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Equality Bill

My Lords, I appreciate the general problem that these amendments raise. It is important to have regard to many different types of circumstances. As I understand it, these amendments apply only to employment in the ordinary sense. However, they have implications for other situations, as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chester has pointed out. The other day, Sir Sigmund Sternberg suggested that one of the difficulties of the banks had been that they did not have older and wiser people on their boards. I am not sure that everyone will agree that that experience was absent from the boards of the banks, but that was his comment. So there are situations in which age and experience may be of importance. A relevant consideration is the age structure for the judiciary, which, in a sense, is based on principles not very different from those referred to by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chester in connection with the clergy. My recollection—I may be wrong about this—is that when the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, raised a question about age in the judiciary, the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill was against having older judges in the Supreme Court. For all I know, these principles may be reconcilable, but it escapes me as to what that reconciliation would be.