COMMUNAL ACCOMMODATION (Hansard, 18 June 1975)

§ Dr. Summerskill

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

The clause would afford a qualified exception to the substantive provisions of the Bill in relation to the provision of 1445 what the clause terms "communal accommodation". As the Bill stands, discrimination in the provision of accommodation is caught principally by Clause 6 relating to discrimination in employment, Clause 22 to discrimination in education, and Clause 29 to discrimination in the provision of goods, services and facilities to the public or a section of the public.

The clause is designed to resolve the potential conflict which arises as regards the provision of communal accommodation between on the one hand the principle of non-discrimination and on the other hand considerations of privacy and propriety. What we have tried to do in the clause is to resolve the conflict without providing a large loophole in the Bill in regard to the important matter of accommodation.

It is important to strike the right balance in this because accommodation is too important a commodity to be placed wholly outside the Bill through the operation of an unqualified propriety and privacy exception. But the unqualified application to it of the principle of nondiscrimination will produce, at best, absurd or wrong results and, at worst positive mischief in the form of the closing down or under-utilisation of what is usually a scarce resource.

To deal with these problems we are proposing in the clause a qualified propriety and privacy exception for communal accommodation which is designed to ensure that men and women seeking such accommodation are treated as fairly and equitably as circumstances allow. I commend the clause to the House.

As a supplementary explanation, subsections (1) and (2) define communal accommodation, and sub-sections (3), (4) and (5) spell out the solution. Subsection (4) provides that in determining whether the provider of communal accommodation has treated men and women as fairly and equitably as possible, the court or tribunal should take account, first, of whether and how far it is reasonable to expect the accommodation to be altered or extended, and, secondly, what the respective demands from men and women for the accommodation are and how the demands may fluctuate over time.

1446 Because of the special importance of equal opportunities in the employment field, the Government have thought it right to be somewhat tougher in this respect. Subsection (5) accordingly provides that the defence in subsection (3) is not available in respect of discrimination under Part II of the Bill unless such arrangements as are reasonably practicable are made by the provider of the accommodation to compensate the members of the sex to whom the accommodation cannot be made available. An employer who provides communal accommodation for his male employees will be able to continue to do so provided he does his best, for example, to find alternative accommodation for his women employees or, where the accommodation is subsidised, to provide them with an appropriate lodging allowance.

To some extent, communal accommodation is already dealt with in the Bill. Clause 33 (1)(c) provides a propriety and privacy exception from Clause 29. Similarly, Clause 26(2) excepts single-sex boarding accommodation in a co-educational school, but it does not apply where the school provides boarding accommodation for both sexes.

There is no communal accommodation exception, however, in Part II. Thus it would, as the Bill stands, be unlawful for an employer to make communal accommodation available to his male employees but not to his female employees, even for reasons of propriety and privacy. Clause 7(2)(c), however, enables him to refuse a woman or man a job where sharing communal accommodation is an essential concomitant of the job and where he cannot be expected to extend or alter the accommodation.

The House will appreciate from what I have said that the Bill does not at present deal comprehensively with the difficulties to which communal accommodation gives rise. I hope the House will agree that it should do so, and agree to the clause, which, I think, deals with the difficulty in the best way possible. I commend the clause to the House.