House of Commons Hansard Debates for 27 Jul 1998 (pt 28)

8.45 pm

Amendments Nos. 202 and 204 are technical, and correct an error in clause 60 based on a misunderstanding of the relationship between the Northern Ireland Disability Council and the National Disability Council.

As I said, amendment No. 203 ensures that none of the four functions loses out in resource allocations.

Government amendment No. 213 is a technical one, to correct an earlier drafting mistake.

I again tell the Committee that we are conscious of the representations made on the issues that have been raised not only by hon. Members but by bodies in Northern Ireland. My right hon. Friend takes the issues very seriously. I therefore ask the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire to ask leave to withdraw his amendment and the hon. Members who tabled the other amendments in this group not to press them. We have already made considerable changes to our initial view on the commission.

Mr. Öpik: I have listened to the Minister, but I am not terribly happy with the reply. I know him to be a man of great reason and fairness, and believe him to be committed to doing the right thing, especially when it comes to issues of discrimination. He must therefore know how nervous the Equal Opportunities Commission and the other three bodies are about the proposed merger. I am pleased to hear his reassurance that the arrangements are designed to ensure that those concerns will be taken seriously. Nevertheless, the bodies have an emphatic worry that the changes will be damaging not only for the individuals involved but for the new organisation in doing its work.

The issues raised in amendment No. 156 will not simply disappear. Although I realise that the Committee will soon debate the other forms of discrimination, I repeat that there must be a body to which individuals facing those forms of discrimination can bring their grievance. It is all very well talking about a "one-stop shop", but the last thing that we want to do is to make some people feel that their concerns are right at the back shelf, discounted or in the bargain basement. Providing such a reassurance was the purpose of tabling and moving amendment No. 156. The amendment would ensure that people feel that they can take their concerns to the Equality Commission, even if the form of discrimination affecting them is not related directly to the most frequently debated forms of discrimination.

Amendment No. 156 is not--as the hon. Members for Glasgow, Maryhill (Mrs. Fyfe) and for Luton, South (Ms Moran) said--about equal resources but about equal priority. We have to give equal priority to any form of discrimination. As I said earlier in the debate, ultimately, individual are less interested in why they are discriminated against than in the fact that such discrimination is happening. All discrimination can wreck lives. Giving the Equality Commission the mandate to tackle all discrimination and then to allocate resources accordingly could provide the opportunity for Northern Ireland to lead the way in the United Kingdom in tackling what is basically a waste of human opportunities and, still worse, the very frictions that the settlement Bill is designed to prevent.

On the understanding, however, that the Minister has listened to our concerns and that he will carry on doing so, including those that the various commissions that are

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to be merged have raised and will continue to raise, and in the hope that we can carry on making informal contributions to the guidance that we have discussed, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Amendment made: No. 170, in page 27, leave out from beginning of line 40 to 'representative' in line 41 and insert

'as far as practicable secure that the Commission's members, as a group, are'.--[Mr. Paul Murphy.]

Clause 59, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Schedule 9

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland

Amendment made: No. 205, in page 49, line 17, at end insert--

'() The report shall, in particular, give details of how resources have been divided between the functions previously exercisable by each of the bodies listed in section 60(2).'.--[Mr. Paul Murphy.]

Schedule 9, as amended, agreed to.

Clause 60

The Commission's principal functions

Amendments made: No. 202, in page 28, leave out lines 10 and 11 and insert--
'(d) the Northern Ireland Disability Council.'.
No. 203, in page 28, line 11, at end insert--
'(3A) In exercising their functions the Equality Commission shall--
(a) aim to secure an appropriate division of resources between the functions previously exercisable by each of the bodies listed in subsection (2); and
(b) have regard to advice offered by a consultative council.
(3B) In subsection (3A) "consultative council" means a group of persons selected by the Commission to advise in relation to the functions previously exercisable by one of the bodies listed in subsection (2) or in relation to the Commission's functions under Schedule 10.'.
No. 204, in page 28, line 14, leave out 'to (3)' and insert 'and (2)'.--[Mr. Paul Murphy.]
Clause 60, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.