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Proceeding contribution from Baroness Andrews (Labour) in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 25 March 2008. It occurred during Debates on delegated legislation on Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008.


Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008

I feel particularly qualified to answer that. We do not define ““heavily pregnant”” in the regulations, and it would be an act of absolute foolishness to try to do so. It was an example. If a service provider is aware that a woman is pregnant and that it raises a health and safety issue, they should take that into account. We were not trying to draw a legislative boundary based on the size of the bump of the lady in question. It is just an illustration. The qualification for health and safety reasons is very pragmatic and common sense. I appreciate what the noble Lord said about how the regulations were proportionate in that sense. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Lester, for giving me advance warning of the sorts of issues he wanted to raise. I addressed some of them in my remarks on the specific changes we made to the definition of ““harassment””, for example, in relation to the judicial review. As the two sets of regulations have virtually identical titles, perhaps I may say again, for purposes of clarification, that the regulations that actually introduce these changes are the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Amendment) Regulations 2008, which amend the 1975 Act. The regulations that we are discussing today come into force at the same time. Both sets are governed by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, so the change of definitions will apply equally to both. Of course, they have only slightly different titles, so it is a bit confusing. On religious harassment—


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
700 c79GC 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
Subjects
Companies Costs Women Equality EU law Gender Harassment Discrimination Facilities Northern Ireland Men Mothers Pregnancy Transgender people
Legislation
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976
Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk