Equality Bill
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The Equality Bill as amended in the House of Lords will do four things:
- Establish the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR)
- Prohibit discrimination on grounds of religion or belief in the provision of goods, facilities and services and prohibit religious discrimination in the exercise of public functions
- Introduce a duty on public authorities to promote gender equality and to work to eliminate sex discrimination and prohibit gender discrimination in the exercise of public functions
- Allow regulations to be made prohibiting discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods, facilities and services.
The creation of the CEHR will not in itself change underlying equality law, but once established the body will be charged with examining the need for legislative change. In particular it will explore whether there is a need for Single Equality Act which would harmonise the law across the different groups (or equality strands).
The Equality Bill is currently in its Committee stage in the House of Commons.
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