Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations

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The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations are secondary legislation in the United Kingdom, both proposed and actual, concerning sexual orientation. The regulations prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods, facilities and services, education and public functions.

The legislation is made under powers granted by the Equality Act 2006. Sections 81 and 82 of the Equality Act give the power to make regulations to the Secretary of State and the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, respectively. Regulations made under section 81 cover Great Britain (i.e., England and Wales and Scotland) whereas regulations made under section 82 extend to Northern Ireland.

The regulations for Great Britain have been approved by a vote in both Houses of Parliament. The procedure for the Northern Ireland regulations was specified as a vote by the Northern Ireland Assembly. Given this had been suspended, arrangements for measures that require approval by the Northern Ireland Assembly were subject to the negative procedure (i.e., they could be annulled by a resolution of either House of Parliament).

1 Northern Ireland Regulations
2 Regulations relating to Great Britain
3 Debate over the proposed regulations
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Northern Ireland Regulations

The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 were made on 8 November 2006 and laid before Parliament under paragraph 7(3) of the Schedule to the Northern Ireland Act 2000 since the Northern Ireland Assembly is currently suspended. The regulations came into force on 1 January 2007. Later in January 2007 there was an attempt to pass a motion to pray for an annulment of the regulations in the House of Lords. The resolution failed to pass by a margin of 199 to 68.^[1] Regulations covering Great Britain are due to come into force on the 30th April 2007.

[edit] Regulations relating to Great Britain

Regulations covering the rest of the United Kingdom were first laid before Parliament on the 7th March 2007. The Government had previously made an announcement that, for examples adoption agencies will be covered by the regulations (including those with a religious affiliation) ^[2]

The regulations were approved by the House of Commons on the 19th March and after debate by the House of Lords on the 21st March 2007. The regulations are due to enter into effect on the 30th April 2007.

[edit] Debate over the proposed regulations

Considerable debate regarding the sexual orientation regulations has taken focused on the degree to which religious organisations and individuals of faith should be exempt from certain aspects of the legislation.

Prominent groups and organisations involved in campaigning on this issue have included the Lawyers Christian Fellowship, Anglican Mainstream, the Christian Institute and the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland campaigning for greater exemptions in the area of religious belief and Stonewall, the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the Trades Union Congress arguing for exemptions to be limited to internal doctrinal matters.

Equally, the particular issue of whether faith based adoption services should be exempted has been vigosously debated, with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York supporting the call by the Roman Catholic Church for Catholic adoption agencies to be exempted. ^[3]

Debate in the parliamentary process centred on the lack of line by line scrutiny on the floor of the House of Commons as the regulations were considered in a Delegated Legislation Committee^[4], leading to an accusation of an abuse of Parliament. A debate took place in the House of Lords where a number of issues were debated, notably the extent of exemptions covering religious belief and practice^[5]

The regulations had been given consideration by the Joint Committee on Human Rights which broadly approved the draft regulations. ^[6]