PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
DUTY TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY (29 June 2004)

That this House welcomes the publication of the White Paper, Fairness for All: A New Commission for Equality and Human Rights, published by the Department of Trade and Industry on 12th May, and wholeheartedly supports the Government's aim to create a fairer and more inclusive Britain; notes that recent statistics on the stubborn persistence of the gender pay gap demonstrate the need to make mechanisms protecting women from being discriminated against in pay purely on the grounds of their gender easier to understand and to use; believes that part of the solution is the introduction of a duty to promote gender equality similar to that enacted to combat racial discrimination in the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 and that present in the draft Disability Discrimination Bill; further believes that the forthcoming Bill creating the Single Commission for Equality and Human Rights is the ideal legislative vehicle to introduce the positive duty to promote gender equality which has been promised since 1999; and calls upon the Government to include this public duty in the forthcoming Bill.

Sponsored by:
Dame Angela Eagle (Labour)