Lord Avebury – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Avebury on 2014-03-31.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their announcement in July 2013 that the consultation on caste legislation was expected in February or March 2014, why it has not yet been issued.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government is currently considering two issues which have developed and which have potential implications for the consultation.

In February, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published helpful research designed to inform the introduction of new legislation on caste, as outlined in the July 2013 announcement. However, that announcement said: ‘…work will also be undertaken to determine information about the extent of caste discrimination in Britain that can be used as a comparative baseline for any future consideration of the effectiveness of caste legislation.’

We had intended to reflect consideration of this work in the public consultation process. However, further discussions between Government and the EHRC about the research needed for it have revealed concerns that not only might this be difficult to commission successfully, but it could be seen as intrusive and might have an adverse effect on good relations in the relevant communities. We are therefore considering how best to proceed with the consultation in the light of this.

Another recent development is the judgment in the Employment Tribunal case of Tirkey v Chandok which concluded that there is already legal protection against caste discrimination through the race provisions of the Equality Act 2010. We need to review recent case law to consider whether and how it may affect the way in which we implement the legislation.

We would expect the public consultation document, including our conclusions on these matters, to issue in the Autumn.