Wednesday 20 July 2022
The Committee for Employment & Social Security has approved the draft Prevention of Discrimination (Guernsey) Ordinance, 2022 for submission to the Legislation Review Panel in the latest step towards Guernsey introducing new anti-discrimination legislation.
Once the Ordinance has been reviewed by the Panel, subject to any amendments the Panel recommends, it is anticipated that the final Ordinance will be submitted to the States in mid-August in time for consideration at the States' meeting at the end of September this year.
It was previously agreed that the Ordinance would come into force six months after it was approved by the States. However, having listened to feedback from the business community, the Committee has drafted the Ordinance with a commencement date of 1st October 2023 to ensure businesses have more time to prepare for the new legislation.
The draft Ordinance is available at gov.gg/discrimination.
Deputy Peter Roffey, President of the Committee for Employment & Social Security, said:
'As a Committee, we're very pleased that the draft Ordinance is ready for the next stage of the approval process. This brings us another step closer to introducing long awaited legislation that will make discrimination on the grounds of race, disability, carer status, sexual orientation and religious belief unlawful.
'We thought it was important to publish the draft Ordinance prior to formal submission to the States to give interested parties plenty of time to review it before the States considers the Ordinance.'
