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Equality Bill

There will be compulsion in the public sector, and that will start the day this legislation comes into force. In the private sector, we have seen a new understanding emerge that prosperity in business goes hand in hand with equality and diversity—and we are keen to encourage that. It is not just a question of waiting for something to happen. That is why, even before the Bill becomes law, the commission is working to produce, within a matter of weeks, the measurements that it will ask the private sector to implement. Those measurements have been arrived at—or almost arrived at, as they are not quite ready—with the full buy-in of the major employers' organisations. I have met the representative of the CBI—she and I almost have a mobile road show going, together with someone from the TUC—many times on this issue, and she asserts voluntarily, without being pressed into doing so by me, that she intends to drive through compliance with these measures by her employers. If we can harness that power from both sides, it will be much better than engendering conflict by introducing a mandatory scheme that has not worked elsewhere.