67-625: The Equality Act 2010 (c. 15), often erroneously called the Equalities Act 2010 , is an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed during the Brown ministry with the primary purpose of consolidating, updating and supplementing the numerous prior Acts and Regulations, that formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in mostly England, Scotland and Wales; some sections also apply to Northern Ireland . These consisted, primarily, of
134-511: A white paper , which is a clear statement of intent. It is increasingly common for a small number of Government bills to be published in draft before they are presented in Parliament. These bills are then considered either by the relevant select committee of the House of Commons or by an ad hoc joint committee of both Houses. This provides an opportunity for the committee to express a view on
201-640: A 6% swing). Following polling that suggested women were less likely to vote Labour than men, the party introduced All-women shortlists at their 1993 annual conference. Labour used all-women shortlists to select candidates in half of all winnable seats for the 1997 general election , with the aim of reaching 100 female MPs post-election; a goal that was achieved. The shortlists provoked controversy, however. In 1996, Labour Party branches in Croydon Central , Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney , Bishop Auckland and Slough all submitted hostile motions criticising
268-680: A commitment to an Equality Bill in its 2005 election manifesto. The Discrimination Law Review was established in 2005 to develop the legislation and was led by the Government Equalities Office . The review considered the findings of the Equalities Review Panel, chaired by Trevor Phillips , which reported in February 2007. The Act is intended to simplify the law by bringing together existing anti-discrimination legislation. The Equality Act 2010 has replaced
335-492: A few, if any, are passed each year. Parliamentary authorities maintain a list of all private bills before parliament . Hybrid bills combine elements of both public and private bill. While they propose to make changes to the general law, they also contain provisions applying to specific individuals or bodies. Recent examples are the Crossrail Bill, a hybrid bill to build a railway across London from west to east , and
402-510: A general change in the law. The only difference from other public bills is that they are brought forward by a private member (a backbencher) rather than by the government. Twenty private members' bills per session are allowed to be introduced, with the sponsoring private members selected by a ballot of the whole house, and additional bills may be introduced under the Ten Minute Rule . Financial bills raise revenue and authorise how money
469-689: A hearing before the High Court of Justice , because the justice did not consider the case to be arguable. Act of Parliament (UK) King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee An Act of Parliament in
536-572: A minimum consultation period of twelve weeks. Consultation documents are widely circulated (see for example the Home Office consultation on extreme pornography and the Scottish Government 's consultation on food policy ). The character of the consultation is shaped by the government's determination to press forward with a particular set of proposals. A government may publish a green paper outlining various legislative options or
603-541: A period of consultation will take place before a bill is drafted. Within government, the Treasury and other departments with an interest will be consulted along with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Outside government, interested parties such as trade unions , industry bodies and pressure groups will be asked for their views on any proposals. The Cabinet Office Code of Practice specifies
670-409: A process of consultation, the sponsoring department will send drafting instructions to parliamentary counsel, expert lawyers working for the government responsible for writing legislation. These instructions will describe what the bill should do but not the detail of how this is achieved. The Parliamentary counsel must draft the legislation clearly to minimise the possibility of legal challenge and to fit
737-469: A specifically named locality or legal person in a manner different from all others. Private bills are "usually promoted by organisations, like local authorities or private companies, to give themselves powers beyond, or in conflict with, the general law. Private bills only change the law as it applies to specific individuals or organisations, rather than the general public. Groups or individuals potentially affected by these changes can petition Parliament against
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#1732802149098804-418: A sub-category of private acts, which confer specific rights or duties on a named individual or individuals, for example allowing two persons to marry even though they are within a "prohibited degree of consanguinity or affinity" such as stepfather and stepdaughter. Private bills, common in the 19th century, are now rare, as new planning legislation introduced in the 1960s removed the need for many of them. Only
871-586: A subset, do not, no matter their requirements, provide a way for women to achieve equality in government. For instance, some critics in this arena believe that gender quotas and debate regarding them does not represent real or substantive gains for women. Similarly, some criticisms of gender quotas, including all-women shortlists, argue that even with quotas in place, societal norms discouraging women from holding leadership positions still prevent significant changes. More specifically, these critics assert that even when women do run for office under quota systems, they face
938-619: A system in which gender quotas exist for its single national legislative body, the National Assembly , with a requirement that women hold 30% of the National Assembly's 246 single-member constituency seats and 50% of its 54 proportionally elected seats. However, "neither of the two major political parties has thus far nominated women to more than 10 percent of the single-member district seats," resulting in women constituting 15.7% of National Assembly members. This situation
1005-830: A variety of systems to pick their candidates for office, with Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay having "fairly informal selection rules" for their candidates, in which party elites have large amounts of influence, while those in Paraguay and Costa Rica use more stringent methods of selection described by formal and written rules within the political parties. Political parties with more bureaucratized, stricter candidate selection processes in Latin American countries with legislative-body quotas run women as, on average, 37.8% of their candidates for legislative bodies, while in those parties with less formalized selection processes, on average, women constitute 31.5% of candidates. South Korea has
1072-436: Is designed to keep the business of government and public affairs up to date. These bills may not be substantial or controversial in party political terms. Two sub-classes of the housekeeping bill are consolidation bills , which set out existing law in a clearer and more up-to-date form without changing its substance; and the tax law rewrite bills , which do the same for tax law. An Act of Parliament will often confer power on
1139-475: Is largely due to the candidate selection process of South Korean political parties, whose "rules governing candidate selection lack routinization," allowing party leaders to have significant influence regarding candidates and the ability to circumvent gender quotas. The Liberal Party and the NDP at both federal and provincial levels started to set targets to increase the number and percentage of female candidates in
1206-820: Is spent. The best-known such bills are the normally annual Finance Bills introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Budget . This usually encompasses all the changes to be made to tax law for the year. Its formal description is "a Bill to grant certain duties, to alter other duties, and to amend the law relating to the National Debt and the Public Revenue, and to make further provision in connection with finance". Consolidated Fund and Appropriation Bills authorise government spending. This type of bill
1273-507: The 1976 Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Bill , which was a particularly controversial bill that was ruled to be a hybrid bill, forcing the government to withdraw some of its provisions to allow its passage as a public bill. Once passed, hybrid bills are printed as part of the public general acts. Parliamentary authorities maintain a list of all hybrid bills before parliament . It is important not to confuse private bills with private members' bills, which are public bills intended to effect
1340-573: The Blaenau Gwent constituency in Wales beating Maggie Jones who had been selected using Labour's All-women shortlist policy. The loss was widely blamed on controversy over AWS. A Speaker's conference was set up in 2008 to study the reasons why MPs were predominantly white, male and able-bodied. An interim report released in July 2009 called for women to make up at least 50% of new candidates at
1407-672: The Danish Social Democrats "each sex has the right to a representation of at least 40 per cent of the Social Democratic candidates for local and regional elections. If there is not a sufficient number of candidates from each sex, this right will not fully come into effect"; however, this party law was abolished in 1996. Iraq held its first post-Saddam parliamentary elections in January 2005 under an electoral law providing for compulsory integration of women on
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#17328021490981474-596: The Equal Pay Act 1970 , Sex Discrimination Act 1975 , Race Relations Act 1976 , Disability Discrimination Act 1995 , Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 , Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 and the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 . Polly Toynbee wrote that the bill, which was drafted under the guidance of Harriet Harman , was "Labour's biggest idea for 11 years. A public-sector duty to close
1541-675: The Equal Pay Act 1970 , the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 , the Race Relations Act 1976 , the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and three major statutory instruments protecting discrimination (protecting discrimination?) in employment on grounds of religion or belief , sexual orientation and age . The act has broadly the same goals as the four major EU Equal Treatment Directives , whose provisions it mirrors and implements. However,
1608-621: The King in Council , a minister , or another public body to create delegated legislation, usually by means of a statutory instrument . Bills may start their passage in either the House of Commons or House of Lords , although bills which are mainly or entirely financial will start in the Commons. Each bill passes through the following stages: Although not strictly part of the legislative process,
1675-568: The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in preventing men from entering a profession. The 34 candidates who had already been selected by all-women shortlists were not required to seek re-selection, but all 14 unfinished all-women shortlist selections were suspended. Jepson and Dyas-Elliott did not seek compensation for their loss. At the 1997 general election , 35 out of 38 Labour AWS candidates were elected. The Conservative Party also opposed gender quotas, preferring to persuade constituencies to select female candidates in winnable seats. Prior to
1742-535: The Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party mandated "every second on the list a woman", which meant that male and female candidates would be alternated between each other on the party list of preferred candidates, a format known as a "zipper quota". The quota was imposed on 290 local parties by the national party organization. Furthermore, the party created a handbook for women with advice about how to seek political office. In 1988,
1809-715: The United Kingdom is primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament in Westminster , London . An Act of Parliament can be enforced in all four of the UK constituent countries ( England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland ). As a result of devolution the majority of acts that are passed by Parliament increasingly only apply either to England and Wales only, or England only. Generally acts only relating to constitutional and reserved matters now apply to
1876-614: The 1990s and used informal and internal mechanisms toward that goal. In 2020, the Ontario Liberal Party under the leadership of Steven Del Duca became the first political party in Canada to formally institute "Women-only Nomination" in its nomination rules. The party has, while in government under premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne , informally and effectively caused a limited number of contests to feature only female contestants. The new measure explicitly allowed
1943-546: The 1999 European parliament elections, the Liberal Democrats used a system called "zipping" in which equal numbers of men and women were elected as MEPs. Following the reduction in female MPs after the 2001 general election and increased lobbying by gender equality advocates, Labour introduced the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 , which allows parties to use positive discrimination in
2010-535: The 22 candidates nominated under this new measure ( Stephanie Bowman in Don Valley West , where former premier Wynne was retiring) became an elected MPP. All-women shortlists have been criticised as undemocratic, as "bypassing competitive principles and hence as ignoring the merit principle," and as "a form of discrimination against men." Labour's policy of all-women shortlists was challenged successfully in court in 1996, when an industrial tribunal found
2077-794: The Act also offers protection beyond the EU directives, protecting against discrimination based on a person's nationality and citizenship and also extending individuals' rights in areas of life beyond the workplace in religion or belief, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment . The act protects people against discrimination, harassment or victimisation in employment, and as users of private and public services based on nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership , pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. The Act includes provisions for single-sex services where
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2144-474: The Act extend until 2030 the exemption from sex discrimination law, which allows political parties to create all-women shortlists . The exemption was previously permitted by the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 . The parliamentary process was completed, following a debate, shortly after 11 pm on 6 April 2010, when amendments by the House of Lords were accepted in full. In April 2008, Solicitor General Vera Baird announced that as part of
2211-578: The Attorney General Baroness Scotland of Asthal decided not to sponsor a change in the law of succession, saying, "To bring about changes to the law on succession would be a complex undertaking involving amendment or repeal of a number of items of related legislation, as well as requiring the consent of legislatures of member nations of the Commonwealth". The published draft bill did not contain any provisions to change
2278-645: The Equality Act (because the majority of their MPs are female), HuffPost reported that the party abandoned them in March 2022. Many countries today use political gender quotas. Among the first to use party reservations for female candidates by political parties were Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In 1983, the Norwegian Labour Party mandated that "at all elections and nominations both sexes must be represented by at least 40 per cent", and in 1994,
2345-790: The Labour Party had broken the law, unanimously ruling that all-women shortlists were illegal under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in preventing men from entering a profession. One category of criticism asserts that gender quotas represent a positive step, but do not accomplish enough. Some criticism in this vein asserts that quotas should include penalties for groups who do not follow them. Similarly, some critics argue that quotas in corporations in addition to those in governing bodies, should be instituted among other measures to improve public and private sector career opportunities for women. However, other critics believe that gender quota policies, like those of which all-women shortlists represent
2412-470: The Lords. They will check the following: After this process, the bill is then ready for introduction. All-women shortlist All-women shortlists ( AWS ) is an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom , allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular political party . Labour abandoned
2479-627: The Public Sector Equality Duty", noted that public authorities needed to have due regard to this duty when planning and undertaking procurement activities, stating in particular that when contracting out public functions, it would be usual to include contract conditions which specified how equality obligations and objectives were to be complied with. The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 (SI 2011–2260), made on 9 September 2011, required public authorities to publish information to demonstrate their compliance with
2546-539: The Single Equality Bill, legislation would be introduced to repeal parts of the Act of Settlement 1701 that prevent Roman Catholics or those who marry Roman Catholics from ascending to the throne, and to change the inheritance of the monarchy from cognatic primogeniture to absolute primogeniture , so that the first-born heir would inherit the throne regardless of gender or religion. However, later in 2008,
2613-514: The United Kingdom, and although the position had been spelled out in the High Court in R (Amicus) v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry , a small number of Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales made claims that they might in future be prosecuted under the Equality Act 2010 for refusing to allow women, married men, transgender people, and gay people into the priesthood. This claim
2680-586: The bill and propose amendments before it is introduced. Draft bills allow more lengthy scrutiny of potential legislation and have been seen as a response to time pressures which may result in the use of programme orders to impose a strict timetable on the passage of bills and what is known as 'drafting on the hoof', where the government introduces amendments to its own bills. With increased time for scrutiny backed up with considered evidence, draft bills may present governments with difficulty in getting their way. The sponsoring government department will then write to
2747-524: The bill in with existing UK, European Union and delegated legislation. A finished bill must be approved or scrutinised by the sponsoring department and minister, parliamentary counsel and LP. The final stage is the submission of the bill to the authorities of the House in which it is to start its legislative journey. In the Commons, this is the Clerk of Legislation and the Public Bill Office in
Equality Act 2010 - Misplaced Pages Continue
2814-647: The candidate lists, like several European countries with a proportional electoral system . Latin American political parties' gender policies for candidates often have a relationship to their respective countries' legalized gender quotas for governing bodies. Fourteen Latin American countries have such a quota for their legislatures; these countries consist of Argentina , Bolivia , Brazil , Colombia , Costa Rica , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , Guyana , Honduras , Mexico , Panama , Paraguay , Peru , and Uruguay . Political parties in Latin American countries utilize
2881-401: The creation of all-women shortlists, is a positive discrimination strategy making it compulsory for selection of women candidates in some constituencies. For the 1992 general election, the Labour Party had a policy of ensuring there was at least one statutory female candidate on each of its shortlists, however few of these women were successful in being selected in winnable seats (seats within
2948-454: The early supporters of all-women shortlists criticised their failure to recruit ethnic minority women into politics, stating that they had in effect "been all white women shortlists" As evidence of this claim, she cited the 1997 Parliamentary intake; where none of the MPs selected using all-women shortlists were black. Conservative Party leader David Cameron tried to institute AWS in 2006. There
3015-499: The following general election. However, all-women shortlists continued to elicit criticism. Then-Conservative Ann Widdecombe criticised the use of AWS stating that women in the past who fought for equality such as the suffragettes "wanted equal opportunities not special privileges" and "they would have thrown themselves under the King's horse to protest against positive discrimination and all-women shortlists". Diane Abbott , one of
3082-417: The gap between rich and poor will tackle the class divide in a way that no other policy has... This new duty to narrow the gap would permeate every aspect of government policy. Its possible ramifications are mind-bogglingly immense." One cabinet member described it as "socialism in one clause". This part of the legislation was never brought into force, except for Scottish devolved authorities. Sections 104–105 of
3149-576: The gender balance was highly skewed between parties. In Labour, 45% of MPs were women, in the Scottish National Party 34%, in the Liberal Democrats 33%, but in the Conservatives just 21%. This meant the House of Commons was 32% women overall. The record for most female MPs elected was broken at the 2019 election, which marked the first time that female representation in the House of Commons is more than 33%. It saw an increase in
3216-635: The highest percentage of any party's female MPs represented despite a small increase in the number of first-time members elected, which was the case for the SNP. All-women shortlists had been credited with breaking down prejudices that impeded the selection of women and discouraged women from offering their candidacy. In both 1997 and 2005, 50% of women MPs elected were selected from all-women shortlists. The increase in women in politics brought increased parliamentary priority to issues such as women's health, domestic violence against women, and childcare. In addition,
3283-548: The increased number of women MPs and greater focus on women's concerns likely resulted in increased female support for Labour at the polls. AWS may also have made it easier for women to be selected non-all-women shortlist seats. The shortlists also gave rise to the appointment of the first British female Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith in June 2007. After Labour was warned that continuing with all-women shortlists for parliamentary elections would become an "unlawful" practice again under
3350-440: The largest category of legislation, in principle affecting the public general law applying to everyone across the entire United Kingdom, or at least to one or more of its constituent countries of England , Northern Ireland , Scotland , or Wales . Most public general acts proceed through Parliament as a public bill. Occasionally a bill is treated as hybrid . Private acts are either local or personal in their effect, applying to
3417-451: The main problem was not discrimination, but a lack of female candidates. Instead the party set a target of having 40% female candidates in winnable seats. At the 2005 general election, the shortlists helped to increase the number of female MPs in Parliament to 128, with the Labour Party's 98 women constituting 77% of the total. However, a Labour-controlled "safe seat" was lost when explicitly anti-AWS independent candidate Peter Law won
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#17328021490983484-469: The number of female MPs did not increase following the next election, but he did not see this as a long-term solution for the unrepresentative nature of parliament. The Conservative Party used AWS for selection of a few candidates in the 2015 general election . Helen Whately was selected in Faversham and Mid Kent . At the 2017 election, a "record number of female MPs" entered Parliament, although
3551-414: The party to designate certain electoral districts where only female nomination contestants would be included on the nomination ballots. Del Duca further mandated party officials to prioritize designating "target ridings", namely districts with retiring incumbent and where it previously held while in government, as women-only. However, the party's dismal performance in the 2022 election meant that only one of
3618-402: The percentage of women elected from both Conservative and Labour. Although 51% of Labour MPs are now women, the lack of any stop mechanism in party rules means preferential AWS shortlists may continue this rise until the legal exception sunsets in 2030. The most Conservative women in their party's history entered the House after this election, without the aid of an AWS. The Liberal Democrats held
3685-503: The policy in court. Supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission , they claimed that they had been illegally barred from applying to be considered to represent the party and that the policy contradicted Labour's policy of aiming to promote equality of opportunity. In January 1996, an industrial tribunal found the Labour Party had broken the law, unanimously ruling that all-women shortlists were illegal under
3752-619: The policy. Concern about such sex discrimination was especially strong in Slough where the local party refused to even co-operate in selecting a candidate after having an AWS imposed. Another concern was that AWS were being used as a device to keep out certain men who might have made trouble for Tony Blair , Prime Minister at the time; then-Labour Party leader Blair stated that AWS were "not ideal at all" in 1995. In December 1995, Peter Jepson and Roger Dyas-Elliott, prevented from standing on Labour shortlists because of their gender, challenged
3819-777: The proposed bill and present their objections to committees of MPs and Lords." They include acts to confer powers on certain local authorities, a recent example being the Canterbury City Council Bill, which makes provisions relating to street trading and consumer protection in the city. Private bills can also affect certain companies: the Northern Bank Bill allowed the statutory right of Northern Bank to issue bank notes to be transferred to Danske Bank which had acquired it. Other private bills may affect particular companies established by Act of Parliament such as TSB Bank and Transas. Personal acts are
3886-519: The public sector equality duty and to identify one or more objectives which they thought they should work to achieve. In 2020, certain groups attempted to legally challenge the EHRC's Code of Practice on "Services, Public Functions and Associations", which attempts to provide practical guidance on implementing the Equality Act, concerning the advice that service providers should in general treat trans people as their acquired gender. The challenge failed to get
3953-487: The relevant policy committee of the Cabinet. The proposals are only discussed at a meeting if disagreements arise. Even an uncontroversial proposal may face administrative hurdles. A potential change in the law may have to wait for a more extensive bill in that policy area to be brought forward before it is worthwhile devoting parliamentary time to it. The proposal will then be bundled together with more substantive measures in
4020-434: The restrictions are "a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim". In the case of disability, employers and service providers are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to their workplaces to overcome barriers experienced by disabled people. In this regard, the Equality Act 2010 did not change the law. Under s.217, with limited exceptions the Act does not apply to Northern Ireland . The Labour Party included
4087-489: The same Bill. The Ministerial Committee on the Legislative Programme (LP), including the leaders and government chief whips in both houses, is responsible for the timetable of legislation. This committee decides which house a bill will start in, recommends to the Cabinet which proposals will be in the King's Speech , which will be published in draft and how much parliamentary time will be required. Following
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#17328021490984154-567: The selection of candidates. They were to remain legalised until the end of 2015, due to a "sunset clause" in the Act, but that deadline was extended to 2030 as part of the Equality Act 2010 . In contrast, the Liberal Democrats rejected a proposal to use AWS in 2001; suggesting such shortlists were illiberal and unnecessary. Prominent women MPs of the party opposed the use of all-women shortlists. Party members argued that
4221-654: The shortlist for general election purposes in March 2022. Political parties in other countries, such as South Korea and various Latin American countries, have used practices analogous to AWS, especially in relation to government sex quotas. In the 1990s, women constituted less than 10% of MPs in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Political parties used various strategies to increase female representation, including encouraging women to stand and constituency associations to select them, and providing special training for potential female candidates. Another strategy,
4288-599: The succession laws. Male-preference primogeniture for the British monarchy was instead abolished separately three years after the Equality Act came into force, with the enactment of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 . Although the act was never going to change the law with regard to churches from its existing position, nor change the binding European Union law which covers many more Roman Catholics than those living in
4355-410: The whole of the United Kingdom . A draft piece of legislation is called a bill . When this is passed by Parliament and given royal assent , it becomes an act and part of statute law . Acts of Parliament are classified as either "public general acts" or "local and personal acts" (also known as "private acts"). Bills are also classified as "public", "private", or "hybrid". Public general acts form
4422-543: Was opposition from some female Conservative MPs, such as Nadine Dorries and Ann Widdecombe. In October 2009, David Cameron stated that the under-representation of women and ethnic minorities was "a real problem for Parliament and for my party", and reversed his opposition to AWS. In February 2010, he indicated that he would impose AWS because the pace of change towards the selection of more female MPs had been too slow. In 2009, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg stated that he would consider introducing all-women shortlists if
4489-760: Was rejected by the government. A spokesman said an exemption in the law "covers ministers of religion such as Catholic priests" and a document released by the Government Equalities Office states that "the Equality Bill will not change the existing legal position regarding churches and employment". The legislation was also criticised by Anglican clergy. Certain employment is exempted from the Act, including: The duty set out in section 149 requires those public authorities which are subject to it to have due regard to three aims: The Cabinet Office 's Information Note 1/13 , "Public Procurement and
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