Debate contribution: Age Discrimination (Goods, Facilities and Services) Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Ms Claire Sugden on .
- MLA
- Ms Claire Sugden
- Party at the time
- Independent
- Date
- 20 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Age Discrimination (Goods, Facilities and Services) Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5798513
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for making that point. I appreciate the concern. It was a deliberate drafting choice to depart from the Equality Act in order to make our legislation stronger here so that financial services do not necessarily have a blanket exception, not least because the protections that a lot of older people ask for in our constituency offices probably involve financial services. From my perspective, it is about strengthening that law, but there is a safeguard insofar as the Department will be able to make regulations for those exceptions. If justifiable and evidence-based reasons are found for exempting some services from the protection, that has to be demonstrated by those financial services. I appreciate the concern about access to products and services in Northern Ireland. The Committee should have that concern, but that is why engagement with the financial sector is critical to see whether the safeguard that I have put in place is enough to allay its concerns about what is appropriate. The other point to make is that the Bill will come into effect 12 months after receiving Royal Assent. It will become law 12 months after that point. If the Department, which is absent from this conversation, has not made the regulations by then, the responsibility will be on it to make financial services subject to that. I am also conscious that this institution has a terrible habit of collapsing. There is something that we need to consider in that. We may have to put something in to safeguard against that, but I would hate to write into law this institution's inability to do its job.
271 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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