Equality and Diversity (Reform) Bill — Second Reading — Positive Discrimination — 21 Oct 2011 at 13:20

Peter Bone MP, Wellingborough voted to prohibit positive discrimination by public bodies in relation to recruitment and by political parties seeking to reduce inequality in the numbers of men and women elected.

The majority of MPs voted to allow public bodies to positively discriminate during recruitment and appointment processes in favour of groups of people based on age, sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, disability, religion, socio-economic status of members; and for the continuation of the exemption from equalities law permiting political parties to discriminate on the basis of sex to attempt to reduce inequality in the numbers of men and women elected.

MPs were considering the Equality and Diversity (Reform) Bill[1]. The motion rejected in this vote was:

  • That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The rejection of the motion meant the Bill made no further progress towards becoming law.

The Bill sought to:

  • Prohibit public authorities promoting or engaging in positive action when recruiting employees and making appointments; with positive actio defined as action intended to give a benefit or encouragement to a particular group based on the age, sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, disability, religion, socio-economic status of members of that group of people.
  • Repeal the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 which excludes political parties selecting candidates from the provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 allowing discrimination on the basis of sex "for the purpose of reducing inequality in the numbers of men and women elected, as candidates of the party, to be members of the body concerned".

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Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con20 (+2 tell) 3 (+2 tell)08.8%
Lab17 006.6%
LDem2 003.5%
Total:39 307.4%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Peter BoneWellingboroughCon (front bench)aye
Philip DaviesShipleyCon (front bench)tellaye
Philip HolloboneKetteringCon (front bench)aye
David NuttallBury NorthCon (front bench)tellaye
Jacob Rees-MoggNorth East SomersetCon (front bench)aye

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