Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 (Hansard, 14 July 2003)

§ Baroness Scotland of Asthal

We do not accept that we have allowed a colour bar to be prevalent in anti-discrimination legislation by excluding "colour" discrimination from protection in the Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003. Most of the 1976 Act, which lists colour as one of the grounds of unlawful racial discrimination, was already more than compliant with the directive. The changes introduced by the regulations to ensure full compliance with the directive and are relatively few in number. Furthermore one of these changes, namely the definition of harassment, reflects current case law (which will continue to apply in cases involving harassment on grounds of colour).

"Colour" discrimination has been excluded from the Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 because we consider that the power conferred by the European Communities Act 1972 would confer authority to combat discrimination on grounds of colour, in the course of grounds of colour, in the course of implementing the Race Directive (Council Directive 2000/43/EC), if it had not already been used to make good any shortfall in Community competence in certain areas of the 1976 Act corresponding to those mentioned in the directive (in order to deal with the limitation in Article 3.1 of the directive).