§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to their answer of 1st November 1994 (HL, WA 59), what are the "small differences" between United Kingdom law and the terms of the International Labour Organisation Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958; and whether they will take steps to eliminate those differences so as to enable the United Kingdom to ratify the convention; and, if not, why not.
§ Lord InglewoodEmployment in certain posts under the Crown can be denied to British nationals who were born outside the United Kingdom and to those born of parents who were born outside the United Kingdom. This could be regarded by the ILO as discrimination under the convention on the grounds of national extraction. The United Kingdom also has no domestic legislation to outlaw discrimination specifically on the grounds of political opinion or social origin, or of religion except in Northern Ireland. However, the Government have no plans to introduce legislation in these fields. They believe that their commitment to the elimination of unfair discrimination between one worker and another in the field of employment is already clearly demonstrated by existing legislation.