through, and these regulations fill a few more of them in. I support the general thrust of the amendments and hope that I will hear favourable comment.