Asked by: Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the impact of reductions in the funding they provide to the British Library, and whether they will publish the details of this assessment.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed todelivering further savings to eliminate the deficit in public expenditure in order to secure Britain’s long term economic security. DCMS is working closely with all of its arm’s length bodies, including the British Library, as part of the current spending review to understand the impacts of public funding decisions. The outcome of this will be announced by the Chancellor on 25 November 2015.
Asked by: Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to seek advice from the Propriety and Ethics team in the Cabinet Office about launching the consultation on adding caste to the list of protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010 in a 12-week period that overlaps the general election.
Answered by Baroness Garden of Frognal
General election guidance for Government Departments published by the Cabinet Office includes advice on carrying out public consultations.
That guidance primarily covers situations where an election is called once a public consultation is already under way, rather than any consideration that would be necessary about whether to launch a consultation when an election is known to be imminent.
In the case of caste, that consultation has been delayed because of legal developments in a caste-related case – Chandhok v Tirkey. The Employment Appeal Tribunal issued a judgment in December 2014 opening the possibility that claims of caste-associated discrimination may already have a legal remedy under existing legislation, namely the “ethnic origins” element of Section 9 of the Equality Act 2010.
We are now carefully considering the judgment’s implications for discrimination law in respect of caste in order to ensure the appropriate level of protection against caste-associated discrimination exists.
Asked by: Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Northover on 4 August 2014 (HL1061), when they received the report of the feasibility study commissioned by the Government Equalities Office; and why the report has not yet been published.
Answered by Baroness Garden of Frognal
We received a final copy of the report in January 2015, and its findings are currently under consideration. We will publish it as soon as we are in a position to do so.
Asked by: Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 6 May (HL6447) stating that the consultation on the implementation of the amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 amending section 9(5) in the Equality Act 2010 adding caste to the list of protected characteristics, agreed by Parliament in April 2013, would begin in the autumn, whether they will now issue the consultation.
Answered by Baroness Garden of Frognal
We are currently considering the form and timing of the public consultation in the light of ongoing caste discrimination litigation in the Employment Appeal Tribunal. We will await the outcome of the judgment before deciding in what form to issue the public consultation
Asked by: Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 6 May (WA 331–2) and the comments by Helen Grant, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities on 9 July (HC Deb, col 140 WH), how they intend to establish baseline data that can be used to determine whether caste legislation is stopping unlawful discrimination given their acceptance of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s statement that research for that purpose would not be possible; and what are the terms of reference of the feasibility study announced by Mrs Grant.
Answered by Baroness Northover
The Government has accepted that the Equality and Human Rights Commission will not be undertaking further research in the area outlined in the question. However, in their respective statements neither Lord Ahmad nor Helen Grant accepted that such research cannot be done, which is why we are commissioning the feasibility study to which the Noble Lord refers.
The key objectives for this study, which form its terms of reference, are to:
Asked by: Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what they consider to be the necessary preconditions for the implementation of section 9(5)(a) of the Equality Act 2010 as provided by section 97 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013; and what timetable they envisage for the fulfilment of those preconditions.
Answered by Baroness Northover
The Government's timetable published in July 2013 set out the steps towards implementation of section 9 (5)(a) of the Equality Act 2010. These steps are (i) EHRC published research; (ii) a public consultation on prospective legislation; (iii) engagement with specific affected groups; (iv) draft Affirmative regulations for public consultation, and (v) Parliamentary debates on the regulations. These pre-conditions for implementation, their sequence and the duration of each step remain the same as in the timetable.
As stated in Lord Ahmad's answer of 6 May to the Noble Lord's Question (HL6447), stage (i) – publication of the EHRC research – has now happened, but stage (ii) – the public consultation on prospective legislation – is now expected to issue in the Autumn.