§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what appraisal he has carried out of the implications of European Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 for the legal and administrative arrangements affecting disabled people in employment and occupation in the United Kingdom. [145872]
§ Ms HodgeWe published a consultation document and Regulatory Impact Assessment on 29 August 2000 based on the first draft of the directive. The directive was published in its final form on 27 November 2000. We have been considering the directive and although we have not completed our considerations, it is clear that the334W Disability Rights Task Force anticipated many of the requirements of the directive in its report published in December 1999. We hope to deal with these when we publish our final response to the Task Force's report and we will also be publishing shortly an explanatory memorandum on the text of the directive.