 |
|||||||||||
|
Commission for Equality and Human Rights
|
 |
||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
| ||||
Home | Lesbian and Gay Issues | Sexual Orientation |
||||
Sexual Orientation |
||||
The Government recognises the discrimination that many gay, lesbian and bisexual people face in today’s society. We are committed to a just and fair society and have already made progress in a number of areas relating to sexual orientation.
Meg Munn, Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, has responsibility for equality issues concerning gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
Current areas of work on Sexual Orientation
Goods, facilities and services
The Government is taking steps to tackle discrimination in goods, facilities and services on grounds of sexual orientation.
The Equality Bill 2006 includes an order making power that allows Regulations to be made to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services, in education and in the execution of public functions. The Government now intends to bring these regulations into force on 6 April 2007.
A consultation document setting out proposals for the regulations was published on 13 March 2006. This sought views on specific points about the range of activities that should be covered by the regulations, and on whether any exceptions should be provided from them to ensure that the protection from sexual orientation discrimination that is introduced is effective and appropriately targeted. A summary of this consultation paper is also available in Welsh. The consultation period closed on 5 June 2006 and a Government Response will be published in due course.
On 7 March 2007 the Government published the Response to the 'Getting Equal' consultation and laid Regulations in Parliament to prohibit discrimination in goods and services on the grounds of sexual orientation. The Regulations were debated and approved in the House of Commons and House of Lords on 15 March and 21 March respectively. The Regulations will come into force on 30 April 2007 the same time as Part 2 of the Equality Act (Part 2 provides parallel protection against discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the grounds of people's religion or belief).
(top)
For details of past work, see: Sexual Orientation: What has the Government done so far?
See also
|
||||
|
Updated October 2006 | © Crown copyright |
||||
