Queen's Speech: Firms free to favour female and black job applicants

Companies will be free to discriminate in favour of women and black job candidates under proposed ‘equality’ laws.

The move allows employers to give preferential treatment as long as applicants are equally qualified.

It is designed to boost the proportion of female and ethnic staff, as well as thrusting more of them into senior posts.

Purple patch: Gordon Brown, who is enjoying a bounce in popularity, and his wife Sarah both opted to wear the colour that denotes good form yesterday. He wore a purple tie, while she opted for a matching beret (£7, New Look) and purple purse



Ministers insist that businesses will not be compelled to favour the woman or the black candidate, but the law will be changed to ensure they cannot be sued for turning down a white man.

Equalities minister Harriet Harman says ‘ positive action’ is vital so that the workforce more accurately represents the proportion of the population as a whole.

Positive discrimination, where a lesser qualified candidate is given the job just because he or she is from a minority, will remain illegal.

There is only one High Court judge from an ethnic minority, while only 11 per cent of directors in the UK’s top 100 companies are female, and not a single MP is an Asian woman.

The Government suggested that one example where the new legislation could be used was if a primary school wanted to increase the number of male teachers who act as role models to young boy pupils.

The CBI, Trades Union Congress and the Equality and Human Rights Commission support positive action.

But the Equality Bill, which brings together nine major laws and 100 other regulations, will inevitably lead to charges that women are more equal then men.



Miss Harman, whose earnest feminism has earned her the nickname Harriet Harperson, said yesterday that the economic downturn would not hold back the ‘tough’ new measures, claiming ‘ fairness doesn’t cost anything’.

Other proposals in the Bill include moves to tackle the gender pay gap and powers to ban discrimination against older people in the provision of goods and services.

There will also be measures to ensure more Government contracts, worth a total of £175billion, are awarded to firms which have good records on equality.

And public bodies will for the first time have to ensure that they do not discriminate on grounds of ‘sexual orientation, gender reassignment, age and religion or belief’.



In reality, this would mean councils are banned from installing heavy wheelie bins and complicated parking meters which confuse many elderly people.

The Bill replaces the Equal Pay Act, Sex Discrimination Act, Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act and other pieces of legislation dating back 40 years.

So- called ‘secrecy clauses’ will be banned so workers can compare their wages and challenge employers who pay them less than their colleagues.

Public bodies will have to report on any pay inequalities and the Equality and Human Rights Commission will conduct a series of inquiries into pay.



Ministers will also press ahead with a consultation on whether firms should be forced to reveal the salary gap between their male and female staff to highlight how women have slipped behind.

The Government estimates that the gender pay gap is 21 per cent when the wages of full and part-time women workers are compared with men.

The move to ban businesses and public services from discrimination on age grounds was described as a ‘huge step’ towards treating older people as equals.

Campaigners warned that one in five of those aged 75 or over has been refused travel insurance or had health restrictions imposed on policies.

Ban on buy one get one free drink deals



Supermarket drink promotions enjoyed by millions of responsible customers are to be banned.

Wine and beer will be hardest hit by the end of bulk discount offers such as ‘buy one get one free’.

Ministers say they want to reduce any incentive for customers to save money by buying excessive amounts of alcohol.



They claim this will help to reduce the harmful effects of binge drinking, such as ill-health and violent crime.

But opponents warned that the ‘perverse’ Government crackdown will lead to sharp increases in the weekly shopping bill of hardworking families who drink in an entirely responsible manner.

Currently, more than half of all alcohol purchased from supermarkets is sold on promotion.



Ending these discounts will be considered particularly cruel as recession bites.

Police said that if the Government wanted to stop binge drinking it would have been better served by scrapping 24-hour opening, introduced by Labour in 2005 despite widespread protest.

British Retail Consortium director general Stephen Robertson said: ‘Controls on price and promotions will not tackle alcohol abuse.



'They just penalise millions of customers who drink perfectly responsibly.’



The ban on alcohol promotions in shops and supermarkets will become law next year.



Traders must agree to conform to a new mandatory code on responsible selling, or face huge fines.

Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation, said the government had ‘only put a sticking plaster on a growing wound’.

He added: ‘The advent of 24/7 licensing has encouraged people to drink to excess and we have seen greater numbers of youngsters spilling out on to the streets at all hours, often resulting in increased violence and anti-social behaviour.

‘The Government needs to bite the bullet, recognise that 24/7 licensing was a mistake and give the public an early Christmas present by reversing that decision.’

The wider crackdown on irresponsible drinking will be part of a Policing and Crime Reduction Bill, unveiled in yesterday’s Queen’s Speech.



It could be passed in time to affect discounts next Christmas.

As the Daily Mail predicted earlier this week, so-called happy-hour promotions escaped an outright ban in the crackdown.



Any decision would be left to local authorities. Instead, Ministers will outlaw offers such as ‘all you can drink for £10’ and promotions targeted at certain groups, such as women only.

Under the new mandatory code, all staff selling alcohol must be properly trained, and signs displaying how much alcohol a drink contains must be displayed by the bar.

Bars and pubs will also have to offer small glasses of wine, rather than large measures only. Some £4.5million will be spent on a new police enforcement campaign.

Plans to ban shops from displaying cigarettes and to outlaw cigarette vending machines have been put on hold amid fears that they would hit small retailers.

Lie detectors to root out benefit cheats



Lie detectors will be used to root out benefit cheats.



Council staff will use the machines to identify anyone lying about their circumstances to pocket taxpayers’ cash.



State-of-the-art ‘voice-risk analysis software’ will be rolled out to councils and job centres nationwide to help cut the £800million stolen by benefits thieves last year.



The tough measures are included in a Welfare Reform Bill which aims to get one million Incapacity Benefit claimants into jobs.



Disabled people claiming incapacity benefit will be forced to undergo compulsory skills checks to decide what work they can do.



Meanwhile, 300,000 single parents and a million over-60s will be given work-focused interviews to try to get them into jobs.



Battered women who kill could escape murder charges



Battered women who kill abusive partners in cold blood because they fear more violence will escape a murder conviction.



Instead their crime - even if premeditated - will be reduced to manslaughter, sparing them a mandatory life sentence.

Under the Coroners and Justice Bill, victims of domestic violence will be able to claim they were provoked into killing by their tormentors after enduring months or years of abuse.



But the shake-up of the homicide laws would scrap the ‘partial defence’ of provocation where a husband claims he killed in a fit of sexual jealousy after discovering his wife was having an affair.



The new partial defence clause for ‘killers in fear’ could also be used by those who strike out after bitter disputes with neighbours, or victims of a serious crime who are taunted at a later date by the attacker.



Suicide websites to be outlawed



Justice Minister Jack Straw is determined to outlaw websites which encourage suicide following their links to a string of young deaths.



But there are fears that the Coroners and Justice Bill could be used as a vehicle to scrap laws which prevent helping a terminally-ill person to die.



Pro-euthanasia campaigners could table amendments to the Bill when it goes before Parliament which would permit terminally-ill adults to choose to end their lives.



Under the 1961 Suicide Act it is illegal to urge someone to take his own life, but no website operator has been prosecuted under the laws.



Because the law is so old, it has been mistakenly assumed that a person can be prosecuted only for encouraging someone to commit suicide in a face-to-face meeting.

The Bill will make it clear that the ban on assisting suicide does apply on line.



Lapdancing club curb



Councils will be given greater powers to turn down new lapdancing clubs under a drive to crack down on crime and disorder.



The clubs - currently in the same licensing category as pubs and cafes --are expected to be licensed in the same way as sex shops.



Under Labour’s Licensing Act 2003, lapdancing clubs outside London need only an alcohol licence.



The new Bill will make it illegal to use prostitutes who have been trafficked into the country or who work for pimps.



It will become an offence to buy sex from anyone ‘controlled for another person’s gain’.

Flexible working law goes ahead



No help: The controversial law will go ahead despite Lord Mandelson, above, saying he would consider delaying it



Ministers are to press ahead with controversial plans to allow millions of parents with older children the right to request flexible working.

From April, the move will allow all parents with children under 16 to ask for changes to their working day to fit in with family life.

Currently, only those with children aged six or under or with a disabled child have the right to ask their employer for a change in their working patterns.

Under the law, employers must seriously consider any application for flexible working and they can reject it only if there are good business reasons.

The measure was not mentioned in the Queen’s Speech as it does not require a new Bill and can be implemented under existing flexible working regulations. It has dismayed business leaders, who have warned that the decision will damage firms during the recession.

In October, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said he was considering plans to delay the law to help companies struggling in an economic downturn.



But ministers yesterday confirmed they were pressing ahead following pressure from union leaders and Labour backbenchers.

John Wright, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ‘Small businesses do not object to flexible working. But now is not the time to burden employers with the need to spend time on meetings and formally agreeing new contracts and conditions, when much of this takes place informally anyway.’

New business tax



Millions of businesses will be hit with a new tax in the next 18 months.

Firms with a rateable value of more than £50,000 will be forced to pay business rate supplements.

The tax will be levied by all local authorities, excluding district councils, which will use the money to promote ‘economic development in the area’.

The supplements will be charged at up to 2p for every £1 of the firm’s rateable value. Each local authority will have the right to set the amount it charges but will be forced to consult businesses before introducing the tax.

The British Retail Consortium accused the Government of ‘saddling retailers with new tax costs when they can least afford them.’



Director general Stephen Robertson said: ‘It gives local authorities the power to clobber businesses with a hefty new stealth tax.’

Immigrants must 'earn' passports



Immigrants must ‘earn’ British passports by carrying out voluntary work, paying taxes and learning to speak English.

Those who make a greater effort to integrate by, for instance, helping out at youth clubs or taking OAPs shopping could be ‘fast-tracked’. But economic migrants who commit crimes or do not find work will be sent home.

Under the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill, applicants must have lived in the UK for at least six years before being granted ‘earned citizenship’.

Currently, foreigners who come to Britain to work are allowed to stay after five years but there is no obligation to become citizens.

This will be replaced by five years’ temporary residence followed by a period of between one and five years of ‘ probationary’ citizenship.

U-turn on plans to give MPs final say on going to war



Flagship plans to give MPs the final say on international treaties and going to war were effectively dumped.

The Constitutional Renewal Bill, which also includes moves to enshrine in law civil service impartiality, will be introduced only ‘when time allows’ in the next Parliamentary session.



It is an embarrassing U-turn for Gordon Brown, who trumpeted the proposals when he took over as Prime Minister last year.



He used them to strengthen the role of Parliament as a way of distancing himself from Tony Blair’s ‘sofa style’ of Government.



