Solicitors welcome single Equalities Commission plan

Solicitors have given the thumbs up to government plans to merge equality watchdogs into a single body, saying it will make it easier for both employers and victims of discrimination to get legal advice.

Cabinet office minister Barbara Roche last week unveiled plans for a single Equalities Commission, which will swallow up the existing Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

Ms Roche said she hoped to have proposals for the organisation - which will also cover discrimination on the grounds of religion, sexual orientation and age - by the autumn.

The CRE and the EOC gave the announcement a cautious welcome.

However, the DRC said it could only work if a 'common set of rights' was established, and the budget for enforcing disabled people's rights increased.

The commissions declined to speculate on how their legal work would be affected by the changes.

The EOC employs nine lawyers, the CRE 17, and the DRC ten.

DRC legal director Nick O'Brien said his main concern was that any model adopted would not make provisions for disabled people 'any more limited than they are now'.

Geoffrey Bindman, senior partner of London firm Bindmans and president of the Discrimination Law Association, said single commissions had enjoyed success in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

He added: 'There must be an element of sub-division to recognise the different requirements of each group, but to me this seems feasible.'

DLA employment partner Makbool Javaid - formerly with the CRE - said the move was good news for employers.

'With a bit of joined-up thinking, we should see some synergy in the good practice guides, and I think employers will welcome the opportunity to get information from a single source,' he said.

But Nicola Dandridge, national head of equalities at Thompsons, warned: 'The existing three bodies already do a good job with limited money, and these changes must not be an excuse to cut funding.'

Paula Rohan