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House of Lords Official Report Vol. 777 Tuesday No. 85 20 December 2016 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS Lord Speaker’s Committee on the Size of the House Announcement...............................................................................................................1541 Questions Gender Pay Gap ...........................................................................................................1541 Prevent Strategy............................................................................................................1544 Cyprus ..........................................................................................................................1546 Rail Devolution: London .............................................................................................1548 Syria: Aleppo Private Notice Question ................................................................................................1551 Business of the House Motion on Standing Orders ...........................................................................................1554 Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill [HL] Third Reading ...............................................................................................................1554 Lobbying (Transparency) Bill [HL] Third Reading ...............................................................................................................1554 High Speed Rail (London–West Midlands) Bill Committed to Committee ..............................................................................................1554 21st Century Fox Takeover Bid for Sky: Timetable Statement......................................................................................................................1555 Consumer Rights (Enforcement and Amendments) Order 2016 Motion to Approve ........................................................................................................1559 Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 (Penalty Points) (Amendment) Order 2016 Motion to Approve ........................................................................................................1562 Legal Services Act 2007 (Claims Management Complaints) (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 Motion to Approve ........................................................................................................1575 Social Mobility Committee Report Motion to Take Note.....................................................................................................1579 Press Regulation (Communications Committee Report) Motion to Take Note ....................................................................................................1623 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. No proofs of Daily Reports are provided. Corrections for the bound volume which Lords wish to suggest to the report of their speeches should be clearly indicated in a copy of the Daily Report, which, with the column numbers concerned shown on the front cover, should be sent to the Editor of Debates, House of Lords, within 14 days of the date of the Daily Report. This issue of the Official Report is also available on the Internet at https://hansard.parliament.uk.uk/lords/2016-12-20 The first time a Member speaks to a new piece of parliamentary business, the following abbreviations are used to show their party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Ind UU Independent Ulster Unionist Lab Labour LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2016, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 1541 Lord Speaker’s Committee [20 DECEMBER 2016] Gender Pay Gap 1542 House of Lords Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD): I am very grateful for that Answer. I am sure it is true to say that every Tuesday 20 December 2016 Government over the last 40 years have sought to tackle this problem, and the gender pay gap regulations 2.30 pm referred to by the Minister and published this month are no exception. The notes to the regulations specify Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Rochester. that failure to comply with these regulations constitutes an unlawful act. What sanction do the Government Lord Speaker’s Committee on the Size of have in mind for the EHRC to impose? Will it be a the House gentle slap on the wrist or should transgressors be hit Announcement where it hurts—in their pockets? 2.36 pm Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, we do The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler): My Lords, I would not intend to create additional civil penalties at this like to make a short statement. On 5 December, the time but we can review that if levels of compliance are House debated a Motion in the name of the noble not satisfactory. As the noble Baroness said, non- Lord, Lord Cormack, on the size of the House. The compliance will constitute an unlawful act and will fall Motion sought agreement that the House believes that within the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s its size, existing enforcement powers under the Equality Act 2006. “should be reduced, and methods should be explored by which I am grateful to the noble Baroness for bringing up this could be achieved”. this question and I am pleased to say that the trajectory Sixty-one Members spoke during the debate and the is heading in a very positive direction. Motion was carried unanimously. A feature of many of the speeches that day was that we should not delay Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab): My Lords, in carrying out such an examination. Accordingly, I I started working in 1970, when the Minister was just am setting up a six-member Lord Speaker’s Committee, three years old. Of course, that was also the year of drawn entirely from the Back Benches, to examine the the Equal Pay Act. I would have been devastated had I possible methods by which the House could be reduced discovered that, almost half a century later, I would be in size. I am pleased to announce that the noble Lord, standing here still with an 18% pay gap. I ask the Lord Burns, has agreed to chair the committee and Minister to do two things. First, will she make sure that the other members will be the noble Lord, Lord Beith, that government investment is geared towards getting the noble Baronesses, Lady Browning, Lady Crawley women into the highest-paid professions and industries, and Lady Taylor of Bolton, and the noble Lord, Lord because, at the moment, women are mostly in low-paid Wakeham. Further details are set out in a Written industry? Secondly, could she possibly tell her Treasury Ministerial Statement from the Senior Deputy Speaker, colleagues that, through almost 90% of their tax and which is available in the Printed Paper Office. The benefits changes relating to women, they are only committee will get down to work as soon as the House adding insult to injury? resumes after the Christmas Recess. I would just add that this is not an easy task. Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, the However, if this issue can be settled, I hope that the Government, starting with the previous Prime Minister, public will be better able to recognise the true value of are most certainly committed to the very ends that the this House. noble Baroness seeks. Not only are women contributing to tax, but they also bring the huge benefit of increasing Gender Pay Gap GDP in this country. Question Baroness Kramer (LD): My Lords, recent reports by Deloitte and the British Computer Society have 2.38 pm underscored that where women are educated in STEM Asked by Baroness Burt of Solihull subjects and then pursue careers in that field, the To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light gender pay gap is at its narrowest. Does the Minister of findings by the Fawcett Society that at the current agree that there are still huge cultural, social and other rate of progress it will take over 60 years to close barriers that discourage many women from pursuing the gender pay gap, what steps they are taking to those opportunities and avenues? Would the Government achieve pay parity more quickly. be willing to put some resources behind trying to break down those barriers in an effective way, because The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams leadership is surely required in this area? of Trafford) (Con): My Lords, at 18.1% the gender pay gap is the lowest on record, but no gap is acceptable. Baroness Williams of Trafford: My daughter has Increasing transparency will accelerate progress.Delivering just graduated in a STEM subject and is now working on our manifesto commitment, we recently laid regulations with one of the big four accountancy firms. That firm requiring large employers to publish their gender pay is going to great lengths to improve the diversity of its gap annually. The government-commissioned and workforce. Some companies are much better than independently led Hampton-Alexander review has set others at encouraging diversity, but I look
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