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 5798747
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for allowing me an intervention. That is a valid point. It will be up to the Committee at the Bill's next stage to decide whether the 12-month period is sufficient. As the Member rightly notes, the commencement date for the Equality Commission provisions is much sooner. Essentially, that is because it will be empowered to create the list of guidelines that will, hopefully, translate the legislation for small businesses right up to much larger ones. That is important. The other area in which that point is important relates to potential regulations and exceptions. There is a year — it may or may not be enough time — for the Department to develop appropriate regulations if it feels that some areas have to be excluded for justifiable reasons. For me, when it came to the commencement provisions, six months did not feel long enough. A 12-month period is fairly standard, but 18 months or maybe even two years —. I am not 100% sure of this, but the Equality Act was passed in 2010 and did not commence until, I think, two years later. It might be worth considering extending the period to that.
197 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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