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Equality Bill

My Lords, my right honourable friend David Cameron made clear in his evidence session to the Speaker’s Conference that he accepted the principle of reporting candidate data, as, indeed, did all the leaders of the main political parties. He explained that the desire and determination to make progress on the diversity of our candidates means that we monitor closely their gender, ethnicity and any declared disability. He also made clear, however, that we do not ask our candidates about their sexual orientation. For this reason I welcome the new clause and thank the noble Baroness the Leader of the House for taking on board the concerns regarding the sensitivity of collecting data around some of these characteristics, particularly sexual orientation and gender reassignment, and for arranging important cross-party meetings before Report. I was therefore grateful to hear confirmation—actually, I have not yet heard confirmation, but I look forward to hearing it—from the Minister that the regulations will initially cover only the reporting of gender and ethnicity. In this way, the success of the data-gathering can be judged before any further steps are taken. It is most welcome because it addresses the concerns that were raised regarding more personal data. However, as a party, we accept that there may be benefits in monitoring sexual orientation, and so we will monitor sexual orientation internally, using similar methodology to that used by blue chip companies such as Barclays and Goldman Sachs. However, we remain concerned about the privacy of data, and for this reason the information we gather will be used to help us internally and will not be published. We also welcome the amendments on proportionality in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Lester and Lord Wallace, to which I have added my name. It is important that action taken in pursuit of a legitimate aim should also be proportionate. I am grateful for the clarity that Amendment 43 provides on the potential use of all-women shortlists, which will be allowed even within the framework of proportionality.