Baroness Berger (Lab)

On this particular point, there is something fundamental that would equip all of us in this Committee, irrespective of our views on the principle of the Bill before us, which is the equality impact assessment—it is lacking. The equality impact assessment came forward from the Government only at the end of Committee in the House of Commons. The response from the Equality and Human Rights Commission is that that assessment is wholly inadequate and is in no way commensurate to the length and detail that we would expect on a government Bill. We have obviously already heard from the Minister in response to the current set of amendments, but I would urge that, in future responses, we hear from the Government about whether they might be forthcoming with an updated equality impact assessment in order to inform our discussions, debates and deliberations on what we might be considering going forward. So far, what we have heard from the Equality and Human Rights Commission is that we do not have the information before us. As the commission responsible for this legislation, it has some serious concerns, particularly in terms of the societal impact of this Bill that has in no way been addressed or deliberated by the Government in the way that it would have been otherwise.