"ACT NOW AGAINST AGE DISCRIMINATION" GOVERNMENT URGED

3.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 3rd Sep 2007

Liberal Democrat MEP Liz Lynne has added her voice to calls from Help the Aged for more action against age discrimination.

Her comments come as research from the charity shows nearly two-thirds of older people think the Government is not doing enough to combat it.

Liz, who is Vice-President of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee at the European Parliament, worked to ensure that age was included in the EU "Employment" directive which forced the Government to bring forward legislation banning age discrimination in the workplace.

Commenting from Strasbourg Liz said;

"The UK Government was one of the last EU countries to fulfill its obligations and bring forward legislation outlawing discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age, having fought incredibly fiercely to exclude age from the original EU directive."

"This report is a worrying sign; age discrimination regulations must be tightened up and implemented effectively if we are to ensure that people are not forced to stop working whether they want to or not."

"The fight is not over - the new law doesn't apply to the provision of goods and services so it is still lawful for some companies and health care providers to discriminate on the grounds of age, which is clearly an unacceptable situation. This is why I will continue to urge the Commission to bring forward a new directive outlawing discrimination on the basis of age in the provision of goods and services"