Bill will allow breast-feeding in public

Mothers are to get the legal right to breast-feed in public places and discrimination against female members of golf clubs will be outlawed under a overhaul of equality laws.

But the shake-up of discrimination legislation is to stop short of taking action against organisations, such as working men's clubs, that ban women outright.

Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, yesterday announced consultation on a planned Single Equality Bill, which would bring together 40 years of piecemeal laws against sex, race and religious discrimination.

It proposes following Scotland's lead and giving women in England and Wales the right to breastfeed in restaurants, cafes and shops, as well as on trains and buses. Alison Baum, of the Breast-feeding Manifesto Coalition, said: "A woman needs to have the confidence that she isn't going to be asked to stop."

The Government is also warning that it is not acceptable for female members of golf clubs to be treated as "second-class citizens" and plans to outlaw restrictions on when women can uses courses or bars. The move could also potentially affect the Carlton Club, the Tory bastion which grants women only "half-member" status.

But ministers say that they do not intend to stop people setting up clubs exclusively for men or women or to stop pensioners enjoying special concessions such as free bus fares.

The Bill will set out the rights of the disabled, the elderly and gay people. It would, for example, force landlords to provide access to communal areas for disabled tenants and stop older shoppers being refused credit. Courts could be set up to enforce the law, promising "swifter, less costly and more effective justice" for victims of discrimination.

The proposals have been put out to consultation until September, a month before the new umbrella body, the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights (CEHR), starts work. Ms Kelly said: "Equality law is not about some abstract concept. It is about how every one of us is treated at work, as a customer and consumer, and by our public services. For over 40 years, laws have been introduced in a piecemeal fashion and have... become overlapping and less clear."

Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the CEHR, said it was right to untangle the "impenetrable thicket" of equality legislation that left many people baffled as to their rights. But he added: "This should be an opportunity to do something more ambitious than simply ensuring that women get a place at the bar in the local golf club."

The Fawcett Society campaign group protested that ministers had failed to "grasp the nettle" and take the kind of radical action needed to close the pay gap between men and women.

Dr Katherine Rake, its director, said: "This might be good news for women who play golf, but for the millions more who just want to be paid equally it's a distraction. At the current rate of change, it's going to take 140 years until women are paid equally - and the Government has missed a huge opportunity to speed that up."

Help the Aged said the Green Paper offered a chance to close "gaping holes". Kate Jopling, its head of public affairs, said: "This government has made huge leaps forward in delivering equality for race, gender and disability and more recently sexual orientation, religion and belief.

"It is a disgrace that older people have been left lagging so far behind... Age discrimination stops them playing their full part in society."