Nearly Legal: Housing Law News and Comment

Equality bill to tackle Malcolm judgment

From Usefully Employed (hat-tip) comes the news that the consultation on the Equality Bill proposes the introduction of indirect discrimination as a category, which would help with the horlicks that the Lords made of the 1995 Act in Malcolm v Lewisham:

[the Bill shall] adopt the concept of indirect discrimination for the purposes of the disability discrimination provisions in the Equality Bill, rather than carry forward to the Equality Bill the existing provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 that apply to disability-related discrimination. Once a prima facie case of indirect discrimination has been made, it will be possible for the person who imposed the provision, criterion or practice to show that it was objectively justified to defeat the claim; and

introduce a requirement that those people and organisations that are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people must make any reasonable adjustment that the Equality Bill will require them to make before they can seek to justify indirect discrimination.

Consultation here. Let us hope that this provision will extend to eviction as the 1995 Act did, but without the little difficulties.

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