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Equality Bill

My Lords, this amendment stands in my name and in the names of my noble friends Lord Lester of Herne Hill and Lady Northover and the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton. My noble friend Lady Northover will speak to the substantive new clause on the diversity of candidates and I shall speak to the amendments in this group. Our purpose in tabling the amendment is to try to determine why Clause 104 does not contain an explicit reference requiring that the action taken by political parties to address under-representation among their candidates must be taken in a proportionate manner. The amendments would introduce an explicit proportionality test which would require that any action taken by a political party in regulating the selection of its candidates to reduce any inequality in the party's representation in a particular elected body must be a proportionate method of achieving that aim. Furthermore, the proportionality test will not apply to Clause 104(7), which contains a provision allowing the use of women-only electoral shortlists. We believe that this amendment is needed because Clause 104 as drafted contains a very broad power for political parties to take action to support those with a protected characteristic that is under-represented within the party. Effectively, the clause permits a form of disproportionate action that we believe would be at odds with the principle of equality which the positive action provisions are intended to support. For instance, a political party can provide financial and other support to candidates with one form of protected characteristic but refuse any such support to other prospective candidates, even those with a different protected characteristic that was also under-represented within the party. The effect could be to prevent other candidates having a proper chance of getting on an electoral shortlist. We therefore think that it would be inappropriate for political parties to be able to take forms of action that would not be a proportionate means of reducing inequality in the party's representation, albeit that that is a valid objective. Therefore, we want to import the proportionality test within this clause. By parallel argument, it would bring Clause 104 into line with other clauses in the Bill, specifically Clauses 157 and 158, which propose positive action provisions, and each of them contains an explicit proportionality test. However, we seek to exempt from that test the reference to single-sex shortlists, which should be done for a limited period. I confess that one of the great disappointments of my time as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats was that I did not manage to persuade my party in Scotland to go down the road of single-sex shortlists, particularly when the Scottish Parliament was established and there was no problem of incumbency. There was an opportunity then to ensure a much better gender balance. Indeed, the other political parties in Scotland took the opportunity to ensure this. One of the reasons why my own party opposed it—and I hasten to add that it was often opposed as much by women as by men—was the wonderful Liberal Democrat principle that the centre cannot tell the local parties what to do. Furthermore, there were concerns at the time that we could run the risk of legal action. If my memory serves me correctly, I tried to amend the Scotland Bill to enable us to achieve this aim but was unsuccessful. The other parties, to their great credit, took positive steps to secure a better gender balance among their candidates in 1999. This has resulted in the Scottish Parliament being probably one of the most gender-balanced Parliaments of the democratically elected Parliaments of western Europe. I want to encourage that, which is why we seek to make an exception and introduce the test of proportionality in this case. I beg to move.