Equalities – how the ‘General Duty’ was saved

It was fitting that, on the 20th anniversary of the death of Stephen Lawrence, the government decided to listen to campaigners and save a key element of our equalities laws.

Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats (EMLD) played a leading role in the campaign to save Section 3 of the 2006 Equality Act which provides a vision and mission statement for Britain's equality watchdog.

This is known as the 'general duty' and both informs the work of the watchdog - the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) - which itself is responsible for setting the standard for the rest of our public services.

That is why the issue was more than symbolic. It is also an indicator of how committed the government is to equality and encapsulates the need for cultural change rather than just enforcing the law.

Earlier this week the House of Lords rejected government plans, contained in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, to scrap the general duty after peers voted to keep it for the second time in just over a month. Lib Dem Equalities minister Jo Swinson, to her credit, recognised that opposition to the coalition plans was resolute and getting stronger by the day. We are delighted that she has now decided to keep this piece of equality law.

The development was significant as the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition has rarely backed down on legislation once Bills are debated.

It is worth noting that while our peers were willing to defy a three-line whip over this issue - seventeen Lib Dems rebelled this week - just four of our MPs stood up for equality in the Commons with one notable abstention.

We are glad that ministers eventually saw sense and decided to pull back from any further dismantling of equalities legislation that is the envy of Europe.

Our equality laws have been won over the past 50 years through much struggle and campaigning by ordinary people, and in particular by BAME communities. EMLD has played a critical role in this campaign through the support of many Lib Dem members and Parliamentarians. However, we still have a long way to go to ensure that we protect existing legislation and support EHRC to become a more effective public sector regulator of the Equalities Act 2010.

We offer our deep gratitude and for the leadership role played by Baroness Meral Hussain-Ece in working with us and in campaigning tirelessly in Parliament to keep the General Duty.

Our peers also rebelled for a second time on the issue of caste discrimination. Swinson has also conceded on this matter and included caste as a sub-category of race so that Dalits and other 'lower caste' people from the Indian sub-continent have recourse to the law over prejudice and ill-treatment as a result of their background.

As a party we now need to move forward on equality rather than just engage in rearguard actions to prevent existing laws being scrapped.