Browse content similar to 08/03/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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ombudsman 's arrest that allows review of complaints against the SRA | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
and I would only encourage you to look at whether that is a possible | :00:00. | :00:14. | |
T. Point of order. Mr Speaker, last Thursday we had an excellent debate | :00:15. | :00:18. | |
on Welsh affairs in this house. But unfortunately the Secretary of State | :00:19. | :00:25. | |
for Wales was absent. The Parliamentary undersecretary said, | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
"I can advise the house that the Secretary of State has Parliamentary | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
business elsewhere". However we learn from Twitter that the | :00:36. | :00:37. | |
Secretary of State for Wales was at a lunch with Bexley Conservative | :00:38. | :00:45. | |
ladies. There is a photograph. That is not Parliamentary business. So I | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
would respectfully suggest, Mr Speaker, that of the Parliamentary | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
undersecretary comes to the dispatch box, apologises for inadvertently | :00:56. | :01:03. | |
misleading the house. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am happy to clarify the | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
position and of course apologise if I have inadvertently misled the | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
house but I can confirm that the Secretary of State was on a mixture | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
out -- nature of government and political activity and I will | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
happily clarified. And apologise. But I would also confirm that it was | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
always the expectation as Parliamentary Undersecretary of | :01:29. | :01:30. | |
State that I should be responding to the backbench committee debate on St | :01:31. | :01:38. | |
David's Day. Glove we will consider that matter closed, however there is | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
another point of order on another suspect the -- on another subject. | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
Following the prime ministers commitment last December join the | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
debate on Syria to provide quarterly reports to the house and comments | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
from the Leader of the House last Thursday in business questions, that | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
there will be a further statement shortly on matters relating to | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
Syria. Could you offer me any guidance Mr Speaker on how I can in | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
courage the government to provide a clear indication of when this update | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
will take place and how to persuade ministers that it would be | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
beneficial for the Prime Minister himself to report back to members? I | :02:17. | :02:25. | |
my thank the honourable member for give me notice of this point of | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
order. I understand the government has given and and undertaken it will | :02:30. | :02:36. | |
provide quarterly report but it is for the government to determine the | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
appropriate form of these reports. And indeed which minister should | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
make them. That cannot fall to the chair. However, if the honourable | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
member is dissatisfied with the form or content of the updates, there are | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
a range of opportunities open to her for pressing the government for more | :03:00. | :03:07. | |
information. I would add that similarly, if the statement is not | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
forthcoming with the speed with which the honourable lady things | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
proper, she will also be aware of the mechanisms that she can deploy | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
to try to procure the presence of a minister, possibly even the Prime | :03:23. | :03:29. | |
Minister. We shall await events with interest. Point of order, Mr Michael | :03:30. | :03:37. | |
fabricant. Mr Speaker may I personally apologise to you for | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
inadvertently perhaps through frustration using an eighth letter | :03:42. | :03:50. | |
word beginning with the letter B and ending in -CKS when a colleague of | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
mine was ranging yet another scare story about what a disaster it would | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
be if we were to leave the European Union. It was unseemly. Actually I | :03:59. | :04:07. | |
had heard the utterance of the honourable gentleman. That was | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
spontaneous and from a sedentary position but precisely because of | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
its unseemly nurse I did not wish to draw attention to it. However the | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
honourable gentleman has now done so and there is nothing further that | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
requires to be set. I note in passing that the honourable | :04:29. | :04:33. | |
gentleman has occasion, possibly I have done by my apply, notable | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
hilarity from the Secretary of State for Justice and it is good to know | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
that the right honourable gentleman is in such an upbeat frame of mind. | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
-- by my reply. If there are no further points of order we can now | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
come to the ten minute rule motion in the name of Mr will Quins, | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
notably busy fellow in this house. Let's hear from the honourable | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
member. I beg to move the leave the given to bring in a bill to require | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
first day training as a condition for receiving the driving licence. | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
Mr Speaker, Britain has some of the safest roads in Europe but there is | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
death rate. In the last 12 months death rate. In the last 12 months | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
1780 people were killed on British roads. A total of 23,700 were killed | :05:29. | :05:36. | |
or seriously injured. Land transport accidents are one of the top five | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
biggest killers of males and females between the ages of five and 34. In | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
these situations when somebody is seriously injured or fighting for | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
their lives, every second counts. A review of road traffic in Europe | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
cited by the world health organisation claimed that 50% of | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
deaths from road collisions occurred within a few minutes of the crash. | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
So often there is not time for an ambulance to arrive. Knowledge of | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
first aid can be absolutely critical. The immediate initiation | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
of CPR for example can even quadruple survival from cardiac | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
arrest. But the sad reality is in Britain knowledge of first aid is | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
patchy. Through no fault of their own many people do not feel | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
confident enough to intervene and provide first aid in crash and | :06:27. | :06:36. | |
accident situations. A survey for St John Ambulance and 75% people would | :06:37. | :06:38. | |
not feel confident enough to save a life. At the scene of an accident | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
24% would do nothing until an ambience arrived or a passer-by who | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
knew first aid appeared. Mr Speaker, these are troubling statistics but I | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
hope they set the scene for a bill that I'm bringing forward today to | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
require first aid training as a requirement of the driving licence | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
application. Many other European nations already do this. In order to | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
qualify for driving theory test Switzerland, applicants must prove | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
they have undertaken ten hours of first aid instruction from a company | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
approved by the Swiss government. Since 2016, in Germany, there is a | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
single first aid course for applicants of all categories of | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
driving licence. This course takes seven hours, the equivalent of nine | :07:21. | :07:27. | |
45 minute lessons. In the Czech Republic learners must take | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
obligatory lessons in a driving school, this includes four 45 minute | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
first aid lessons. Other countries that require first aid include | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and the Baltic states. Mr Speaker, | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
introducing this requirement would make such a difference to our | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
population's knowledge of first aid. Around 63% of the population aged | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
between 21 and 29 have a driving licence. If that figure remains | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
steady, within around 13 years this proposal would have helped to ensure | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
nearly two thirds of the number of people aged under 30 in Britain | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
would be potential life-savers. And far more, drivers would feel more | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
confident to step forward in the event of a crash or indeed in any | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
other emergency situations will stop first aid knowledge and skills would | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
also make new drivers more aware of the potential dangers on the road | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
and indeed the perils of speeding and reckless driving. Mr Speaker, | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
this is a great opportunity to boost the ability of a substantial | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
proportion of the British population in an important skill. Every year, | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
as more young drivers receive their licence, the number of British | :08:40. | :08:41. | |
people with first aid training will rise. I do not think it is an | :08:42. | :08:48. | |
exaggeration, Mr Speaker, to say that this change has the potential | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
to save hundreds of lives. Indeed, it reinforces the governments own | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
strategy to improve road safety and reduce the number of people killed | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
on our roads by 2020. Mr Speaker, it was a Conservative government that | :09:04. | :09:06. | |
first introduced the stand-alone theory test in 1996. It is a tough | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
test and so it should be. The pass mark is 86%. It helps ensure that | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
applicants for a full driving licence have a good knowledge of the | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
Highway code and could spot potential dangers through the hazard | :09:22. | :09:28. | |
perception test. At that time, some claimed that the stand-alone theory | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
test was unnecessary. But since that test was introduced road fatalities | :09:34. | :09:35. | |
in this country have more than halved. The theory test may have | :09:36. | :09:41. | |
played a role in that reduction. Since 2007, Mr Speaker, the theory | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
test has contained a number of first aid questions and that was a good | :09:47. | :09:49. | |
development. But I really now believe it is time to reduce a | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
requirement for stand-alone practical first aid training as | :09:53. | :09:55. | |
another condition to obtaining a licence. This is a reform supported | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
by both the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance, to groups who | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
recognised that first aid can have a transformative effect in accident | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
situations. -- two groups. Last year I supported the private members bill | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
to make first aid lessons compulsory in schools, however some opponents | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
of the claimed it would put too much pressure on school timetables and | :10:21. | :10:23. | |
undermined the discretion of teachers. And I understand those | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
concerns. That is why I think my bill is a good, mice. British people | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
should have the opportunity to learn such skills through their lives. | :10:32. | :10:35. | |
Would help boost the first aid skills of many more British people. | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
Surely we want to foster an environment where people are more | :10:40. | :10:42. | |
willing to step forward and help in an emergency? | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
The Government's act aims to do this by removing the fear of liability | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
for helping out. But without having those skills and the confidence, how | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
can we expect people to act? Mr Speaker, I propose that attending a | :10:59. | :11:06. | |
four our practical first aid course, run by a first aid provider should | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
be a minimum requirement for receiving a full driving licence. | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
Evidence of the training would have to be produced before allowing an | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
applicant to take a formal test, as with the current theory test. This | :11:19. | :11:26. | |
change would be made through an amendment to the 1999 regulations. | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
Mr Speaker, I hope I have been able to do this proposal justice in such | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
a short period of time. I truly believe introducing this change will | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
have a transformative impact on the British public's knowledge of simple | :11:40. | :11:42. | |
but life-saving techniques. So many of the British public lead busy | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
lives. Introducing this reform will ensure the majority of young people | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
will be required to take the time to learn these skills, indeed I believe | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
many will welcome the opportunity that this reform provides. Moreover, | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
I'm encouraged by the fact members from six separate parties have | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
agreed to sponsor this Bill, showing degree of cross-party support for | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
this these proposals. Put simply, this change will give many more | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
British people the chance to learn life-saving skills and potentially | :12:14. | :12:16. | |
save a life. I urge colleagues to support the Bill. Does the writer of | :12:17. | :12:25. | |
all member have leave to bring in the Bill? As many as are of the | :12:26. | :12:28. | |
opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". I think the ayes have it. Who | :12:29. | :12:30. | |
will prepare and bring in the Bill? Caroline Lucas, Martin Day, Sir | :12:31. | :12:40. | |
Roger Gale, Mark Williams myself. Driving licence, mandatory first aid | :12:41. | :13:15. | |
training girl. Second reading what day? Friday the 11th of March. Thank | :13:16. | :13:24. | |
you. We come to the main business, the programmed motion. The Minister | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
to move... Thank you. The question is, the Enterprise Bill, as on the | :13:31. | :13:38. | |
order paper. As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
"no". I think the ayes have it. Order. As I informed the House on | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
Monday the 26th of October, before a report stage begins on the Bill I | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
will seek to identify, in advance, those changes made in committee, | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
which I would expect to certify, together with any government | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
amendments tabled for report stage, which, if passed, would be likely to | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
lead me to issue a certificate. My provisional certificate, based on | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
those changes and expected amendments is available in the vote | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
office and the bills before Parliament website. At the end of | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
the report stage I am required to consider the Bill for certification. | :14:22. | :14:28. | |
At that point, tomorrow, in this case, I will issue my final | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
certificate. As I informed the House on the 26th of October, I have | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
accepted the advice of the procedure committee, not as a rule, to give | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
reasons that decisions on certification during this | :14:44. | :14:46. | |
experimental phase of the new regime. Anybody wishing to make | :14:47. | :14:52. | |
representations to me prior to any decision should send them to the | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
clerk of legislation. Order. The clerk will now proceed to read the | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
orders of the day. Enterprise Bill as amended, to be considered. We | :15:02. | :15:11. | |
begin with new clause four, in which it will be convenient to consider | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
new clause eight and amendment 17, to move new clause four I call Mr | :15:16. | :15:23. | |
Brennan. Thank you very much Mr Speaker. The green investment bank | :15:24. | :15:30. | |
might be referred to as the oaky Cokie clause, because it's been in, | :15:31. | :15:38. | |
out and show -- shaken all about. This is a clause which should | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
actually still be in the Bill. You may not be aware, but I will read | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
briefly from the record what happened in relation to this clause | :15:48. | :15:51. | |
in committee. This is from the committee procedures. The question | :15:52. | :15:59. | |
is clause 32 stand part of the Bill. As many as are of the opinion, say | :16:00. | :16:01. | |
"aye". To the contrary, "no". The chair to the contrary, and no. I | :16:02. | :16:07. | |
think the ayes have it. The Minister, I move the clause does not | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
stand part of the Bill. I raised a point of order to the chair, saying | :16:13. | :16:16. | |
the question was that the clause stand part of the Bill. The | :16:17. | :16:19. | |
committee voted the clause should stay part of the Bill. The Minister | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
cannot then say it should not be part of the Bill. The chair said, | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
for clarity, I will put the question again. So actually this was passed | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
in committee, but the bow and be taken a second time because the | :16:33. | :16:37. | |
chair, in the spirit of extraordinary generosity, and to | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
spare the Minister's blushes, allowed a second vote. First it was | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
in, then it was out. We are saying today, let's put it back in again, | :16:46. | :16:52. | |
in this new clause. So this isn't really a new clause, it is an old | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
clause. It was clause 32 in the Bill when we were looking at it in | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
committee. The Government is very wary of this new clause four or old | :17:03. | :17:11. | |
clause 32, because it fears that the green investment bank's borrowing | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
would remain on the Government's books and be classed as public | :17:15. | :17:22. | |
sector debt after privatisation, because of the position taken by the | :17:23. | :17:25. | |
office for National statistics. If there was any question of statutory | :17:26. | :17:34. | |
control over the Green Investment Bank, the national office would | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
insist it stays on the books. Of course, this currently, the purpose | :17:39. | :17:47. | |
currently make sure it is green and not just like any other investment | :17:48. | :17:50. | |
bank. Green Investment Bank is supposed to be a different kind of | :17:51. | :17:54. | |
entity. Not like the one the Secretary of State used to work for, | :17:55. | :17:58. | |
when he earned ?3 million a year with them and which were fined by | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
the European Union for fiddling interest rates. It is not supposed | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
to be that kind of institution. It is supposed to be a different kind | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
of institution, completely different. One focused on | :18:13. | :18:18. | |
sustainable investment in green projects, not based on the | :18:19. | :18:20. | |
unsustainable culture of greed, which brought the world economy to | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
its knees in 2008 and the consequences of which millions of | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
hard-working families are still suffering today. So, if it's going | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
to be that new kind of institution, how do we ensure that it remains | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
that kind of institution if the Government strips it of its | :18:40. | :18:43. | |
statutory purpose to invest in green projects? The point we made in | :18:44. | :18:50. | |
committee, Mr Speaker, is whether the Government should allow that | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
potential ruling by the office for National statistics to completely | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
drive its policy on this important area of sustainable public policy. | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
Basically the office for National statistics point is a technical | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
matter. If the green investment bank remains on the book, after | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
privatisation, that doesn't reflect any kind of problematic public debt. | :19:15. | :19:21. | |
It may spay spoil the look of the Chancellor's forecasts on debt | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
cosmetically, but it would not change the fundamental underlying | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
substance of public finances, if that were the case. In other words, | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
the statutory protection for the Green Investment Bank's purposes is | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
to be removed by the Government because of an accounting convention, | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
which is inconvenient to the Government's political narrative. In | :19:49. | :19:56. | |
other words, it is spin over substance on stilts. That is what is | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
going on here. As we discussed in committee, the Green Investment | :20:02. | :20:08. | |
Bank's... As the Asian infrastructure investment bank, the | :20:09. | :20:11. | |
Treasury is all too ready to allow the United Kingdom, to allow UK | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
borrowing sorry, to be part of the financing of the Asian | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
infrastructure investment bank. It was not worried at all that public | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
debt would be part of the financing of that bank, yet it is extremely | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
reluctant to allow the same for our own and its own Green Investment | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
Bank. Mr Speaker, you won't be surprised to know I have praised the | :20:35. | :20:38. | |
former Coalition Government for introducing the Green Investment | :20:39. | :20:43. | |
Bank. Policy in this area can be very difficult to implement, because | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
by its very nature it is new, innovative and in committee I quoted | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
the wise words of curbing the frog, who said, sang or croaked, it is not | :20:54. | :20:59. | |
easy being green. It is very true. It is not easy. This is an | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
innovative and effective piece of public policy and I praised the | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
former Coalition Government for introducing it. I will give way to | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
my honourable friend. I am grateful to my honourable friend. Isn't one | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
of the benefits of the Green Investment Bank that in a large part | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
it actually addressed some of the market failure that had gone before | :21:21. | :21:25. | |
it? And that what we risk losing are some of the benefits that it really | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
brought, in terms of securing that green investment question mark and | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
all that will happen, and on consequence perhaps, is taxpayers | :21:36. | :21:38. | |
will have to pay more through a larger subsidy? | :21:39. | :21:46. | |
I believe that the proposal that the Government brought forward on | :21:47. | :21:49. | |
privatisation following the election was seriously and are put, if I can | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
put it that way. The Green Investment Bank has only just | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
started to turn a profit and we are glad it is doing that, but it is a | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
very small amount. When the Government, as I will develop | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
further on in my argument, when the government said it intended to | :22:07. | :22:16. | |
privatise the bank it quoted the very statutory objective it is now | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
wishing to remove from statue because of what was said about | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
public debt and the Green Investment Bank being on the books. So it had | :22:24. | :22:26. | |
been trouble all along, this proposal. I think the way the | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
Government is scrabbling around for a solution on this shows it was | :22:31. | :22:33. | |
undercooked when first propose. I will give way to my honourable | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
friend. I thank my honourable friend the giving way and praise him for | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
his amendment and the way he has scrutinised this Bill through | :22:42. | :22:44. | |
committee. Would he agree things have moved on rather substantially | :22:45. | :22:48. | |
since we met in the Enterprise Bill committee, with the Government's | :22:49. | :22:53. | |
publication last Thursday of the prospectus, the announcement that it | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
would proceed? The fact it is to be a two stage auction? It looks from | :23:00. | :23:04. | |
the thing that has been published as though it will be fully privatised, | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
so all the debate and discussion we had in committee about whether or | :23:09. | :23:10. | |
not the Government would or would not keep a minority share in this, | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
as recommended by the environmental audit committee, seem to be for the | :23:17. | :23:18. | |
birds and the minister probably knew that in committee. Can I take this | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
opportunity to congratulate my honourable friend on her appointment | :23:25. | :23:31. | |
to the home affairs select committee. I'm sure she will be just | :23:32. | :23:38. | |
as contentious in scrutinising this Bill. She is absolutely right, the | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
publication of the Government's intentions in relation to this last | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
week are very interesting post I hope the Minister will be able to | :23:48. | :23:49. | |
actually answer the point she has made, about what the Government's | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
intentions are and clarify that in terms to whether it maintains a | :23:55. | :23:58. | |
stake in the Green Investment Bank after privatisation, because when we | :23:59. | :24:05. | |
probed her on that in committee, the answer was none. She is right, that | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
it would appear it is the intention to fully privatise it, even though, | :24:11. | :24:14. | |
as we discussed in committee, it must be the worst possible time to | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
be considering privatising this very important public asset, if part of | :24:20. | :24:22. | |
the purpose is to get good value for the taxpayer by this state of the | :24:23. | :24:29. | |
market currently. I will be developing this point further in my | :24:30. | :24:33. | |
speech. When we were meeting two weeks ago I mentioned the bear | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
market and the slide and in value of all bank shares since Christmas, the | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
softening of growth in China and we have had only this morning mark | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
Carney and the bank of England revealing the large amount of | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
liquidity they are preparing to inject into the UK banking economy | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
in the event of an exit from the European Union, the referendum, if | :24:56. | :25:01. | |
that were to go ahead, in order to avoid a complete meltdown and a | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
financial crisis, the like we saw in 2007- 08. She is right to point that | :25:08. | :25:10. | |
out. Also, by implication to point out that privatisation occurring | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
after the referendum in the summer and the implications of a leave vote | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
for attempting to privatise the Green Investment Bank is highly | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
significant. I will give way. I am very grateful to my honourable | :25:25. | :25:29. | |
friend and wholly support remarks he is making. In respect of the | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
privatisation of the Green Investment Bank, what impact does he | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
think it might have on the prospects for that privatisation, worthy | :25:41. | :25:49. | |
official opposition say it was mindful to purchase back into the | :25:50. | :25:53. | |
public sector the bank, should it be fully privatised as he suggested? | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
And I am not Kentish neglect on that for reasons my honourable friend | :25:59. | :26:02. | |
might well understand given that is not currently that is under | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
discussion. -- I am not going to speculate on that. What I would say | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
is that it is a duty for the government to make sure that if it | :26:13. | :26:15. | |
is going ahead with this privatisation which we do not | :26:16. | :26:21. | |
support, if it is going ahead, it has absolutely be sure it is getting | :26:22. | :26:28. | |
value for money for the taxpayer as well as giving an absolute guarantee | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
that it is protecting the green purpose of the Green Investment | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
Bank. I had praised the government for the introduction of the Green | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
Investment Bank but why do anything to place central green mission in | :26:41. | :26:47. | |
grave doubt? I should of course remind the house that the Green | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
Investment Bank was first proposed under the last Labour government. | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
Because first mentioned as a postal for development by the formula | :26:59. | :27:01. | |
Chancellor Alistair Darling in one of his budgets and it was being | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
developed in the Cabinet Office and the Department for business, | :27:07. | :27:09. | |
innovation and skills when I was a minister in those departments in the | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
previous Labour government. And now that it was introduced under the | :27:14. | :27:16. | |
coalition it has made a good start. It has been able to participate in | :27:17. | :27:22. | |
the financing of projects that otherwise would not have taken place | :27:23. | :27:25. | |
and not make a real contribution to meeting our commitments under the | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
climate change act 2008. I think we are all agreed across the house that | :27:31. | :27:35. | |
it is a good story and I do not see any dissent to that proposition from | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
anyone in the chamber. So it is a strange sort of pass, Mr Speaker, | :27:42. | :27:44. | |
when even something that we all agree with the other good thing, | :27:45. | :27:53. | |
even good borrowing, for sustainable services, is classified as bad if it | :27:54. | :27:56. | |
appears on the government 's book for no other reason than it appears | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
on the government 's book. During difficult years following the | :28:01. | :28:04. | |
banking crash in which we were sometimes in recession, a | :28:05. | :28:11. | |
significant part of growth in the UK was coming from the green economy. | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
By some estimates it accounts for 1 million jobs, more than ?100 billion | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
in value. It is rate this point in that the government are in danger if | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
they are not careful of undermining one of the key drivers of that | :28:26. | :28:29. | |
sector. If we were able to tap into our country's potential we could | :28:30. | :28:38. | |
create thousands more high-quality sustainable jobs for our equality. | :28:39. | :28:47. | |
When the government announced privatisation plans last year the | :28:48. | :28:50. | |
Secretary of State gave an assurance to the house in a written statement | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
and I will quote from that statement from the official report." This | :28:55. | :29:04. | |
should bring a number of important benefits. Giving the Green | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
Investment Bank greater freedom to operate across a wider range of | :29:09. | :29:13. | |
sectors in accordance with its green purposes, which are enshrined in | :29:14. | :29:19. | |
legislation.". In that announcement of the Secretary of State emphasised | :29:20. | :29:23. | |
that the green purposes of the Green Investment Bank were protected by | :29:24. | :29:26. | |
the legislation in which its duty to pursue them are enshrined. Obviously | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
something went wrong after that with the government proposals. They got | :29:33. | :29:38. | |
advice from the office for National statistics which led the government | :29:39. | :29:40. | |
to say that instead they intended to repeal the very legislative | :29:41. | :29:50. | |
announced in the decision to privatise the bank last year. That | :29:51. | :29:55. | |
is why in October last year they had to say in effect it does not really | :29:56. | :29:59. | |
matter if we repeal this statutory protection as long as we make sure | :30:00. | :30:03. | |
the Green Investment Bank does not appear on our books. In his letter | :30:04. | :30:08. | |
of October 15 when he announced his intention to repeal the relevant | :30:09. | :30:10. | |
measures from enterprise and regulatory reform act 2013 that the | :30:11. | :30:16. | |
Secretary of State offered no assurance and that point that those | :30:17. | :30:23. | |
green purposes would definitely be maintained. We have been demanding | :30:24. | :30:29. | |
assurances that when the bank is privatised how are we to ensure that | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
it maintains its green purpose? And does not simply become yet another | :30:34. | :30:39. | |
bank, albeit a very small bank, but one that could easily be gobbled up | :30:40. | :30:45. | |
by someone in the marketplace. That is why labour and other parties as | :30:46. | :30:48. | |
well in the other Place in particular feet of the government on | :30:49. | :30:51. | |
this issue and introduced a special share which we are trying to | :30:52. | :30:56. | |
re-juice in our new clause four which we are discussing now. The | :30:57. | :30:58. | |
government says that the Green Investment Bank can create that | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
special share itself. And in committee the Minister quoted a | :31:05. | :31:08. | |
letter from the chairman of the Green Investment Bank to our noble | :31:09. | :31:15. | |
friend Lord Edelson which I will have see quoted again in a moment. | :31:16. | :31:18. | |
In committee the minister said that this approach would satisfy the | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
office for National statistics. She said she was confident it would but | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
she could not give us a guarantee. As I said in committee we need an | :31:29. | :31:35. | |
absolute assurance on this. Before we will increase this legislative | :31:36. | :31:41. | |
opportunity to future proof the purposes of the Green Investment | :31:42. | :31:44. | |
Bank and now the Green Investment Bank had written to honourable | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
members, as is their right, they outlined their plan to issue a | :31:50. | :31:52. | |
special share that is envisaged for themselves rather than through this | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
bill in the way that we are proposing and their reason for doing | :31:58. | :32:00. | |
this is of course the belief that the ONS will then be allowing them | :32:01. | :32:07. | |
to be classified as being off the government 's book. I asked them if | :32:08. | :32:10. | |
they could guarantee this and this is what they said in response by | :32:11. | :32:16. | |
e-mail: you will likely be aware that ONS does not engage directly | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
with arms length bodies like the Green Investment Bank. At the same | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
time, however, we have been engaging closely with the government over all | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
matters relating to the sales process and this is an issue where | :32:31. | :32:36. | |
we have been as close as we can to government. We understand that | :32:37. | :32:39. | |
government has been engaging closely with ONS on this whole issue | :32:40. | :32:43. | |
including the special share structure which the Green Investment | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
Bank is putting in place and we understand that on the basis of | :32:48. | :32:53. | |
those discussions the government was sufficiently satisfied to allow the | :32:54. | :32:55. | |
sales process to proceed. That is wrong: Folger. -- that is from Colin | :32:56. | :33:08. | |
Folger. On the basis of the government says it is satisfy the | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
Michigan to guarantee categorically there on the floor of the house that | :33:13. | :33:18. | |
it's special share proposal will definitely be acceptable. -- from | :33:19. | :33:21. | |
Colin Faulkner. I hope that Mr will say that, if she wants to intervene | :33:22. | :33:27. | |
she can do so now. She is not indicating, so I will give way to my | :33:28. | :33:32. | |
honourable friend. As Mike I hope that the minister. I wonder if the | :33:33. | :33:39. | |
has had a chance to look at Annex C of the proposed disposal of shares | :33:40. | :33:42. | |
in the Green Investment Bank where it says, as part of any sale | :33:43. | :33:50. | |
discussion investors will be asked to confirm their commitment to green | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
values and set out how they propose to do this. Bidders stated | :33:55. | :33:59. | |
intentions will be taken into account. I wonder if we will hear | :34:00. | :34:05. | |
what percentage will be allocated in the bidding process because | :34:06. | :34:08. | |
obviously all bids will be marked and I for one will be very curious | :34:09. | :34:13. | |
to know what weighting and relevance will be given to the collection of | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
green purposes when the decision is made by government. I think we will | :34:18. | :34:23. | |
all be interested to know that and perhaps the Minister will be as | :34:24. | :34:27. | |
informative as she possibly can be in telling the house that in her | :34:28. | :34:33. | |
response. What I should say to my honourable friend, after | :34:34. | :34:36. | |
privatisation this is the point about this, after privatisation what | :34:37. | :34:42. | |
guarantee do we have that the banks simply will not be swallowed up by | :34:43. | :34:47. | |
somebody else? And all of the guarantees given by the original | :34:48. | :34:50. | |
investors could quite easily evaporate. I thank my friend who is | :34:51. | :34:59. | |
being very generous in giving way. Does he share my disappointment that | :35:00. | :35:02. | |
the government has bent over backwards with the ONS to create | :35:03. | :35:07. | |
this special purpose vehicle, special charity, setting it up | :35:08. | :35:11. | |
independently appointed people to protect the green purposes. But has | :35:12. | :35:16. | |
refused to do any such moves on the other thing that we debated in | :35:17. | :35:20. | |
committee, which is the protection of making sure that the transparency | :35:21. | :35:27. | |
around executive pay which this bank is a rare exemplar in the banking | :35:28. | :35:34. | |
sector is protected as the bank goes forward as well? Yes and she has | :35:35. | :35:38. | |
been dogged in her pursuit of that issue both in committee and in | :35:39. | :35:42. | |
laying her amendments here at report stage and I look forward to her | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
conservation on that subject. My question is, can she guarantee that | :35:49. | :35:54. | |
privatisation will not violate the green purposes of the Green | :35:55. | :35:56. | |
Investment Bank or rather we just keeping our fingers crossed in that | :35:57. | :36:02. | |
regard? There are other reasons that are still to be adequately answered | :36:03. | :36:06. | |
by the government, which were not answered properly in committee | :36:07. | :36:10. | |
stage. Am I right to say that the only reason the legislative lock on | :36:11. | :36:16. | |
the green purposes being repealed is purely to get the Green Investment | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
Bank off the government books? Is that the reason why they are doing | :36:22. | :36:26. | |
this? If that is the principal reason for removing the lock, is | :36:27. | :36:31. | |
that good enough to give up the statutory guarantee given what I | :36:32. | :36:35. | |
said about the technical nature of the accounting issues the ONS are | :36:36. | :36:40. | |
raising? Can she give us any indication her response to this | :36:41. | :36:43. | |
debate of the government view about the stake the intense to retain if | :36:44. | :36:51. | |
any following privatisation? I understand this is a market | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
transaction but we also need an idea of the kind of return the government | :36:56. | :36:58. | |
expects from the sale of the Green Investment Bank. We know as we | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
briefly mentioned earlier about market conditions being currently so | :37:05. | :37:07. | |
poor that the Chancellor actually had to abandon the sell-off of | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
Lloyds shares but we need to know whether the government really think | :37:13. | :37:15. | |
they will get a significant return from the privatisation given all of | :37:16. | :37:20. | |
the pain associated with this process and given, quite frankly, | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
the record in previous privatisations of poor value for | :37:26. | :37:28. | |
money for the taxpayer. I do not expect the Minister to be able to be | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
precise, but she will obviously want to avoid criticism that the | :37:33. | :37:35. | |
government encountered about the lack of value achieved previously. | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
So can she give us some sort of idea of what she is expecting the | :37:41. | :37:45. | |
government to be able to get from this privatisation? Is the minister | :37:46. | :37:50. | |
concerned that these matters will provide further uncertainty for no | :37:51. | :37:54. | |
carbon investors at the time when there is real concern about the | :37:55. | :37:57. | |
governments with treat on investment in wind power. We have learned over | :37:58. | :38:04. | |
many years that it is certainly not wise to privatise in haste. We might | :38:05. | :38:11. | |
well repent at our leisure if this innovative and effective piece of | :38:12. | :38:19. | |
public policy is lost as a result of care. That is not a sustainable way | :38:20. | :38:25. | |
to make sustainable posse particularly not in an area where we | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
are trying to create a sustainable future for the country which is why | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
new clause four has been tabled in my name and that of my honourable | :38:33. | :38:43. | |
friends. The honourable gentleman giving way? I rather thought he had | :38:44. | :38:53. | |
finished his speech. The question is that new clause for the red second | :38:54. | :38:55. | |
time. I am very happy to speak to my New Clause eight both the | :38:56. | :39:16. | |
fraud alert over to associate my self with the very full case | :39:17. | :39:22. | |
recently made by the shadow front bench in favour of New Clause four | :39:23. | :39:27. | |
but in rising just now I would like to speak specifically to New Clause | :39:28. | :39:30. | |
eight. And essentially the context of my amendment is my dismay that | :39:31. | :39:35. | |
the government is determined to push privatisation of the green | :39:36. | :39:38. | |
investment banks through despite concerns its best in the House of | :39:39. | :39:42. | |
Lords, members of this house and indeed civil society. Through this | :39:43. | :39:45. | |
and other actions I fear that it is demonstrating that its diet to get | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
the green investment back off its balance sheet is taking massive | :39:51. | :39:53. | |
presidents over its interest in whether or not the Green Investment | :39:54. | :39:57. | |
Bank genuinely is contributing to the green economy to the extent that | :39:58. | :40:01. | |
it can. As the environmental audit committee which I'm proud to serve, | :40:02. | :40:08. | |
as it noted in its report on the future of the bank in December, and | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
I quote: while we recognise there are potential benefits resulting | :40:13. | :40:20. | |
from an injection of capital we find that the city has been made without | :40:21. | :40:24. | |
you transparency, consultation or proper consideration of alternatives | :40:25. | :40:26. | |
and the absence of the steps is likely to leave that the suspicion | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
that the move and its timings are not evidence based policy. | :40:31. | :40:33. | |
Everything that has happened since December has not changed that view. | :40:34. | :40:41. | |
We have seen a government acting without looking at the evidence. My | :40:42. | :40:45. | |
new clause aims to ensure the bank is maintained as a single, | :40:46. | :40:49. | |
functioning institution and it can continue to invest in the UK's | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
low-carbon economy at the same level planned prior what I think is a | :40:54. | :40:59. | |
deeply regrettable privatisation. As well as being regrettable, I think | :41:00. | :41:02. | |
this privatisation won't be easy. The Government says it aims to sell | :41:03. | :41:09. | |
75% of the bank, equating to ?1.5 billion up front. That is a | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
considerable sum. Indeed, it is huge, even by the standards of the | :41:14. | :41:18. | |
bailout investment funds. According to Bloomberg, that is so. Given | :41:19. | :41:32. | |
there were few deals approaching the 1 billion mark in 2015, I would like | :41:33. | :41:35. | |
to know how the Government can be sure it will make a sale of 1.5 | :41:36. | :41:39. | |
billion in just one round. I think there is a very real risk this will | :41:40. | :41:44. | |
turn out to be quite fanciful. Not only that, but investor confidence | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
in the UK's green economy is at an all-time low. One only need look at | :41:49. | :41:57. | |
the energy confidence report on making it more unlikely the | :41:58. | :42:00. | |
Government can sell a majority stake in one round or if the taxpayer will | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
get any value for money. Furthermore, any equity stake bought | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
would require the buyer to follow through on Equity annually. In other | :42:11. | :42:12. | |
words bankrolling the bank's annual is this plan. So the huge sums | :42:13. | :42:19. | |
involved mean it is highly likely that come October the desired 75% | :42:20. | :42:26. | |
will not have been sold. Given the Government's determination to only | :42:27. | :42:29. | |
hold on to a 25% stake, if that, then there is a good chance we could | :42:30. | :42:32. | |
find ourselves in a position where the Government says it has done what | :42:33. | :42:37. | |
it can, it hasn't been able to get the sale awaits and therefore the | :42:38. | :42:40. | |
risk is it proceeds to dismantle the bank and sell off its assets, in | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
other words what we could face is essentially a fire sale. I think | :42:45. | :42:48. | |
that is made even more likely, given that the most attractive parts of | :42:49. | :42:56. | |
the bank, Matic League 1 billion wind funds and energy fund. There is | :42:57. | :43:02. | |
a risk the bank's owners don't commit to fully fund the business | :43:03. | :43:07. | |
plan. It would then become little more than a fund manager, as opposed | :43:08. | :43:12. | |
to a bank driving additional investment in the UK's green | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
economy. I think is really important the Government doesn't just sell to | :43:17. | :43:21. | |
any investor. New investors must committed to fully funding the | :43:22. | :43:25. | |
bank's business plan, driving expansion of the UK's low-carbon | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
economy, addressing market failure to crowd in additional investment, | :43:30. | :43:36. | |
transparency and public accountability standards and | :43:37. | :43:38. | |
facilitating and scaling up citizen investment in the UK's low-carbon | :43:39. | :43:44. | |
economy. Quite simply, my amendments seeks to inoculate against these | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
risks, for the Government to maintain the integrity of the Green | :43:50. | :43:52. | |
Investment Bank as a single institution with a fully bonded -- | :43:53. | :44:00. | |
funded business plan. Thank you Mr Speaker. I thank the honourable | :44:01. | :44:05. | |
lady. Using her words, would not inoculate and be guaranteed by the | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
special share the Government intends to operate? | :44:11. | :44:16. | |
I thank him for his intervention. I think the special share the | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
Government intends to operate has no real legal underpinning, so we | :44:21. | :44:24. | |
cannot have reassurance in it. I think secondly the very real | :44:25. | :44:26. | |
overestimation of the ease with which they will be able to sell the | :44:27. | :44:31. | |
Green Investment Bank is a real problem, which is what I am | :44:32. | :44:34. | |
demonstrating. I think the Government has overestimated the | :44:35. | :44:38. | |
speed of which they can sell which means there will be a temptation to | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
asset strip. That is what I think we will see. My amendment is a simple | :44:43. | :44:45. | |
way of making sure that doesn't happen. What I'm suggesting is we | :44:46. | :44:49. | |
ensure that anyone buying it commits to full five-year life of the | :44:50. | :44:57. | |
initial round one. I thank the honourable lady for giving way. She | :44:58. | :45:00. | |
is a credit to our committee and I am grateful on the many | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
interventions she is making on this. Does she share my concern, that this | :45:06. | :45:13. | |
proposed, special share may not carry forward in any future sale of | :45:14. | :45:19. | |
the asset? Would she join with me and asking the Minister to clarify | :45:20. | :45:22. | |
that when she responds to the debate? The danger is it is sold | :45:23. | :45:27. | |
once on the next time it's sold, part of that sale is we want to get | :45:28. | :45:31. | |
rid of this stuff which is all about the green part of what the bank | :45:32. | :45:34. | |
does. I am very grateful for her | :45:35. | :45:40. | |
intervention and kind words and congratulate her. I share her | :45:41. | :45:44. | |
concerns that we have no real legal guarantee, over time, that this | :45:45. | :45:48. | |
special share mechanism is going to be safe and going to protect not | :45:49. | :45:53. | |
just the green purposes of the bank, but the focus on complex and novel | :45:54. | :45:59. | |
is investments which a public Green Investment Bank is uniquely suited | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
to. I do fear this privatisation is being done in haste. It is not | :46:05. | :46:07. | |
properly thought through. The guarantees we are being offered are | :46:08. | :46:11. | |
not watertight and therefore I would very much commend my amendment. It | :46:12. | :46:15. | |
is a very simple amendment, but I think it would give some reassurance | :46:16. | :46:20. | |
at least that the Green Investment Bank is maintained as a single | :46:21. | :46:24. | |
functioning institution and can continue to invest in the UK's | :46:25. | :46:29. | |
low-carbon economy, at the level planned before privatisation. If the | :46:30. | :46:32. | |
Government is sure that is possible I hope they will accept this | :46:33. | :46:36. | |
amendment. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I beg to move amendment number 17 in | :46:37. | :46:43. | |
the name of myself on the right honourable member of Don Valley. | :46:44. | :46:47. | |
Before I come to the substance of that I want to congratulate previous | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
speakers on this. I think the fact that government has moved | :46:52. | :46:54. | |
substantially on some of these issues is testament to the scrutiny | :46:55. | :46:58. | |
that has been provided both by the environmental audit committee and by | :46:59. | :47:03. | |
my own party. I would also like to put on record my anxiety, the fact | :47:04. | :47:14. | |
that this asset sale was rushed out last Thursday, before this Bill has | :47:15. | :47:17. | |
even had a chance to pass through the House, suggesting to me we are | :47:18. | :47:21. | |
not moving on a timetable dictated by the Minister or by the market | :47:22. | :47:27. | |
conditions for the best possible value of a government asset of this | :47:28. | :47:32. | |
kind, but to a timetable driven by the Chancellor, who is going to have | :47:33. | :47:35. | |
to make some very difficult announcements in his budget on the | :47:36. | :47:43. | |
16th of March. To me, the changes mean we will need billions of pounds | :47:44. | :47:46. | |
of green investment to upgrade the energy and transport infrastructure | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
of the UK. So far the Green Investment Bank has done a really | :47:51. | :47:55. | |
sterling job in attracting capital to low-carbon infrastructure | :47:56. | :47:58. | |
projects in the UK, that might have otherwise have struggled to find | :47:59. | :48:03. | |
funding. This Bill allows the Government to sell off the bank. | :48:04. | :48:08. | |
Again, I want to stress, I am pretty certain this bank is going to be | :48:09. | :48:12. | |
sold in one piece, at one time, and the risk is it will not achieve best | :48:13. | :48:19. | |
value for the taxpayer. I am not opposed to privatisation, if it can | :48:20. | :48:23. | |
be shown it is the right policy tool to get the job done, but this | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
decision seems to have been rushed through just to get it off the | :48:28. | :48:32. | |
Government's balance sheet. The environmental audit committee's | :48:33. | :48:36. | |
report, on which the honourable lady myself set, and which we published | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
before Christmas concluded the Government took the decision to | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
privatise the banks without due transparency, consultation or proper | :48:45. | :48:49. | |
consideration of alternatives. Mr Speaker, ministers have simply not | :48:50. | :48:52. | |
yet proven to Parliament that the bank will achieve its aims better in | :48:53. | :48:57. | |
the private sector. The Government has relied on assurances from | :48:58. | :49:06. | |
shareholders and executives who stand to benefit personally from the | :49:07. | :49:11. | |
sale. So if the sale goes ahead my amendment, amendment 17 will ensure | :49:12. | :49:15. | |
the Green Investment Bank remains accountable to Parliament and | :49:16. | :49:19. | |
taxpayers, by reporting annually on the pay of its top team. The | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
environmental audit committee recommended the Government undertake | :49:26. | :49:27. | |
proper consultation and evidence gathering before any sale and | :49:28. | :49:31. | |
protecting the Green Investment Bank's green identity should be | :49:32. | :49:35. | |
paramount. While I welcome the Secretary of State's pledge to | :49:36. | :49:42. | |
protect the bank's status of being green, I am concerned if we do not | :49:43. | :49:46. | |
lock this in legislation it will not be secure. I am concerned especially | :49:47. | :49:50. | |
share will not be worth the paper it is written on in any future sale of | :49:51. | :49:57. | |
the bank and it will be forgotten, because it depresses the onward sale | :49:58. | :50:00. | |
value of the bank. It is a depressor, if you are limiting the | :50:01. | :50:07. | |
nature of activities in which the bank can invest. When the bank was | :50:08. | :50:10. | |
established it was intended by government to be an exemplar, of | :50:11. | :50:16. | |
transparency in the financial sector and reporting of executive pay. This | :50:17. | :50:20. | |
is particularly important, accepted on a cross-party basis, given the | :50:21. | :50:27. | |
lack of trust and bankers and their bonus culture, which exists to this | :50:28. | :50:33. | |
day, which rewarded recklessness. It is therefore disappointing that in | :50:34. | :50:36. | |
the Minister's proposals to privatise the bank this is welcomed | :50:37. | :50:41. | |
clarity is not to continue. Ministers are happy for the bank and | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
its executives to revert to the status of any other bank, or fund, | :50:46. | :50:50. | |
with a minimum reporting of renumeration, limited to that of the | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
highest-paid member of staff and the chairman of the board. This | :50:56. | :50:58. | |
amendment seeks to change that and commits the Government providing | :50:59. | :51:02. | |
full disclosure to Parliament on the re-numeration of the Green | :51:03. | :51:05. | |
Investment Bank's senior management and board after privatisation. This | :51:06. | :51:09. | |
was hotly disputed and argued by the minister at the committee stage of | :51:10. | :51:13. | |
the Bill. I think it is there to say the committee found a certain amount | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
of irony in her stout fence of allowing Green Investment Bank | :51:19. | :51:22. | |
executives to have the freedoms to increase their pay through this | :51:23. | :51:28. | |
Bill, and the privatisation, and yet having a Bill which simultaneously | :51:29. | :51:32. | |
seeks to cap the pay of people working in private sector companies | :51:33. | :51:37. | |
and whose salaries are around the ?25,000 a year mark. In sharp | :51:38. | :51:42. | |
contrast of the salaries of the executive team at the Green | :51:43. | :51:44. | |
Investment Bank, whose salaries, which we know, range from ?125,000- | :51:45. | :51:53. | |
?325,000, plus bonus, plus benefits. This so the bank began in 2012 to | :51:54. | :51:59. | |
invest in green infrastructure projects. It has invested in 58 | :52:00. | :52:02. | |
projects with a total value of more than ?10 billion. Last June it | :52:03. | :52:12. | |
announced its decision to privatise the Greenbank and this Bill is the | :52:13. | :52:16. | |
means to do that, to reclassify it is so its finance and contribute to | :52:17. | :52:21. | |
public sector debt by removing reference to the green... I give | :52:22. | :52:32. | |
way. Thank you. I thank the honourable lady for letting me into | :52:33. | :52:35. | |
being. It seems to me the Green Investment Bank has been a success. | :52:36. | :52:39. | |
It was set up by the Coalition Government and it is a good success. | :52:40. | :52:44. | |
One of the reasons why and Mr Speaker, the Green Investment Bank | :52:45. | :52:47. | |
should go into the private sector is to liberate more investment and | :52:48. | :52:53. | |
actually increase the possibilities. Indeed, and that has been the | :52:54. | :52:59. | |
argument given by ministers. We would wish to see the bank being | :53:00. | :53:06. | |
able to fund more projects. The Government, as he would say, has | :53:07. | :53:12. | |
called it a natural next step. I would ask, who else supports the | :53:13. | :53:15. | |
move question at the green investment move supports the move | :53:16. | :53:19. | |
and the Government has drawn on that supporters of primary motivation for | :53:20. | :53:22. | |
their plans to proceed. There has not been the same level of | :53:23. | :53:27. | |
transparency and consultation that accompanied the establishment of the | :53:28. | :53:31. | |
bank. Our committee, the environmental audit committee, heard | :53:32. | :53:34. | |
in our evidence to our inquiry that that decision was taken... Without | :53:35. | :53:41. | |
due transparency, publication of relevant evidence, consultation and | :53:42. | :53:44. | |
proper consideration of alternatives. He is aware there is | :53:45. | :53:51. | |
many different ways to raise money. Privatisation so soon after the | :53:52. | :53:54. | |
bank's creation was also not discussed when it was established | :53:55. | :54:04. | |
just three years ago in 2015. There has been no evidence of | :54:05. | :54:08. | |
privatisation or consideration of alternatives to sell. In response to | :54:09. | :54:13. | |
our report the Government claimed it had undertaken unpublished market | :54:14. | :54:16. | |
testing over the course of two years. In the Bill committee I asked | :54:17. | :54:20. | |
the Minister of State for Small Business and enterprise if she would | :54:21. | :54:24. | |
be willing to public -- published that market testing. She declined | :54:25. | :54:27. | |
and also said she would not publish the impact assessment because there | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
were no regulatory or significant cost impacts of the sale of the | :54:32. | :54:34. | |
Green Investment Bank or changes to its pre-existing policy goals. Our | :54:35. | :54:40. | |
committee disputes that because of the risk to the green purposes of | :54:41. | :54:46. | |
the bank. I think, in summary, our concerns are a bank set up to deal | :54:47. | :54:52. | |
with green issues may not in the future, although it may have more | :54:53. | :54:55. | |
money, may not have this laser focus on green purposes at any future | :54:56. | :55:01. | |
sale. We know from sale of assets whether they are transport assets or | :55:02. | :55:09. | |
whatever they are, that they tend to be sold on, hence my question to the | :55:10. | :55:15. | |
minister about... Happy to give way. Forgive me, I wasn't in your | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
committee. But it does seem to me that the special purpose of the | :55:21. | :55:24. | |
Green Investment Bank will be maintained by the special share and | :55:25. | :55:31. | |
the special share ownership, but any change to the Green Investment | :55:32. | :55:36. | |
Bank's original purposes will have, one way or another, to come back to | :55:37. | :55:37. | |
Parliament. The minister has said that a report | :55:38. | :55:44. | |
will come to Parliament before the bank is finally sold and I had | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
questions for her in committee about how that report would be considered | :55:50. | :55:55. | |
by Parliament. Would it be fitted up on the committee corridor as part of | :55:56. | :56:01. | |
the statutory is timid? Will we have a chance to vote again on this and | :56:02. | :56:05. | |
the Minister is nodding so I ensure she will clarify that when she gets | :56:06. | :56:11. | |
up to respond to the debate. There were a series, we had these concerns | :56:12. | :56:14. | |
and I still have this concerned that if the Green Investment Bank is sold | :56:15. | :56:20. | |
on it it may just be sold on as the Bank of America Merrill Lynch | :56:21. | :56:25. | |
investment bank at some future stage and investment banks are going | :56:26. | :56:28. | |
through a very tricky time at the moment. Things are not at all well | :56:29. | :56:34. | |
in the investment banking sector. I think any purchaser of this bank | :56:35. | :56:38. | |
will be looking for maximum freedoms in order to maximise potential | :56:39. | :56:49. | |
future sale capital receipts. So the only robust consultation the | :56:50. | :56:51. | |
government can point to given they will not publish market testing is | :56:52. | :56:56. | |
itself. The government relied very itself. The government relied very | :56:57. | :57:02. | |
heavily on the bank and its executives in evidence and its | :57:03. | :57:05. | |
response to our committee. And of course those executives and | :57:06. | :57:12. | |
shareholders, those executives stand potentially to benefit from a sale. | :57:13. | :57:19. | |
Amendments 17 invite government to providing information about the | :57:20. | :57:22. | |
Nomura to the senior board after privatisation. I also had questions | :57:23. | :57:30. | |
about how will those in charge of the bank stand to gain personally | :57:31. | :57:37. | |
from the privatisation process? I also question how objective their | :57:38. | :57:41. | |
reviews can be if they are to gain personally from the privatisation? | :57:42. | :57:49. | |
Isn't it the case that private sector companies and their directors | :57:50. | :57:53. | |
are already under disclosure obligations in addition to executive | :57:54. | :57:57. | |
compensation for directors? What would the rationale before going | :57:58. | :58:00. | |
further and making the requirements Pacific Lee on the Green Investment | :58:01. | :58:04. | |
Bank go over and above those required of any other company? The | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
reason for that is that the company has been financed by over ?3 billion | :58:10. | :58:14. | |
of taxpayers money. At a time when my constituents in Wakefield have | :58:15. | :58:20. | |
had the third lowest increase in pay of any part of the country since the | :58:21. | :58:26. | |
financial crisis. And so for my constituents and his constituents | :58:27. | :58:31. | |
who have seen their pay eroded and depressed in the last year as a | :58:32. | :58:34. | |
direct result of the actions of reckless bankers, for us to | :58:35. | :58:41. | |
privatise a fully owned state bank without putting in place of | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
detections to prevent that huge increase in remuneration that tends | :58:47. | :58:49. | |
to happen when state assets are privatised I think is negligent for | :58:50. | :58:52. | |
us given the journey we have travelled in the past ten years. The | :58:53. | :58:58. | |
arguments are of course very persuasive when the bank is in | :58:59. | :59:03. | |
public ownership and her Iraqi months justify the current | :59:04. | :59:06. | |
disclosure regime. But once the bank has been privatised and is in | :59:07. | :59:10. | |
private hands and is being principally, I think 75% or more | :59:11. | :59:15. | |
financed by private money surely the arguments the honourable lady | :59:16. | :59:19. | |
advances no longer apply. Wit and on how much it will be sold by. At the | :59:20. | :59:23. | |
moment it is one hunch percent financed by public money and whoever | :59:24. | :59:26. | |
takes over I don't know whether they will put in that match the funds | :59:27. | :59:33. | |
that the government has put in but certainly they will not be putting | :59:34. | :59:39. | |
that money in on day one. So I think that this bank was set up to be an | :59:40. | :59:43. | |
exemplar to the banking and financial industry. It was not set | :59:44. | :59:48. | |
up to be just another bank. It was set up to do something special land | :59:49. | :59:52. | |
to be something special. The special share protects we hope, the Minister | :59:53. | :59:59. | |
reassures us the specialness of its green purposes going forward | :00:00. | :00:02. | |
although I have questions about the longevity of how long that will | :00:03. | :00:06. | |
last. The question I have is that given it was also set up to be an | :00:07. | :00:11. | |
exemplar on executive pay, why should that part be lost? I will be | :00:12. | :00:17. | |
very happy to take further questions in a moment. After a discussion with | :00:18. | :00:21. | |
my colleagues last week I wrote the chair of the Green Investment Bank | :00:22. | :00:27. | |
asking for clarification on the proposed remuneration for the Green | :00:28. | :00:34. | |
Investment Bank senior executive. Our shareholders, taxpayers, could | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
remain potentially as minority shareholders in the enterprise and I | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
think as long as the UK taxpayer has even 1% shareholding in this bank | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
this should carry forward. These taxpayers are committed to ?3.8 | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
billion to this bank and any talk about what a future owner would put | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
into this bank, we will wait until we see the colour of their money at | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
some point in the future. The committee, the environmental audit | :01:06. | :01:07. | |
committee made it clear in that letter that he could not see a | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
reason for -- we cannot see a reason for increasing remuneration. We were | :01:14. | :01:16. | |
particularly interested to know the proposed structure of the management | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
fee the privatised bank would be charging investors and any form of | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
profit share or participation rights for management proposed in the | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
offering two new shareholders. We asked to note the board view | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
regarding quantum and -- quantity and structure of share incentives. | :01:34. | :01:40. | |
We also sought the assurance of the board and commitment to maintaining | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
the staffing levels to ensure the bank continues to fully and | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
effectively serve the UK need for investment in green infrastructure. | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
In his reply Noel Smith reassured the committee that the proposed is | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
this plan will require the current staff complement with possibly a | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
small number of editions. But less welcome was his response that the | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
information memorandum for investors which includes prep injected | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
revenues at cost including -- projected staff costs. This has | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
already been decided at board level and was definitely decided when the | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
minister was in committee with us, is commercially confidential and | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
cannot be shared. I am grateful for giving way, she has a special | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
knowledge in this area so can I tease out a points you mention. She | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
mentioned the ?3.8 billion of public money being invested, what | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
consideration did her committee give to what valuation of the bank would | :02:38. | :02:43. | |
be appropriate for the government to sell? She quite rightly said this | :02:44. | :02:50. | |
was an inspiring start by the government and wanted to be an | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
exemplar and before there is a special sponge blitz to make sure it | :02:55. | :03:01. | |
is the right time to let it go. The remit of the committee was not to | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
second-guess what the government could or should get for the bank. I | :03:06. | :03:12. | |
am sure there will be people in the City of London that are much better | :03:13. | :03:19. | |
able than I am to live. I am sure there will be colleagues certainly | :03:20. | :03:21. | |
on his benches that could probably make a good stab at it. When I | :03:22. | :03:28. | |
worked with small businesses you could get multiples of income but it | :03:29. | :03:31. | |
depends what you're buying. In this case you are buying an asset book | :03:32. | :03:37. | |
with you hope future revenues from the investments that have been made | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
and you are also buying senior bank management intellectual capital if I | :03:43. | :03:49. | |
can put it like that. ?3.8 billion of Dummett investment in green | :03:50. | :03:52. | |
projects that you hope at some point we'll give you a revenue and capital | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
stream as they sold off but it also depends on what purchaser is going | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
to put in to the capital projects as well. She quite rightly says there | :04:00. | :04:06. | |
is a series of investments in the bag but it would be possible to | :04:07. | :04:15. | |
check that her committee has looked at providing an evidentiary -based | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
understanding if in future when this bank is sold whether it is being | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
done on a fair basis? I'm sure that is a simple thing to do and I am | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
sure as we go forward and as the sale proceeds they will be a variety | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
of attempts to calculate the net present value of the bank and I'm | :04:33. | :04:35. | |
sure the government will want to let us know whether they think that has | :04:36. | :04:46. | |
been achieved. There is plainly a public interest in this remaining | :04:47. | :04:48. | |
Green Investment Bank because the amount of public money that has been | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
invested and the public interest in green fuels and green energy being | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
developed. So that together with the work that the committee which she | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
now shares will do to scrutinise the future of the green arrest and bank | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
surely gives enough protection to make sure that it does indeed remain | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
a Green Investment Bank, that is certainly something her committee | :05:10. | :05:12. | |
will continue to switch eyes. Once it is sold my committee has no | :05:13. | :05:19. | |
future locus in scrutinising what it does. It goes off and we can do it | :05:20. | :05:25. | |
as a matter of interest but this is the final legislative opportunity | :05:26. | :05:28. | |
that we have as parliamentarians, collectively in this place, to state | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
and to say what we want to happen to this bank. Again we will possibly | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
have a future chance if it comes back and is going to be debated | :05:39. | :05:45. | |
upstairs on the committee floors. But we are at the penultimate stage, | :05:46. | :05:48. | |
the first round of the bidding process has already started. The | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
starting gun has been fired. If the government comes back and says we | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
want to sell 100% and does so next September, Christmas, the | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
environmental audit committee can look out of interest going forward | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
in the future whether we feel best value has been achieved. But this | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
bestial share, we want to really test that here today to make sure | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
that those as he says, the public interest is protected and green | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
vehicle continues. This is a really important financial institution. If | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
we are to meet those climate change targets. Let me conclude Madam | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
Deputy Speaker by saying that the Chancellor said in January that the | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
sale of shares in Lloyds would be postponed because of market | :06:36. | :06:38. | |
turbulence. The sell-off was scheduled for spring and he has now | :06:39. | :06:41. | |
said it will come after Easter and we await to see when I will come. | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
Since the start of the year we have seen a bear market, great turbulence | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
in the financial markets, panic selling of crude oil and oil prices | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
at the 13 year low. These are worrying times for the global | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
economy and the market is hugely volatile. All bank shares are | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
currently falling in price, whether they are UK bank shares, European | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
bank shares, or US bank shares. Just this morning we have heard that the | :07:08. | :07:10. | |
Bank of England has announced it will give commercial banks three | :07:11. | :07:13. | |
exceptional opportunities just before and after the referendum to | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
borrow as much money as they like to offset any threat of a run on banks | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
and to prevent a repeat of the chaos of the financial crisis of 2008. The | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
house to ask whether, given the pretty bleak turbulent choppy | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
financial picture, whether the government decision to launch the | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
sale of the bank last Thursday was the right one. What ever your views | :07:40. | :07:41. | |
on privatisation this hardly looks like the most auspicious time to | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
sell estate asset, let alone a state owned bank. And cute. -- thank you. | :07:47. | :07:58. | |
Can I just imagine my honourable friend who chairs the select | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
committee on her remarks and I congratulate her on the work the | :08:02. | :08:08. | |
committee has done to tease out the details of what is going on. Madam | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
Deputy Speaker, in 2012 the Green Investment Bank was set up for a | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
purpose. It was stated quite clearly that that purpose was to address | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
Pacific market and investment barriers that would achieve | :08:25. | :08:33. | |
reductions to tax base and consumers. The way it was going to | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
do that was to work under the framework of the climate change act | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
by risk-sharing between the public and private sectors. Identifying and | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
addressing market failures and limiting private investment and | :08:51. | :08:52. | |
thereby accelerating and delivering green investment at large scale and | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
with significantly lower cost of capital. That was the whole point. | :08:58. | :09:04. | |
And it was set up precisely because there was a market failure. The | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
market sector -- the private sector was not able to do this. That is not | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
me saying this as a member of the opposition benches because of course | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
we supported this, it was our idea in the first place when we were in | :09:19. | :09:21. | |
Dortmund and we were delighted when the coalition put it into place. -- | :09:22. | :09:25. | |
when we were in government. But the government coalition that stage | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
Thidapa Green Investment Bank commission. Independent, nonpartisan | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
-- the set up the commission. It was brought together by the Chancellor | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
itself. It spent three years and two official rounds of rigorous market | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
testing and evidence gathering to establish that a Green Investment | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
Bank was needed and collected evidence to inform its aims, its | :09:51. | :09:53. | |
design and the operating model it was going to function under. Now, | :09:54. | :10:00. | |
three years, two official rounds of market testing to set it up. Compare | :10:01. | :10:02. | |
that with the and lack of consultation to sell it | :10:03. | :10:11. | |
off. But what did that commission fine? The commission found that | :10:12. | :10:18. | |
without a way of directly addressing market failure and risk-sharing | :10:19. | :10:21. | |
between the public and private sector through a Green Investment | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
Bank, higher levels of direct subsidy would be required to | :10:26. | :10:31. | |
facilitate low-carbon investment, meaning higher costs to the consumer | :10:32. | :10:33. | |
and the taxpayer. That is what the Chancellor's on | :10:34. | :10:43. | |
commission, with the hand-picked people he put on it, agreed. That | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
was the rationales which is now being undermined by the same. So | :10:49. | :10:59. | |
let's be absolutely clear that this represents an increased cost to the | :11:00. | :11:07. | |
consumer and the taxpayer by the Government's on commission. -- oh | :11:08. | :11:14. | |
that commission. The Chancellor has given himself something of a | :11:15. | :11:23. | |
problem. By committing to achieve a public finance surplus every year in | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
normal economic times, the Government has roared out borrowing | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
to fund public infrastructure. The exception is investments through the | :11:34. | :11:41. | |
public finance initiative. Since the financial crisis there has been less | :11:42. | :11:50. | |
private finance available to invest in public or private infrastructure | :11:51. | :11:53. | |
projects. At the same time direct public investment has also decrease. | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
One of the concerns of investors is the political risks that have | :11:59. | :12:04. | |
manifested themselves from potential changes in government policies. | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
Those have been separately criticised and I won't go into those | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
here, but the way in which government has chopped and changed | :12:14. | :12:16. | |
the regulatory frameworks for low carbon investment has seen, as my | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
honourable friend who spoke from the green benches indicated earlier, it | :12:22. | :12:32. | |
has seen a decline in the UK's attractiveness for investment, so | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
that for the first time under the Ernst Young Rubik we fell out of | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
the top ten best places for investment. Last year. So, the way | :12:42. | :12:56. | |
in which this has been tackled by the Chancellor is two fold. The | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
pension infrastructure platform sourcing less than 1 billion in | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
total in its first four years of operation, its aim was 20 billion | :13:07. | :13:16. | |
and 40 billion of UK guarantees scheme, only 1.7 billion guarantees | :13:17. | :13:20. | |
were actually issued in the first two years. Contrast that financial | :13:21. | :13:30. | |
performance, that dire financial informants with the performance of | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
the Green Investment Bank. With just ?2.3 billion of public money it has | :13:36. | :13:42. | |
mobilised over 10 billion of investment in British infrastructure | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
in the last three years. I would have actually wish to have | :13:47. | :13:49. | |
seen the Green Investment Bank have a few more failures, because it | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
adopted a very specific policy at the beginning, and that was, go for | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
safe projects. It went to safe projects because it wanted to build | :14:01. | :14:03. | |
up the track record, it wanted to show that it had a track record of | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
successful investment behind it, so about now it could attract in much | :14:09. | :14:16. | |
more private sector capital, to take on even riskier projects. Because | :14:17. | :14:19. | |
that is the point of agreed investment bank. It's not to do what | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
the market is going to do anyway, what the market can see it is going | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
to get a return on capital from. The whole point of the Green Investment | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
Bank is to take on those much more difficult technical projects that | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
otherwise the market cannot finance. So this is just the point, three | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
years in, when we should have been thinking, great, it's got the | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
successful track record behind it, now what it needs to do is to move | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
on into slightly riskier... Some may fail, that is the nature of | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
investment and banking. We know that. Some projects may fail, but | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
overall the balance of investment flowing through into UK | :15:02. | :15:03. | |
infrastructure would be hugely enhanced. So what does the | :15:04. | :15:10. | |
Government decide to do? Just that the point of liftoff, of the only | :15:11. | :15:19. | |
successful lever the Chancellor has to get money into infrastructure | :15:20. | :15:22. | |
project of this country? The other two having been quite dismal in | :15:23. | :15:29. | |
their performance. Pull the plug. Throw it away. Privatise it and send | :15:30. | :15:36. | |
it back off into the private sector, which was the very place that | :15:37. | :15:39. | |
couldn't manage this market failure in the first place. So, Madam Deputy | :15:40. | :15:53. | |
Speaker, the honourable gentleman who spoke from the benches earlier | :15:54. | :16:01. | |
said, look, it is a success. So why can't it go on being a success, in | :16:02. | :16:08. | |
the private sector? Of course, that was the question that had to be | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
posed by the commission in the first place. That was the question that | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
the Green Investment Bank was set up to answer. But actually, if you were | :16:18. | :16:23. | |
to ask the former chair of the bank, he actually gave the very best | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
response to the honourable gentleman. He said this: "There is | :16:29. | :16:37. | |
an inherent tension between the GI be continuing to invest in novel, | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
more complex projects profitable over the long-term, versus | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
shareholder pressure to maximise returns on short-term investments." | :16:48. | :16:55. | |
There you have it. There is a tension in the private sector. It is | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
a tension we all recognise and it is well known and won the Governor of | :17:02. | :17:04. | |
the Bank of England has spoken on so much over the last year. He calls it | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
the event horizon, the tragedy of the horizon, because the investment | :17:10. | :17:17. | |
horizon is so short that the sort of projects, you cannot see the payback | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
for. I think it is tragic that the Government is actually privatising, | :17:22. | :17:29. | |
neutering what was one of the best things that it established. Of | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
course I will give way. I thank my honourable friend for | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
giving way. You are making a very persuasive argument here. Like me, | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
does he not agree that actually if we are to be a country which | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
represents, as the Chancellor said, the march of the makers, part of | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
that is being at the front of the queue when it comes to leadership, | :17:53. | :17:56. | |
in terms of supporting innovation in this particular marketplace of green | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
energy and green environmental products. Doesn't he feel, like me, | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
that by privatising the Green Investment Bank all we are doing is | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
creating yet another bank, that won't do the job it was intended to | :18:11. | :18:13. | |
do? My right honourable friend has | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
enormous knowledge in this area, and I absolutely agree with her. Of | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
course, what is happening now is that the most successful instrument | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
that the Government itself has created for energising and putting | :18:33. | :18:35. | |
investment into infrastructure projects in this country is now | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
being neutered. That is the tragedy, and it is when these amendments seek | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
to address. Minister. Anna Sue Brie. | :18:47. | :18:54. | |
It has been an interesting debate. I have to confess, I don't agree with | :18:55. | :19:01. | |
many of the arguments that have been advanced on the other side, so I | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
hope honourable members will not support any of the new clauses that | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
has been proposed. Can I go, if I may put it in this way, in reverse | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
order and deal with new clause eight? Posed by the lady who | :19:17. | :19:23. | |
represents Brighton Pavilion, that seeks to ensure the Green Investment | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
Bank continues its green investment plans post-privatisation. We are | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
agreed to as to what we want the bank to continue to do. We are | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
seeking bidders who can commit to this and have the deep pockets to | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
commit to the business plan. The management are played, they need | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
access to private capital, to fund their green business plan. That | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
could be equity capital raised as part of the sale process, debt | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
capital, which the Green Investment Bank can raise when it is in the | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
private sector, or private capital raised as part of a fund structure. | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
Business plans change, they evolve as new opportunities arise and we | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
will not bind new owners into the current plans, so I cannot accept | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
the honourable lady's Amendment. The new owners of the Green Investment | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
Bank will have views on the future strategy and business plan. They | :20:20. | :20:23. | |
will assess it as part of their due diligence and make it a part of | :20:24. | :20:27. | |
their offer. Whoever the new owner or owners are, a special share in | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
shores that the business plan, like the Green Investment Bank, will | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
continue to be green. Madam deputies Speaker, I will take intervention | :20:37. | :20:43. | |
but only make this point. -- Madam Deputy Speaker. In response to a | :20:44. | :20:50. | |
large number of points I have been made, I think it has to be said that | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
it is absolutely almost impossible to think of and understand anybody | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
who would want to buy... The clue is in the name... The Green Investment | :21:01. | :21:03. | |
Bank, unless they wanted to make sure that it continued to invest in | :21:04. | :21:09. | |
green projects. At that point I will of course give way. | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
I think we welcome the general direction travelled, in terms of the | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
special share. During the privatisation process the Government | :21:21. | :21:25. | |
will have a clear say in terms of that direction of travel forward, in | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
selecting the new owners. Can the Minister expand upon how they will | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
ensure appropriate owners are put in place and they will respect the | :21:34. | :21:36. | |
special share and also the green agenda? | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
Of course, everybody will have two comply with due diligence. I welcome | :21:40. | :21:46. | |
the young gentleman's comments, but absolutely make it clear, it is | :21:47. | :21:49. | |
difficult to believe and understand how anybody would want to buy a | :21:50. | :21:52. | |
Green Investment Bank unless they absolutely want to continue with the | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
great work it's been doing. I absolutely pay tribute to that. I | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
will come on to... I will come specifically to why the new clause | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
about the future of this special share is wrong by the opposition and | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
our proposals are the right thing to do. | :22:14. | :22:15. | |
I am grateful to you for giving way. It is not just about green purposes. | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
Can we'll so remember what the Green Investment Bank has done is to focus | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
on complex and novel innovations question but that is precisely why a | :22:24. | :22:27. | |
private investor might not wish to do that, because it takes longer, | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
not such a quick win. And the special share is not legally | :22:33. | :22:35. | |
underpinned, so it gives us no long-term reassurance. | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
I do disagree with the honourable lady, because one of the things | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
about this privatisation, this sale of the Green Investment Bank is | :22:44. | :22:47. | |
precisely to ensure that more money is available from the private | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
sector, particularly to carry out this sort of investment. Forgive me, | :22:52. | :22:54. | |
but it really isn't the role of government to effectively gamble and | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
make investment with taxpayers money. Now, it was right in 2012. | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
Mention has been made by the right honourable gentleman representing | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
Brent North, it was because of an accepted market failure that the | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
Green Investment Bank was set up. The idea that this government is | :23:14. | :23:17. | |
throwing it away, as he put it, really couldn't be further from the | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
truth. The Green Investment Bank is a real success story. Nobody seeks | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
to pretend it is anything other than that. We want its success to | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
continue, but in the private sector. Quickly, I will. | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
I am grateful to the honourable lady for giving way. But does she | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
actually believe there is no longer any market failure that needs to be | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
addressed? Because of course the figures on the infrastructure would | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
suggest quite the opposite. The point made by my honourable friend | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
about the innovative and novel nature of the projects the Green | :23:57. | :23:59. | |
Investment Bank was set up to achieve pay much less return into | :24:00. | :24:05. | |
the private sector, which is precisely the reason why it needed a | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
risk-sharing between the Government and the private sector to launch the | :24:10. | :24:12. | |
bank in the first place. What I would say to that is the very | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
fact that the Green Investment Bank has been so successful has | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
absolutely proved and shown that these are exactly the sort of | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
investments that can be profitable and worthy. In other words, it has | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
shown by its success but there is no longer a market failure. I will take | :24:31. | :24:34. | |
another quick intervention. The benches opposite seem to be | :24:35. | :24:38. | |
saying to things, first that the private sector does not do long-term | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
projects well. Look at Shell BP and others, they do many projects over | :24:43. | :24:46. | |
decades. They are also saying that the private sector does not do | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
innovative projects very well. These propositions are just nonsense. | :24:51. | :24:57. | |
I thank my honourable friend for his excellent intervention, which I | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
wholeheartedly endorse. Madam Deputy Speaker, we have always said the | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
Green Investment Bank would stay green after privatisation. Green | :25:06. | :25:08. | |
investment is what it does and its management has been very clear on | :25:09. | :25:11. | |
that. We have explained that the only reason we are repealing for | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
green protections from legislation is to allow the Green Investment | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
Bank to move to the private sector by removing state control over the | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
bank. But we understand the concerns raised by honourable members and | :25:25. | :25:30. | |
noble Lords and we found a device to protect the green investment's green | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
purposes, without legislation. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am very, very | :25:36. | :25:43. | |
grateful to the noble lord Smith of Kelvin, who has already, as was | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
mentioned, written to members of the opposition in the other place, | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
explaining why it is the view of those who are currently in charge of | :25:53. | :25:59. | |
the Green Investment Bank about this special measure and why they | :26:00. | :26:02. | |
absolutely have all confidence in it actually achieving what we all want | :26:03. | :26:07. | |
to achieve. So this is the device, if you like, that cure is the | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
mystery. I just want to put on record my thanks to Lord Smith for | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
his letter, that were sent out by my excellent Parliamentary Private | :26:19. | :26:22. | |
Secretary to all members of this house. I hope that all honourable | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
members, on both sides, have I had the opportunity to read this letter, | :26:28. | :26:31. | |
because this letter could not be more clear about why what the | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
Government has proposed will ensure and protect those green purposes and | :26:36. | :26:41. | |
legislation is absolutely not necessary. One of the reasons why, | :26:42. | :26:47. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker, we don't want the opposition's clause to be | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
successful, to put this into legislation, is because we are of | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
the view that the Office for National Statistics will take the | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
view that effectively what we seek to do will not be achieved, it will | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
not be off the books. That is why it is so important. I will give way. | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
I thank the Right Honourable lady for giving way and in support of | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
what the Right Honourable lady says, can I quote from that letter by Lord | :27:13. | :27:18. | |
Smith of Kelvin. He says; "we are 100% committed to delivering the | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
full intent of the amendment passed by the Lords. I hope that by | :27:23. | :27:29. | |
committing to implement the plan and by doing so transparently we can | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
secure the necessary confidence of shareholders and Members of | :27:35. | :27:37. | |
Parliament, that a special share solution can be delivered without | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
the need for it to be mandated in legislation. ". | :27:42. | :27:44. | |
Thank you very much indeed. I'm very grateful to my right honourable | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
friend for reading out from the letter and, forgive me, Madam Deputy | :27:49. | :27:50. | |
Speaker, I'm not going to read it out obviously as you will be very | :27:51. | :27:54. | |
pleased to know, we'd be here all afternoon. What I have done is, | :27:55. | :28:00. | |
placed it in the library and it really does best explain why this | :28:01. | :28:04. | |
clause from the opposition is now no longer require and why it's so | :28:05. | :28:08. | |
incredibly important that we get the right device to ensure the green | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
principles. I'm going to give way one last time if I may to the | :28:14. | :28:17. | |
honourable lady from Wakefield. Lord Smith of Kelvin may or may not be | :28:18. | :28:20. | |
the chairman to have bank when this sale proceeds so can she answer my | :28:21. | :28:25. | |
previous question I made in the debate - will this special share | :28:26. | :28:28. | |
apply if the bank is sold by any future owner, yes or no? I think | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
it's a short one, I think the answer is yes. The honourable lady will | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
have seen this letter. She will have read it, I hope, up side down, | :28:39. | :28:43. | |
inside out, backwards and everything else, and it really could not be... | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
It goes well over two pages and it really couldn't be clearer as to the | :28:49. | :28:51. | |
way that the special share is going to be set up and, if I can, I'm | :28:52. | :28:57. | |
going to rely on the fact that it talks about the special shareholder, | :28:58. | :29:02. | |
how difficult frankly it would be to undo this device. It could only be | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
done with the permission effectively of the special shareholder. So I | :29:08. | :29:11. | |
think that this House can be sure that this is the sort of right way | :29:12. | :29:16. | |
to achieve, as I say, what we all want to achieve. I will in one | :29:17. | :29:20. | |
moment give way but I want to make this next point. That is why I think | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
it's important to pay tribute, and some may say this is a firstand may | :29:26. | :29:32. | |
not be the last, but to the Scottish government, to the SNP, because I've | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
seen sight of a letter that I know that John Swinney has written quite | :29:38. | :29:40. | |
properly, he's the Deputy First Minister, he has responsibility in | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
Scotland for finance constitution and economy on behalf of the | :29:45. | :29:46. | |
Scottish government. I know that he too quite rightly and | :29:47. | :29:52. | |
understandably has raised his concerns about how we best protect | :29:53. | :29:58. | |
the green credentials of the green investment bank. As a result of | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
that, he too has contacted Lord Smith and, as a result of that, use | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
might imagine, Madam Deputy Speaker, a letter has been sent backwards and | :30:08. | :30:11. | |
forwards but, in short, and it's to the credit of the party that sits | :30:12. | :30:15. | |
over there, that they take the view, and I'll be corrected if I am wrong, | :30:16. | :30:19. | |
but as I say, this device, which is up and running, the work has already | :30:20. | :30:24. | |
started by the green investment bank, to secure this special | :30:25. | :30:30. | |
shareholding, that everybody can be confident that this is the way to | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
secure what we all want, but without the need for legislation which could | :30:35. | :30:40. | |
completely scupper this privatisation, this selling off of | :30:41. | :30:43. | |
the green investment bank. I will give way. | :30:44. | :30:46. | |
I'm very grateful to the honourable lady giving way. She said on many | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
occasions that she's confident that introducing the special share in | :30:51. | :30:54. | |
this way will work, in our case, all along our case has been, we'd like | :30:55. | :30:58. | |
her to say to the House that she can guarantee, rather than just be | :30:59. | :31:01. | |
confident, that the Office for National Statistics will approve | :31:02. | :31:05. | |
this approach. Can she now say in terms to the House on the floor of | :31:06. | :31:08. | |
the House and on the record that she can guarantee that to the House? The | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
honourable lady, I hope this is a Parliamentary word, he's being a bit | :31:14. | :31:18. | |
of a minx, but I mean that in the nicest way, because he knows... | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
LAUGHTER He quite likes that, that's good. I | :31:23. | :31:26. | |
don't think he'll like the next bit, but, you know, I've already | :31:27. | :31:29. | |
explained when we were in the committee that we absolutely can't | :31:30. | :31:32. | |
give that guarantee. I think he was a bit naughty, I think he called the | :31:33. | :31:36. | |
Office for National Statistics a bunch of boffins which he then | :31:37. | :31:39. | |
rather regretted because they are not, they are absolutely | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
independent. They'll rightly come to their conclusions. What we can say | :31:44. | :31:47. | |
is that we are confident that, if this goes into legislation, they | :31:48. | :31:50. | |
will not take this bank effectively off the books because it will not be | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
properly in the private sector and also we can take the view that if we | :31:55. | :32:00. | |
do it in the way we are all suggesting, including the chairman | :32:01. | :32:03. | |
of the green investment bank, there's every chance in the world | :32:04. | :32:06. | |
this will then become a successful privatisation. | :32:07. | :32:10. | |
I think it is confusing, as to the real views. The honourable lady, the | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
member for Wakefield says she doesn't object to the green | :32:16. | :32:18. | |
investment bank being sold off though she's raised her concerns, | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
but she's in favour of it in principle. I'm not sure if others | :32:23. | :32:25. | |
do. Madam Deputy Speaker, can I just | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
deal with that amendment put forward by the honourable ladies for both | :32:31. | :32:36. | |
Wakefield and the Don Valley? We believe very firmly this is another | :32:37. | :32:39. | |
amendment which is not required. The green investment bank is currently | :32:40. | :32:42. | |
required to report to higher standards. The standards for quotaed | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
companies which includes the level of detail required by this | :32:47. | :32:50. | |
amendment. That is appropriate because it's currently entirely | :32:51. | :32:54. | |
publicly owned, post-privatisation. Again, there's absolutely no reason | :32:55. | :32:59. | |
why the green investment bank should be I thinkled out to report on its | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
renumeration to Parliament, especially if it's not spending any | :33:04. | :33:07. | |
public money. It's a matter for the board of a company and its | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
shareholders to agree renumeration policy. I know that there was an | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
exchange of letters between the honourable lady who represents | :33:16. | :33:19. | |
Wakefield and the green investment bank's chair, Lord Smith, the Noble | :33:20. | :33:24. | |
Lord Smith to ask about the future remuneration policy and I'm sure her | :33:25. | :33:26. | |
committee will publish that letter in full. If the Government remains | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
the minority stake in the green investment bank and we have made it | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
clear our intention is to sell a majority of it, we could express | :33:36. | :33:40. | |
views on this and other aspects of corporate policy, we could agree | :33:41. | :33:43. | |
with other shareholders what level of reporting might be appropriate to | :33:44. | :33:46. | |
this and other matters. But we do not consider this matter again | :33:47. | :33:53. | |
should reside within legislation. Madam Deputy Speaker, as I said, the | :33:54. | :34:02. | |
green investment bank has been a terrifically successful venture and | :34:03. | :34:06. | |
it is important to understand that when it was set up in 2012, it was | :34:07. | :34:12. | |
set up because of a market failure. None of us really, well apart from I | :34:13. | :34:21. | |
think the membe opposite don't like to be reminded of the perilous | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
situation our country faced in 2010, and it wasn't certainly the fault of | :34:27. | :34:30. | |
the banks, a failing of Government policy at the time as well. What the | :34:31. | :34:34. | |
green investment bank's done is to help investors in the market to | :34:35. | :34:38. | |
better understand the risks of green investment. I think this comes back | :34:39. | :34:41. | |
to the point that was being advanced by the honourable gentleman for | :34:42. | :34:47. | |
Brent North. We know that long-term debt markets have improved | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
significantly since 2012, so this is again what I would suggest is an | :34:52. | :34:55. | |
improvement in the market conditions. Frankly, today, you | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
wouldn't set up the green investment bank because those market failures | :35:00. | :35:04. | |
no longer exist. As I say, the green investment bank has proved you can | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
be green and profitable. Its success is demonstrating that the market can | :35:10. | :35:14. | |
deliver green and that must be a good thing. | :35:15. | :35:17. | |
I think I've dealt with the point about the Office for National | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
Statistics so I won't repeat all of that. | :35:22. | :35:24. | |
The honourable gentleman for Cardiff West and indeed the honourable lady | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
for Wakefield ask whether the Government will retain a minority | :35:29. | :35:31. | |
stake in the green investment bank. Our position's not changed since the | :35:32. | :35:35. | |
committee stage. I explained then that we intend to sell a majority of | :35:36. | :35:39. | |
the green investment bank. We may retain a minority, as I say, but we | :35:40. | :35:46. | |
can't commit to that. Our report to Parliament makes clear, decisions on | :35:47. | :35:49. | |
the size of stake in the green investment bank to be sold will | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
depend on the outcome of confidential commercial discussions | :35:55. | :35:57. | |
with investors and I pay tribute to the Secretary of State who made the | :35:58. | :36:03. | |
announcement last week that the green investment bank is now | :36:04. | :36:06. | |
available to be sold and unfortunately I can say no more than | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
that Madam Deputy Speaker, other than to say we are confident this | :36:12. | :36:14. | |
will be a successful sale and that this sale will be done at the time | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
when the market is in the right place. | :36:20. | :36:22. | |
Having said that, of course, we are not just going to sell it, unless of | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
course we know we'll get the right price and we have had, for some time | :36:28. | :36:33. | |
now, strong market interest in the green investment bank. The green | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
investment bank has strong, underlying assets which are less | :36:39. | :36:44. | |
exposed to market volatility and the recent infrastructure of sales like | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
City airnt have been successful too, that gives us confidence again, in | :36:49. | :36:51. | |
particular in this part of the market. So we have those | :36:52. | :36:56. | |
confidences. Madam Deputy Speaker, nobody's asked the question, but if | :36:57. | :37:02. | |
they were to, it would be a good question and honourable members | :37:03. | :37:04. | |
opposite in that part of the House might have asked, so I'm going to | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
pre-empt it. I'm just going to put on the record | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
that the green investment bank, no doubt, has been particularly | :37:13. | :37:15. | |
successful because it's been primarily based in Edinburgh. | :37:16. | :37:20. | |
It's an excellent place for anybody to do business. Especially, of | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
course, as it's still within a United Kingdom. I can see no... I | :37:26. | :37:31. | |
know, he's changed his mind now! I can see no good reason, of course | :37:32. | :37:36. | |
again this is something we explored in committee, we can so see no good | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
reason why the green investment bank would want to move away from | :37:42. | :37:44. | |
Edinburgh. Why on earth would they? If the honourable gentleman wants to | :37:45. | :37:47. | |
intervene, he's changed his mind, probably because I hadn't reminded | :37:48. | :37:50. | |
him about the price of oil but we'll move swiftly on from all of that. | :37:51. | :37:54. | |
The honourable gentleman for Cardiff West asked me whether the Government | :37:55. | :37:58. | |
can guarantee that the green investment bank will be off the | :37:59. | :38:02. | |
balance sheet and I think I have dealt with that. We can't give a | :38:03. | :38:07. | |
cast iron guarantee about the ONS but we have a confidence and I hope | :38:08. | :38:10. | |
that will be shared by the whole of the House. | :38:11. | :38:17. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker, as I say, we don't need this amendment, in | :38:18. | :38:21. | |
particular because of the assurances that have been given by the noble | :38:22. | :38:27. | |
Lord Smith in his extensive letter to what is now all members of the | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
House. In it, he goes into quite considerable detail about the | :38:33. | :38:34. | |
mechanisms that he's already beginning to put in place to ensure | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
that there is this special share that will ensure the future green | :38:40. | :38:43. | |
credentials of the green investment bank. That is why we would say that | :38:44. | :38:49. | |
that amendment, which I believe will be tested, should be resisted. Now, | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
turning to amendment 17 and going back to that, if I may, I know that | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
the honourable lady, quite rightly, or the honourable ladies for both | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
Wakefield and the Don Valley have raised their concerns that when | :39:06. | :39:09. | |
sold, the green investment bank will be a private sector company. I think | :39:10. | :39:13. | |
this is an important point to put on the record. As such, it will be | :39:14. | :39:19. | |
subject to normal company law. For a company of the green | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
investment bank side which is unquoted which means it's not listed | :39:25. | :39:29. | |
on the Stock Exchange, the minimum requirement will be to report | :39:30. | :39:35. | |
aggregate information in relation to total renumeration and specific | :39:36. | :39:38. | |
information relating to the highest paid director. As I've said, it's | :39:39. | :39:42. | |
currently required to report to higher standards, the standards for | :39:43. | :39:46. | |
quoted companies which includes the level of detail required by this | :39:47. | :39:50. | |
amendment. That is appropriate because it is currently entirely | :39:51. | :39:56. | |
publicly owned. Madam Deputy Speaker, I've made | :39:57. | :40:02. | |
considerable praise... Yes, thank you for that. That's extremely | :40:03. | :40:05. | |
helpful. No doubt it will be a blessing in | :40:06. | :40:09. | |
due course to everybody that has to have the misfortune... No, no, the | :40:10. | :40:14. | |
great good fortune to read this in Hansard or indeed to be following | :40:15. | :40:17. | |
these procedures. But I wanted to pay tribute, if I may, to the green | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
investment bank, to all those who work for it, and especially to its | :40:24. | :40:26. | |
chairman, the noble Lord Smith. In conclusion, Madam Deputy Speaker, | :40:27. | :40:36. | |
the Government has listened to the concerns, I shan't forget this from | :40:37. | :40:39. | |
the honourable gentleman who represents Nottingham east and his | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
heckling. The Government has listened, that is the most important | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
point of what I am saying. To the concerns of honourable members and | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
noble lords of all parties. We have been open and transparent about our | :40:56. | :40:59. | |
intentions from the Green Investment Bank, not only from June this year, | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
but as far back as the Autumn Statement in January 13 when we made | :41:04. | :41:10. | |
our position clear -- 2013. We want it to increase its green impact with | :41:11. | :41:14. | |
greater access to private sector capital. As Lord Smith says in his | :41:15. | :41:18. | |
letter, he wants to do it this way and not the opposition's way, in | :41:19. | :41:22. | |
particular so they have the access to Equity, which they need so much. | :41:23. | :41:26. | |
We need to give it the freedom to continue doing what it does best and | :41:27. | :41:29. | |
I hope that all honourable members will join me in the no lobbied in | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
resisting these amendments. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I should | :41:36. | :41:39. | |
say the Minister criticised me for referring to in Committee to the | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
Office of National Statistics as boffins. Can I remind her that they | :41:44. | :41:49. | |
are a boffin according to Wikipedia and the Oxford dictionary, a person | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
engaged in technical research, and it originates in World War II. I | :41:55. | :41:58. | |
don't think is anything to apologise for in describing them as boffins. | :41:59. | :42:02. | |
We are looking for a guaranteed that the mechanism that the Government is | :42:03. | :42:05. | |
proposing would indeed satisfy the ONS. The Minister's confirmed on the | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
floor of the House today that she cannot offer that guaranteed to us. | :42:11. | :42:15. | |
On that basis we don't want to let this legislative opportunity pass by | :42:16. | :42:18. | |
to ensure the green purposes of the Green Investment Bank. On that basis | :42:19. | :42:23. | |
I will be asking my right honourable friends to join me in the lobby and | :42:24. | :42:27. | |
seek to divide the House on new clause four. The question is that | :42:28. | :42:33. | |
new clause four be read a second time. As many as are of the opinion, | :42:34. | :42:38. | |
say "aye". To the contrary, "no". Division. Clear the lobby. | :42:39. | :44:42. | |
Order. The question is that new clause four be read a second time. | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". | :44:49. | :44:55. | |
Tellers for the ayes, Vicky Fox crossed and Jeff Smith. Tellers for | :44:56. | :44:58. | |
the noes... The ayes to the right, 202. The noes | :44:59. | :50:56. | |
to the left, 284. The ayes to the right, 202. The noes | :50:57. | :58:18. | |
to the left, 284. The noes have it, the noes have it. | :58:19. | :58:21. | |
Unlock. We now come to new schedule 1 with | :58:22. | :58:34. | |
which it will be convenient to consider amendments 18, 15 and 16 | :58:35. | :58:42. | |
and Government amendments 3-9. Mr Kevin Brannan to move new schedule | :58:43. | :58:44. | |
1. Thank you very much. We are now on | :58:45. | :58:50. | |
new schedule 1 which I am moving and it links with our amendment 16 in | :58:51. | :58:56. | |
this group. We are also discussing amendment 15 which stands in my name | :58:57. | :59:00. | |
and that of my right honourable friend and amendment 18 tabled by | :59:01. | :59:03. | |
the SNP which we also discussed in committee and which I'm happy to | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
confirm we support today. Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, this is | :59:10. | :59:13. | |
the bit of the enterprise bill which is nothing to do with enterprise. | :59:14. | :59:19. | |
It's largely actually about spin, to be perfectly honest. Let me make it | :59:20. | :59:24. | |
clear, as I did in committee, Madam Deputy Speaker. The opposition | :59:25. | :59:29. | |
agrees that excessive exit payments in the public sector should. Paid | :59:30. | :59:34. | |
and that, if there are abuses in that regard, any abuses should be | :59:35. | :59:38. | |
ended. But the problem with the Government's approach to this, Madam | :59:39. | :59:42. | |
Deputy Speaker, is they are attempting to govern by headline in | :59:43. | :59:45. | |
what they are doing in this part of the Bill in a very complex area. In | :59:46. | :59:52. | |
doing so, they're creating the sorts of anomalies and unfairnesses which | :59:53. | :59:57. | |
we'll hear about, I'm sure, during the course of our debate this | :59:58. | :00:00. | |
afternoon, include ago headline-grabbing figure in this | :00:01. | :00:05. | |
case ?95,000 in a clause on the face of the Bill quite frankly is the | :00:06. | :00:11. | |
worst kind of utterly have beening yewious Government and exactly the | :00:12. | :00:17. | |
sort of rigid legislating that good civil servants advise against -- | :00:18. | :00:21. | |
utterly vacuous. And which bad ministers promote. Yet, it allows | :00:22. | :00:26. | |
the Secretary of State to have his tabloid headline about fat cats | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
which is actually what this clause in the Bill is really all about. | :00:30. | :00:34. | |
That was the odious remark the Secretary of State made on second | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
reading. It was an insult actually, Madam Deputy Speaker, to thousands | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
of decent hard-working people in this country, many of whom, by the | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
way, have never been paid anywhere near ?30,000, let alone the ?3 | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
million a year the Secretary of State used to get when he was | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
working for an investment bank. Now, if I were to turn around and accuse | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
the - that's got a lot to do with it, because of the language used by | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
the Secretary of State. If I turned around and accused the Secretary of | :01:06. | :01:07. | |
State of being a fat cat, I'm sure the minister - I'm not going to do | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
that by the way, Madam Deputy Speaker - if I were, I'm sure the | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
minister would be huffing and puffing in her usual way from a | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
saiden tear position, muttering outrageous and disgraceful because | :01:23. | :01:24. | |
she and the Secretary of State like to dish it out but they don't like | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
it back when it comes their way. But she was quite content to sit there | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
with the Secretary of State at second reading and cheer him on at | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
second reading as he introduced public servants like long-serving | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
local librarians and even privatised nuclear decommissioning workers as | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
fat cats. That was the language used by the | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
Secretary of State at second reading. I wonder how they'd feel | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
about what he said at second reading, pad dam Deputy Speaker. I | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
know how they feel actually because they wrote to us in droves at | :02:00. | :02:05. | |
committee stage to express their anger at the insulting rhetoric that | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
was usedth used by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and | :02:11. | :02:13. | |
Skills at the second reading of this Bill. In droves they wrote to us and | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
the evidence was officially Schmidted to the committee and we | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
heard a lot of it at committee. Amendment 15 in this group would | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
seek to protect workers who earn less than ?27,000 a year from the | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
proposed exit payment cap. That's right, the fat cat who is earn less | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
than ?27,000 a year in our amendment are the fat cats receive call bid | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
the Secretary of State that we are seeking to protect in amendment 15. | :02:44. | :02:46. | |
I'll give way to my right honourable friend. Very grateful to the Shadow | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
Minister for Giving way. I was here in second reading when the Secretary | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
of State described the long-serving low and average paid public servants | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
as fat cats. The minister said at the despatch box at the end of | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
second reading this that the exit payment cap wouldn't apply to civil | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
servants earning less than ?27,000. She'll forgive us if we don't take | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
her word for it and if she will accept that amendment today to | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
ensure that promise is in law. Well, there was a time when | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
something said on the floor of the House by ministers was to be | :03:21. | :03:24. | |
accepted and I'm prepared to accept that what the minister says she is | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
sincere about. In fact, I think she probably didn't quite... She | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
probably didn't quite say what my right honourable friend said. I | :03:34. | :03:36. | |
think she said it would effect people, could effect a small number | :03:37. | :03:43. | |
of people on ?25,000 she said in her remarks. What my right honourable | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
friend is echoing is what her Treasury colleague said earlier in | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
the year, the honourable member I think for Witham I think before the | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
election when referring to what would be in the Conservative Party | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
manifesto at the election when she said that it wouldn't affect anybody | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
under beened 27,000 a year -- ?27,000 a year. I and we have taken | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
on this side of the House the words on that Government minister, her | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
colleague who said that in terms as a promise, as a Minister of The | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
Crown, and we have put it into this amendment to hold the Government to | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
its word. Now, the fact that the minister | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
wasn't prepared to repeat that in those terms in her speech perhaps is | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
explained by the refusal of the Government to support this very | :04:33. | :04:35. | |
reasonable amendment which we are putting forward. I'll give way to | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
the honourable gentleman. Very, very grateful for the honourable | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
gentleman giving way. In his deliberations or in analysis, has he | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
looked at the proportion? This is looking at the round of public money | :04:48. | :04:55. | |
spent on that. What proportion of expenditures were for people earning | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
less than ?27,000 and what to portion were for people earning over | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
?100,000. I don't have that figure but we probed the Government of the | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
impact on this on people earning less than ?27,000 a year and I'm | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
afraid we haven't been able to elucidate a great deal of | :05:16. | :05:17. | |
information other than the Government saying it would be rare | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
for this to occur. A point I'm going to make in a moment is, if it's not | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
that rare, why not accept the amendment because it's not going to | :05:26. | :05:28. | |
cost much to the Government if they are right it's going to affect so | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
few people. Very grateful. He's making a very fair point. But in the | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
absence of data he has his own good judgment and reasonableness for many | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
years in Government prior to 2010, but does he not feel the aim of this | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
really is that does he instincts not say the majority of money for this | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
is for people earning over ?100,000, that's really the target of what the | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
Government proposes isn't it? That's what the Government says the target | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
is, and, as the honourable gentleman says, I respect him greatly and his | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
independence of mind and thought and also his intellect on these sorts of | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
matters, and, as I said at the outset, if there are abuses going on | :06:08. | :06:15. | |
in relation to public sector payments, we are perfectly willing | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
to say that that should be stopped. However, we need to look at actually | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
what the clause in the Bill does and it picks a figure of ?95,000 in | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
order to generate a headline to say that fat cat public sector exit | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
payments of over ?100,000 are being stopped by the Bill. What it doesn't | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
elucidate very clearly is that ?95,000 isn't just a cash lump sum, | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
it includes the so-called strain payments which are paid into pension | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
funds of workers where they are being forced into redundancy prior | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
to retirement age, money they'll never get in their pockets. They are | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
not walking away with ?95,000 in their pockets ex-, they are not fat | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
cats earning over ?100,000, in some cases they are on relatively modest | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
incomes. It will capture people in the private sector which the | :07:11. | :07:13. | |
Government was neither keen to elucidate in this. I have a number | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
of people wishing to intervene. I saw the honourable gentleman wanting | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
to intervene there. Could the Shadow minister confirm many of the | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
employees affected by this earning less than ?25,000 a year will mostly | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
be women and this being International Women's Day, perhaps | :07:32. | :07:34. | |
the Government should think again. The gentleman is absolutely right on | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
that point, and clearly there are large numbers of public sector | :07:40. | :07:42. | |
workers often who've worked and given great long service in the | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
public sector who might have to take early redundancy, not surprisingly | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
at a time of severe cuts often in Local Government and the provisions | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
that are there in statute in regard or in their pension fund in the | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
Local Government pension fund require the payments to be made and | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
they'll count towards the ?95,000. I give way. I thank manufacture nor | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
giving way and my intervention compliments that of the honourable | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
gentleman because one of the big concerns about the changes here | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
which I'm sure he shares is that the consultation around this change is | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
so inadequate but there is Government have failed to undertake | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
any public sector equality death duty review which is required under | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
the equalities act and therefore, there are many potential unintended | :08:32. | :08:34. | |
conwhens of these changes which the Government really are not taking the | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
time to consider or explore. Yes. I'll briefly touch on the | :08:39. | :08:45. | |
inadequacy of the consultation later in my remarks. So that's amendment | :08:46. | :08:52. | |
15, it's about workers earning under ?27,000 a year. As I mentioned | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
earlier on - I will in a moment give way - it was the honourable member | :08:58. | :09:06. | |
for Witham at the Treasury who said "those earning less than ?27,000 | :09:07. | :09:13. | |
will be exempted to protect the very small number of low earning, | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
long-serving public servants". That was the honourable member for Witham | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
a year ago commenting on the Government plans to create this exit | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
sector cap. I thank the Shadow Minister for | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
Giving way. Didn't the minister in committee take the committee through | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
a number of worked examples here in demonstrating it wouldn't have the | :09:32. | :09:34. | |
adverse effect on pensions being affected. For example, a prison | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
officer earning ?28,000 a year with 24 years experience could still | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
retire as young as 52 without being affected and doesn't that illustrate | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
that the honourable gentleman's concerns are not terribly well | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
founded? Well, I would recommend the honourable gentleman reads more | :09:51. | :09:53. | |
deeply into the report of the committee stage and reads the worked | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
example that I gave of somebody in long service in Local Government who | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
would be affected on the salary of ?25,000 a year and I commend that | :10:02. | :10:04. | |
example to him. The honourable members did not think | :10:05. | :10:12. | |
that they were fat cats at that time, and she thought they would be | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
protected. We need to understand why that is not happening in this bill. | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
Why was a lower earnings fall not included, given that the | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
Conservatives promised that they would only pursue, and again I quote | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
from their manifesto, best paid workers. That is what it says in | :10:31. | :10:35. | |
their manifesto. Of course, once the election was over, Madam Deputy | :10:36. | :10:37. | |
Speaker, the Government didn't want that. Problems emerged as a result | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
of how poorly the consultation was conducted, as my honourable friend | :10:44. | :10:46. | |
has said. Usually a full consultation takes 12 weeks. This | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
was done over four weeks by the Government in the summer, it began | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
on the 31st of July 2015, and concluded on the 27th of August. If | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
the Government was serious that this would only affect the best paid, it | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
would be very straightforward to include a provision in this bill to | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
include those on ?27,000 or less -- to exclude. What the Minister said | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
at second reading, which my honourable friend alluded to earlier | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
on and I quote her, she said, what we do know is that there is a very | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
small number of workers, that is the figure she gave, a very small number | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
of workers in the public sector on about ?25,000 who could be caught by | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
this. But those are extremely rare conditions. That is the official | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
report on the 2nd of February, volume 605, column 886. What we want | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
to know, and I think this is what the honourable gentleman wanted to | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
know, is, how rare? And if so, why not exempt the lower paid's I thank | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
him for giving way. He mentioned briefly that the date at which the | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
consultation was published, between July and August. Does it not occur | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
to him, if the Government were keen to genuinely hear back from people | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
potentially affected or interested in this change, they would not | :12:05. | :12:07. | |
impose it over such a short period of time over the summer holidays? My | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
only assumption is they think that fat cats should not have holidays, | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
and that is why they probably thought that it didn't matter, it is | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
only a four-week consultation and that is what they think of the | :12:22. | :12:24. | |
people they are supposed to be consulting. It really is shameful, | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
actually, the consultation. The rhetoric used by the Government is | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
shameful, the contemptuous short nature of the consultation is | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
shameful and the way at which this policy has been introduced overall | :12:37. | :12:39. | |
coming be described as shameful. We are concerned -- can only be | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
described. We are concerned about the reluctance of the exemptions, to | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
ensure that those unfortunate view, which is what the Minister told us | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
they are, if you. If the low-end average paid or affected, only | :12:55. | :13:01. | |
excluding them from the camp will not involve the Government losing | :13:02. | :13:04. | |
money, what is the point and exempting them? I will give way. I | :13:05. | :13:11. | |
was wondering if there may be a flaw in his argument, no pun intended, | :13:12. | :13:18. | |
which is that if you were to put the floor in ?27,000, what about the's | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
?28,000 and how would you differentiate between the two? -- | :13:23. | :13:31. | |
the person at ?28,000. I understand the point he is making, the problem | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
with that is that would be all right if it was truly a payment they were | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
going to get in their pocket. The reason these people are captured is | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
because it includes the so-called strain payments that are made into | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
the pension fund if they are made redundant prior to their normal | :13:47. | :13:50. | |
retirement age in that pension fund. That is the fairness within it, and | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
that is the reason why I presume the Government originally itself that | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
the Treasury Minister originally itself said, nobody under ?27,000 | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
should be included. We have simply taken the original intention that | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
the Government said it had in relation to this, as elucidating by | :14:11. | :14:17. | |
the Minister, and put it into or amendment in order to test why it | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
isn't being done by the Government. An report in the Lords, the baroness | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
indicated that a drop of ?500 would not be disproportionate for somebody | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
previously entitled to a pension of ?12,500. That is the implication, | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
there could be a fall in the pension paid ultimately. All I would say is | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
that dropped 4% income for somebody on a relatively small income, lower | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
after all planned what one would receive on the minimum wage, is | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
hugely significant somebody on that low income. To say that a 4% cut is | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
not significant, I think hugely is out of touch with the reality of | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
many people's lives. The Government made the case in the House of | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
Commons that leaving with a payment of ?90,000 or above would be a large | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
amount for any employee, but the idea that they will receive that | :15:08. | :15:10. | |
money necessarily is the myth I think the Government has been | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
perpetrating. A large amount will never actually be seen by employees | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
on low to average incomes, because the payment includes compensation | :15:20. | :15:22. | |
paid to the pension scheme. In fact, some of them will never | :15:23. | :15:34. | |
even receive their pension so that money will never actually be seen in | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
anyway, shape or form. The cap includes strain payments, as I have | :15:39. | :15:41. | |
said, and a shortfall in the pension is actually adjusted at the time of | :15:42. | :15:43. | |
redundancy. Strain payments could make up a considerable amount of | :15:44. | :15:45. | |
that money, Madam Deputy Speaker, and if so, long serving Royal | :15:46. | :15:47. | |
workers could finish with a significant shortfall in the amount | :15:48. | :15:50. | |
that should have been allocated to deal with redundancy, unemployment | :15:51. | :15:55. | |
and uncertainty -- Royal workers. They will be left with little to pay | :15:56. | :16:02. | |
for annuities to fight for long-term security -- Royall. I don't think | :16:03. | :16:05. | |
this was the intention of the Minister and the government | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
originally. The fact the Government has refused to respond to these | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
concerns does make me wonder whether I'm right about that. Now, we have | :16:12. | :16:17. | |
been told recently that the Chancellor has withdrawn his | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
proposals on pensions which were to raise temporary pounds to pay down | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
the deficit. He has moved swiftly, in other words, so as not to offend | :16:26. | :16:29. | |
those better of pensioners who might have been hit by that proposal that | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
the Chancellor was developing. So why won't the Government then turn | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
their hand to those who are left with ?27,000 per year, whose | :16:40. | :16:45. | |
redundancy and access to pension is threatened by the exit payment cap? | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
The trance last famously said, we are all in this together, those with | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
the broadest shoulders should share the biggest burden -- the Chancellor | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
has famously said. Here the Government now has a chance to prove | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
that by supporting our amendment. I now turn to amendment 16, which | :17:03. | :17:11. | |
would exclude employees of companies in schedule one, the head of this | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
grouping, Madam Deputy Speaker. These are companies which are | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
operated by the private sector. And new schedule one and the amendment | :17:21. | :17:24. | |
associated with it would exclude them from the scope of the cap. This | :17:25. | :17:32. | |
affects principally people like employees of companies across | :17:33. | :17:35. | |
nuclear state and elsewhere that are employed by companies operating in | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
the private sector. Why are they being included in and affected by a | :17:42. | :17:44. | |
measure that the Secretary of State told us on second reading is | :17:45. | :17:47. | |
starting to hit public sector fat cats? Workers working in the private | :17:48. | :17:53. | |
sector now public sector fat cats according to the Secretary of State. | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
I will. I thank you for giving way. When companies such as this | :18:00. | :18:06. | |
privatise, this includes workers transferred. Employees lost access | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
to the public sector pension scheme. Last week, it included a cap on | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
public sector redundancy payments. Does the Shadow Secretary of State | :18:17. | :18:18. | |
not agree that the Treasury is trying to have its cake and eat it, | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
too, at the expense of these workers? I thank her for promoting | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
me temporarily, but I do agree with her on that point. I know she has | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
been campaigning and helping my honourable friend with this matter, | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
I think we may hear from her, she is absolutely right about this. These | :18:37. | :18:43. | |
are companies who never imagined, employees who never imagine for one | :18:44. | :18:49. | |
second that they would be hit by the Goverment's proposals by what the | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
Conservative Party manifesto said about its commitment to cap public | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
sector exit payments. Now, we raised this issue in Committee, but the | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
Minister was unable to or refuse to come actually, guarantee that those | :19:04. | :19:06. | |
employees will be excluded from the exit payment cap. These companies | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
are really unique position. They are mostly engaged with managing the | :19:13. | :19:16. | |
safe closure of nuclear facilities, and that is obviously a hugely | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
important task for our country, a task of national importance. Why is | :19:22. | :19:24. | |
nature, it involves working towards a specific end date -- by its | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
nature. At which point the employees will effect, provided they have done | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
a good job, make themselves redundant. That is what they are | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
doing, they are working to make themselves redundant. Thank you. | :19:39. | :19:42. | |
Does my honourable friend grew me that it is completely inconsistent | :19:43. | :19:50. | |
to employ -- agree with me. My constituents work at Sellafield, and | :19:51. | :19:52. | |
they are very, very worried about the proposed redundancy cap. I am | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
concerned that this will lead to highly skilled, experienced workers | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
leaving the industry, that their landmines or ability to safely | :20:02. | :20:03. | |
deliver the decommissioning of nuclear facilities -- that then | :20:04. | :20:09. | |
undermines. Yes, my honourable friend will notice that in new | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
schedule one Sellafield is one of the organisations we have included | :20:16. | :20:18. | |
for that very reason that she quite rightly points out in eventually. | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
These are workers who are working towards making themselves redundant. | :20:24. | :20:27. | |
They except that this is a task and finish type of activity of national | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
importance. -- they accept. To get somebody with the necessary skills | :20:33. | :20:35. | |
to commit to that kind of proposition when they are in their | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
early or mid 30s, we need to ensure that they know that they will be | :20:40. | :20:42. | |
provided for if they successfully complete their task by the time they | :20:43. | :20:50. | |
reach their mid to late 50s. Finding employment with their specific | :20:51. | :20:52. | |
skills might be extremely difficult for them. These companies cannot | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
afford the package is necessary to compensate somebody for the loss of | :20:58. | :21:01. | |
their role when the task is completed, the companies will find | :21:02. | :21:04. | |
it extremely difficult to prevent these highly skilled workers, who on | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
mobile in the early parts of their careers, from simply leaving. That | :21:09. | :21:14. | |
in itself will drive up costs to the nuclear decommissioning industry. It | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
is to an already difficult skills shortage in that sector. Legislating | :21:19. | :21:22. | |
now, as the Government doing, to override the long-standing | :21:23. | :21:25. | |
arrangements in the nuclear industry where employers involved have kept | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
their end of the bargain faithfully, to be frank it is unconscionable. | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
How can it be right that workers who have stayed with the company to | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
deliver successfully the safety commissioning of a site see their | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
promised redundancy payment related on by the government when it is due | :21:44. | :21:48. | |
to be paid. I will give way. I thank my honourable friend, he is making a | :21:49. | :21:52. | |
powerful argument and one that I generally a loss to understand why | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
the Government does not take heed to it. Not only is he setting out | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
reasons why this will cost in the long term, it will cost the | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
individuals, it is a betrayal of trust, it will actually only benefit | :22:06. | :22:12. | |
to a small degree the company involved, it will not actually | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
benefit the Government. I don't understand why they don't take | :22:17. | :22:18. | |
action to write what is very clearly is wrong. Exactly, and the Treasury | :22:19. | :22:25. | |
justification is again that these workers, because of the nature even | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
though they have been privatised are still deemed to be on the books by | :22:30. | :22:35. | |
the ONS because of the work they are undertaking, which requires | :22:36. | :22:38. | |
understandably there to be in effect for it to be underwritten by | :22:39. | :22:41. | |
Government because they are decommissioning nuclear sites. They | :22:42. | :22:45. | |
are not going to get an insurance policy in relation to that. That | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
technical, statistical designation however does not mean that applying | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
the cap to these workers is either fair or necessary value for money | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
for taxpayers in the long term. There is no proof that taxpayers | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
will receive any benefit as the private operators of the company | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
often receive higher incentive payments in their contract as a | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
result of this kind of change. Unless the Government decides to act | :23:10. | :23:12. | |
on this, employees in the sector will note when it comes to pension | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
provisions and other issues, the Treasury has excluded them from the | :23:18. | :23:20. | |
public sector but considered them within scope when it comes to | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
capping their exit payments. I will give way another time. I thank him. | :23:24. | :23:29. | |
If the Government failed to take heed of some of these issues, on | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
this issue, on the women and their pensions who were born in the 1950s, | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
I think the new mantra for the 2020 election will be, you cannot trust | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
the Tories on pensions. She is absolutely right, of course. I do | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
hope the Government have a last-minute change of heart on this. | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
You know, why is privatised bank not given fat cat treatment either | :23:55. | :24:01. | |
Government under these provisions? But nuclear... I will in a moment. I | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
will repeat it in case anybody didn't hear. Why is a fat cat | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
bankers not given this treatment under the Gospels plans, but nuclear | :24:11. | :24:13. | |
decommissioning workers are given this treatment? -- the Goverment's | :24:14. | :24:21. | |
plans. Higher earners have had their contribution is capped at ?40,000 | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
per year, and those on the highest incomes have been capped at ?10,000 | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
per year. This Government has taken a lot of action in this area, as the | :24:30. | :24:33. | |
Shadow Minister well knows. What he may not realise is that the banks | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
which have been taken into public ownership, those workers are | :24:40. | :24:42. | |
specifically excluded from the provision of the exit payments cap | :24:43. | :24:46. | |
by the Government's plans. He might like to join us in the lobby later | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
in this matter if he wasn't aware of that fact. It seems to be up with | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
the bankers and down with the workers as far as I can see, Madam | :24:56. | :24:59. | |
Deputy Speaker. What a shocking value free zone this policy is if | :25:00. | :25:03. | |
the Government stick to it. We received strong representation from | :25:04. | :25:12. | |
workers and from the trade unions, including Unite and Prospect and | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
directly from the workers and others in relation to this matter. To put | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
it on the record, it is in new schedule one, the companies we have | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
included that that are affected by this public sector fat cat policy | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
Sellafield Limited, Springfield Limited, National nuclear | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
laboratory, is atomic weapons establishment limited... None of the | :25:38. | :25:52. | |
companies in that list are actually called Fat Cats Ltd and yet they are | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
included on the list of workers that the Government treat as such by | :25:58. | :26:05. | |
their own admission. The Bill committee received lots of letters | :26:06. | :26:10. | |
and I congratulate the workers on the quality of the representations | :26:11. | :26:23. | |
they made to the committee. Ian Milligan who works at Bradwell as a | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
waste engineer said; "I should like to start with a definition quoted | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
from the Oxford English Dictionary, the dictionary that sat on my desk | :26:34. | :26:36. | |
within my career in the nuclear industry which has spanned 20 years. | :26:37. | :26:40. | |
The question I had was, what does the term fat cat infer, and the | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
answer, a fat cat a wealthy person, a highly paid executive or official. | :26:46. | :26:55. | |
" He goes on to say "I and many of my work colleagues employed are | :26:56. | :26:59. | |
likely to be caught in the proposed exit payments cap of the enterprise | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
Bill which I and my work mates across-the-board were shocked to | :27:05. | :27:07. | |
discover as we are ordinary working class people and do not consider | :27:08. | :27:10. | |
ourselves to be fat cats by any stretch of the imagination. " I'll | :27:11. | :27:14. | |
give way. I thank the Shadow Minister for | :27:15. | :27:17. | |
Giving way. Can he confirm it was the Secretary of State himself who | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
at second reading used the term public sector fat cat when closing | :27:22. | :27:24. | |
his remarks in support of this Bill and secondly, is that not in | :27:25. | :27:30. | |
contrast to the workers he's talking about who're working at a physically | :27:31. | :27:34. | |
taxing environment for many years? Yes, he's absolutely right. I know | :27:35. | :27:38. | |
it's very difficult to believe which is why I guess he had to check and | :27:39. | :27:42. | |
do his intervention. The Secretary of State said this was intended to | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
hit fat cats in the public sector and therefore that includes | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
everybody affected by it. Now, this confirms the understandable anger | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
that's out there and I know my right honourable friend perhaps might also | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
add to this with examples from workers from his own constituents, | :28:02. | :28:06. | |
agreements have been made, guarantees were given and this | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
provision we were told was to hit public sector fat cats not private | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
sector employees. We tabled the amendment which would exempt those | :28:17. | :28:19. | |
company press the Bill if the minister has another way of doing | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
it, as I said at committee, I would be interesting to hear what that was | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
but in committee she wasn't able to offer any comfort for the workers | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
listed in the companies in new schedule 1. The minister's response | :28:33. | :28:37. | |
was, it has to be said, disappointing given the weight of | :28:38. | :28:39. | |
evidence Schmidted to the committee and the strength of feeling amongst | :28:40. | :28:42. | |
honourable members and their constituents. Workers have made | :28:43. | :28:51. | |
their plans -- submitted. As far as we can surmise, from the limited | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
information that the ministers are prepared to provide about the | :28:56. | :28:58. | |
Government's intentions, it appears the Government are going to take | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
action that will affect them. In committee, the minister rehearsed | :29:04. | :29:06. | |
arguments about all sorts of scares which may have been put about by | :29:07. | :29:09. | |
mythical people she was not prepared to name. But going by the evidence | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
submitted to us, the workers in question will be affected and | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
affected to quite a large extent. We represented those arguments and | :29:19. | :29:21. | |
made the case on behalf of those workers and all we got from the | :29:22. | :29:26. | |
minister in committee was a response to issues that had not been raised | :29:27. | :29:30. | |
in the workers' letters or indeed by us. And a vague reference to | :29:31. | :29:34. | |
secondary legislation atth at some later date that will name some as | :29:35. | :29:40. | |
yet unknown entities that may be excluded from the cap. In other | :29:41. | :29:46. | |
words, all we got was an empty sheet of page fresh the minister as far as | :29:47. | :29:49. | |
that was concerned. I'm afraid that's not good enough in this | :29:50. | :29:52. | |
House, we need to know the Government's intentions and we need | :29:53. | :29:55. | |
to be able to say to the constituent who is've written to us, who're | :29:56. | :29:59. | |
directly affected, whether or not they'll be hit by the exit payment. | :30:00. | :30:08. | |
These people, Mr Deputy Speaker, are hard-working, the beating heart of | :30:09. | :30:12. | |
working people of this country. If you read their letters, it's clear | :30:13. | :30:17. | |
they're not lefty loonies or fat cots or anything of that kind, their | :30:18. | :30:21. | |
letters reveal they are ordinary working people often living in the | :30:22. | :30:24. | |
constituencies of Conservative Members of Parliament and saying to | :30:25. | :30:28. | |
us, they read the Conservativement in and never thought they would be | :30:29. | :30:33. | |
affected by it. Ministers put things in the Bill that are meant to get | :30:34. | :30:36. | |
them a headline in the Daily Mail and the Sun and that's what's wrong | :30:37. | :30:41. | |
with this proposal and why it's so flawed. The reality when we lift the | :30:42. | :30:45. | |
stone and look underneath this proposition is that it after s all | :30:46. | :30:49. | |
sorts of people that the Government did not indicate they intended to ha | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
hit. Hard-working people are being betrayed by their Government in this | :30:55. | :30:58. | |
part of the Bill. They would have made very different | :30:59. | :31:01. | |
assumptions about what this policy meant when they read their Daily | :31:02. | :31:06. | |
Mail or their headlines in other papers and, even if they'd read the | :31:07. | :31:13. | |
Conservative Party many. . That's why -- Conservative Party manifesto. | :31:14. | :31:16. | |
That's why if this Government won't stand up for these workers, we will. | :31:17. | :31:24. | |
Restricted from the restrictions on exit payments. Schedule 1 will be | :31:25. | :31:30. | |
read a second time. I'm very pleased to follow the | :31:31. | :31:34. | |
Shadow minister, the honourable member for Cardiff West and, having | :31:35. | :31:40. | |
constituents who work at the Atomic Weapons Establishment and at the | :31:41. | :31:48. | |
science laboratory, DSTL, I have a huge regard for these extraordinary | :31:49. | :31:52. | |
public servants who contribute so much to the security of our country. | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
I therefore have some sympathy with new schedule 1 which he has | :31:58. | :31:59. | |
mentioned. It's very easy I think for the | :32:00. | :32:09. | |
newspapers to produce graphic headlines about Civil Service | :32:10. | :32:13. | |
pen-pushers get massive public pay offs. But these are slightly | :32:14. | :32:19. | |
different people. These are not ordinary people in the sense that I | :32:20. | :32:22. | |
think the Shadow minister was talking about. These are really | :32:23. | :32:28. | |
rather special people. They are working at the forefront of | :32:29. | :32:35. | |
technology. They are working to ensure the nation remains safe and | :32:36. | :32:39. | |
that our realm is secure. I do know from talking to my | :32:40. | :32:46. | |
constituents that people at the AWE, the Atomic Weapons Establishment | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
which indeed was privatised, that they are very unhappy indeed and | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
it's a very important facility that. It's unique because it is the only | :32:57. | :33:01. | |
base capable of designing and producing the successor to our | :33:02. | :33:07. | |
Trident missile system, our nuclear system and indeed to maintain | :33:08. | :33:10. | |
Trident until the successor comes into force. I'm told morale at the | :33:11. | :33:17. | |
AWE is at rock bottom. To remove the last major benefit of working there, | :33:18. | :33:23. | |
pay has been historically low due to the decent benefits they get, risks | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
the nuclear deterrent in the opinion of some people. But they are not the | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
only ones. I mentioned DSTL as well. I have a constituent there who came | :33:34. | :33:39. | |
to see me at my surgery on Saturday. He's a leading scientist and he | :33:40. | :33:45. | |
brought with him the examples of the ceramic Armour that he has | :33:46. | :33:48. | |
personally developed for the protection of our troops. I don't | :33:49. | :33:53. | |
know how many of my right honourable friends or indeed honourable members | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
around the chamber have been to see our defence science laboratories, | :34:00. | :34:02. | |
but I've always been struck, representing, as I do, Farnborough, | :34:03. | :34:06. | |
the former Royal aircraft establishment, now the headquarters. | :34:07. | :34:12. | |
I have always been struck when I met these people that they have in the | :34:13. | :34:16. | |
past worked in the British conditions, they have rather fine | :34:17. | :34:19. | |
offices now in Farnborough, but they were working in shabby conditions, | :34:20. | :34:26. | |
no rubber plants or wall-to-wall carpeting or anything like that. | :34:27. | :34:29. | |
They could get more money in the private sector, we said why do you | :34:30. | :34:32. | |
want to work here and they said, we want to give something back to our | :34:33. | :34:36. | |
country. There is an extraordinary sense of patriotism, dedication and | :34:37. | :34:39. | |
loyal commitment to our country from these scientists who really do | :34:40. | :34:45. | |
contribute disproportionately, in my view, to the Defence of the Realm. | :34:46. | :34:52. | |
My constituent said to me on Saturday, is for decades, I've been | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
paying my taxes, saving harder, avoiding debt, obeying the law and | :34:57. | :35:02. | |
of course working hard to develop these life-saving technologies for | :35:03. | :35:06. | |
members of our Armed Forces. And he says, somespite of that, I've | :35:07. | :35:12. | |
received below inflation pay rises since 2004, my pension contributions | :35:13. | :35:20. | |
have doubled, my retirement age has in's twoed from 60-67, my redundancy | :35:21. | :35:23. | |
terms have been degraded significantly and my pay is now 20% | :35:24. | :35:29. | |
lower than Ministry of Defence colleagues outside DSTL. | :35:30. | :35:35. | |
He also draws my attention to the 2015 review of the MOD science and | :35:36. | :35:42. | |
technology capability by the Government's Chief Scientific | :35:43. | :35:44. | |
Adviser who said "we understand that staff retention is difficult in the | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
mid career stage. We were surprised DSTL are able to retain staff, let | :35:51. | :35:54. | |
alone good staff, given the comparatively low pay offered. " Of | :35:55. | :36:00. | |
course, the conditions have not been improved because of this will | :36:01. | :36:04. | |
austerity measures. I understand the austerity measures we've had to | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
take, but that didn't stop the Chief Executive of DSTL receiving a 30% | :36:10. | :36:15. | |
remuneration. I think it's understandable in the circumstances | :36:16. | :36:19. | |
that these people do not feel that they have been as well treated as | :36:20. | :36:23. | |
they should be. Of course, the other point about | :36:24. | :36:27. | |
them is that, being crowned servants, as they are, being the | :36:28. | :36:33. | |
kind of people they are, they don't go around protesting, they come to | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
our surgeries, they write us a private letter, they won't write to | :36:39. | :36:43. | |
the national newspapers they won't stand outside with a placard, they | :36:44. | :36:46. | |
just want to get on with their jobs and I think there is a risk that | :36:47. | :36:57. | |
says that we may be taken for granted. | :36:58. | :37:03. | |
These are people significant to our national security. | :37:04. | :37:05. | |
I thank my right honourable friend for giving way. He's absolutely | :37:06. | :37:11. | |
right. I have entire sympathy for his argument. Isn't the concern that | :37:12. | :37:20. | |
actually, the arguments he makes are ones that could be made for everyone | :37:21. | :37:22. | |
working in the public sector which is why there is the instinctive view | :37:23. | :37:27. | |
of the Government not to draw the distinction that he'd like to do in | :37:28. | :37:31. | |
this regard. I have huge respect for my right | :37:32. | :37:36. | |
honourable friend and I understand the argument that I represent the | :37:37. | :37:46. | |
place that is the home of the British Army aviation and it's | :37:47. | :37:49. | |
steeped in technology. I do know these people, I knew them | :37:50. | :37:53. | |
when I was a minister in the Ministry of Defence, I've known them | :37:54. | :37:59. | |
throughout my constituency experience in Aldershot and I value | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
them and, I'm afraid, I do think they're rather special and I do | :38:05. | :38:10. | |
think they have been neglected. I specifically pointed out that | :38:11. | :38:16. | |
they're not or had not been, that their grades have not been made up | :38:17. | :38:20. | |
to the Ministry of Defence grades. Because they are busy in their | :38:21. | :38:23. | |
laboratories doing what they like doing, which is inventing and | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
helping to protect us all, so I do think I'm not going to re-Israel | :38:28. | :38:33. | |
from singling them out. -- resile. My right honourable friend is right | :38:34. | :38:37. | |
to say that I'm doing that, but I hope that he will accept my apology | :38:38. | :38:42. | |
for so doing. I will give way. I think the point about the entire | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
public sector was a ranable one and it would be a stronger one if the | :38:47. | :38:50. | |
Government had not specifically exempted parts of the public sector, | :38:51. | :38:53. | |
namely those parts of the public sector that are in the City of | :38:54. | :38:59. | |
London, the privatised banks and more particularly the compensation | :39:00. | :39:02. | |
schemes like the FCA. They are public sector bodies. | :39:03. | :39:05. | |
My right honourable friend makes a very good point. | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
Of course. Specifically in relation to the City of London, the intention | :39:12. | :39:14. | |
is much of the parts of the City of London that are in the public sector | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
will not be there for very long. I should perhaps say to plonk for | :39:20. | :39:28. | |
Aldershot, I'm a former Army soldier and have lived in his constituency | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
in my younger life and I have a lot of sympathy for what he says, I'm | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
not to being him off, I agree about the military and Intelligence | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
Services as well that could earn literally multiple leaving GCHQ to | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
go and work in the private toke for. If we are to draw line, we should do | :39:50. | :39:58. | |
it in a sensible way or not at all. -- private sector. They acknowledge | :39:59. | :40:04. | |
this Before- was part of our manifesto commitment that we'd end | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
tax-payer funded six-figure payouts, public sector workers. They accept | :40:10. | :40:11. | |
the Government has a mandate for that, but they do make a point which | :40:12. | :40:16. | |
I think is worth putting on record and forgive me for doing this, Mr | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
Deputy Speaker, but they do feel that an agreement that was signed in | :40:22. | :40:26. | |
2010's been back-tracked on. They use the word renege. I say | :40:27. | :40:32. | |
backtrack. The current Civil Service eredundancy terms were agreed by | :40:33. | :40:36. | |
Civil Service unions and the last Minister for The Cabinet Office, our | :40:37. | :40:41. | |
Noble Friend roared Maude just four years before the Conservative | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
Party's announcement that it would seek to renege on that. They say the | :40:45. | :40:47. | |
minister stated at the time harks the new scheme shows is that | :40:48. | :40:51. | |
constructive negotiations with the unions can work and the result as a | :40:52. | :40:57. | |
package that is fair for civil servants and other taxpayers. It | :40:58. | :41:01. | |
also said, I believe we have a scheme which is fair, protects those | :41:02. | :41:06. | |
who need the most support, addresses the inequities and is right for the | :41:07. | :41:11. | |
long-term. I just put it to my right honourable friend on the frontbench, | :41:12. | :41:16. | |
that expression, "it is right for the long-term", it hasn't really | :41:17. | :41:17. | |
lasted more than six years. I would say to her, I am not going | :41:18. | :41:27. | |
to vote against the Government tonight, but I urge my right | :41:28. | :41:30. | |
honourable friends to have a discussion and see if this matter | :41:31. | :41:36. | |
can be looked at again. I think it is not fair on some of our most | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
dedicated scientists, as I say, working to keep us secure. Thank | :41:41. | :41:50. | |
you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I rise to move amendment 18 which is in my | :41:51. | :41:57. | |
name. Amendment 18 complement amendment 15, which is part nine of | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
this Bill. The honourable member for Cardiff West said that the Bill, | :42:03. | :42:08. | |
part nine as it stands just now, it is a classic move from the Tory | :42:09. | :42:14. | |
government which is playing to the perception of the fat cats, people | :42:15. | :42:18. | |
are going to get huge pay-outs that is not compatible to private. This | :42:19. | :42:25. | |
does not take account of those long serving, lower paid workers. As I | :42:26. | :42:29. | |
have touched on, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors behind this. The | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
?95,000 cap includes pension payment that actually goes not the workers, | :42:35. | :42:39. | |
it goes to the pension funds, including state contributions for | :42:40. | :42:44. | |
those in retirement. It seems to me to be absolutely immoral, if | :42:45. | :42:48. | |
somebody has to retire through ill-health, they have worked hard, | :42:49. | :42:53. | |
perhaps in a manual job, they have to retire and then the pension is | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
capped, I really don't see how the Government can't consider the impact | :43:00. | :43:01. | |
of this. It was interesting that the House of Lords asked for an impact | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
assessment but that wasn't forthcoming either. When people on | :43:07. | :43:10. | |
the backbenches are asking the Shadow Minister about the impact | :43:11. | :43:13. | |
assessment of this, it is not for us on these benches to do that, that | :43:14. | :43:16. | |
was the Goverment's responsibility from the outset. The Government | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
itself submitted that this could affect workers on less than ?25,000. | :43:23. | :43:27. | |
These workers including librarians, midwives, and other long serving | :43:28. | :43:33. | |
workers, who are completely worlds away from the horror stories we | :43:34. | :43:37. | |
sometimes read of chief executives to do walk away with massive lump | :43:38. | :43:44. | |
sum. I can understand about these people, they get a massive pay-out | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
and pop-up on another council as a higher paid consultant. Yes, again, | :43:50. | :43:53. | |
I agree there should be caps on this. The situation of outlines, I | :43:54. | :44:00. | |
suggest it is more problem in England, the government in Scotland | :44:01. | :44:06. | |
only has 32 authorities. Again I can see the problem in trying to control | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
that. I think ?25,000 is a lot of money, but that is only 3.5 years of | :44:12. | :44:16. | |
an average salary, which puts into perspective. It but some doubt in | :44:17. | :44:21. | |
the marketplace for good. We already know that many women who have | :44:22. | :44:24. | |
previously taken early retirement have now suffered financially | :44:25. | :44:29. | |
because they were not increasing the state pension age. These women are | :44:30. | :44:32. | |
being forced into work programmes are struggling to get back into | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
work. This illustrates how difficult it can be to get back into work at a | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
certain age. Also we should not be imposing exit caps that can affect | :44:42. | :44:44. | |
life choices for lower paid workers who right now, somebody who is still | :44:45. | :44:49. | |
in work is trying to weigh up their options and come to the realisation | :44:50. | :44:52. | |
that they are having to work much longer than they plan to. They have | :44:53. | :44:57. | |
been notified by the DWP. It is not just lower paid workers, this is | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
going to happen to middle earners who again are not meant to be the | :45:02. | :45:07. | |
target. The local authority I was a member of operating a teacher of | :45:08. | :45:12. | |
fresh scheme, where more experienced teachers could be considered for | :45:13. | :45:15. | |
early retirement and replaced by longer teachers. -- younger | :45:16. | :45:22. | |
teachers. This is creating a vicious circle, saving the taxpayer money | :45:23. | :45:27. | |
overall due to the lower pages being weighed bye-bye the low start -- | :45:28. | :45:35. | |
lower payments being paid. The forced austerity that has been | :45:36. | :45:39. | |
opposed on us, the Scottish Government has entered a policy of | :45:40. | :45:45. | |
no compulsory redundancies. In Scotland there have been zero | :45:46. | :45:49. | |
compulsory redundancies in the NHS, whereas in England there have been | :45:50. | :45:54. | |
over 70,000 since 2010. If the Government really wants to play the | :45:55. | :45:59. | |
popularity game, there is one winner, we also mentioned they | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
should extend the publicly supported companies such as the banks with | :46:05. | :46:10. | |
public money behind them. They stick up for the bank's bonuses against | :46:11. | :46:14. | |
the rest of Europe, but the important matter is exit payments | :46:15. | :46:17. | |
that we are talking about, he is quite happy to stand back and let | :46:18. | :46:23. | |
the lower paid workers suffer. I'm grateful to my honourable friend | :46:24. | :46:29. | |
forgiving way. He mentioned Scottish Government avoiding compulsory | :46:30. | :46:35. | |
redundancies. We could not have managed a substantial reduction in | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
our workforce without loss of redundancies had we not had the | :46:40. | :46:42. | |
flexibility to offer severance packages that were proportionate to | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
what service people had delivered. Without the ability to do that, | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
councils in Scotland would have been facing very large numbers of | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
compulsory redundancies. I agree with it completely, it is a fine | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
point. I went through the same experiences as a local council. Some | :47:03. | :47:06. | |
of these payments, they are caught up in the payment cap, they have | :47:07. | :47:09. | |
demonstrated their value for money because of the payback period of two | :47:10. | :47:13. | |
years, it is good value for the taxpayer. Just to conclude, the | :47:14. | :47:21. | |
honourable member talked about protecting workers earning less than | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
20 ?11,000. Amendment 15 allows that to be put in place, and amendment 18 | :47:26. | :47:31. | |
allows it to be increased in line with inflation, otherwise it is a | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
further ongoing erosion of terms and conditions governing in inflation. | :47:37. | :47:46. | |
That is why we seek to push a vote and hopefully actually the party of | :47:47. | :47:48. | |
workers opposite while back these amendments. Can I first of all | :47:49. | :47:57. | |
congratulate both my honourable friends, a member for Cardiff West | :47:58. | :48:02. | |
and indeed the member for Aldershot for the eloquent way that they have | :48:03. | :48:07. | |
spoken on new schedule one. I won't repeat what I said at second | :48:08. | :48:11. | |
reading, except to reiterate the point is that the the companies | :48:12. | :48:18. | |
listed on the new schedule one are in no way fat cats. I think we need | :48:19. | :48:23. | |
an apology from the Government on that. Because these are hard-working | :48:24. | :48:26. | |
people, these are ordinary people who have worked in very difficult | :48:27. | :48:29. | |
circumstances for many years and have signed up to agreement in good | :48:30. | :48:32. | |
faith with the Goverment's of the day. -- with the governments of the | :48:33. | :48:40. | |
day. I want this Government to one its promises to safeguard the | :48:41. | :48:46. | |
conditions of service that have been agreed between companies and | :48:47. | :48:50. | |
employees -- to honour its promises. I just wanted to touch on the | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
definition of public sector workers. In no way the people listed in this | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
public sector workers. Many of them work for private companies. If these | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
conditions are imposed on them, the caps, it won't benefit the Treasury | :49:06. | :49:09. | |
at all, it will benefit those private companies that have taken on | :49:10. | :49:12. | |
the contract. There will be no great saving. But there will be a breach | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
of trust and there will be considerable loss to the individuals | :49:18. | :49:23. | |
who have been given protection. Now I know this Minister listens to | :49:24. | :49:27. | |
reason, and I'm sure she actually agrees that many of these people | :49:28. | :49:32. | |
have been caught unintentionally in this Bill. The protective status | :49:33. | :49:37. | |
that I'm referring to goes back to the privatisation of the electricity | :49:38. | :49:42. | |
industry in the 1980s. And regulations were brought in in 1990 | :49:43. | :49:46. | |
to protect many of the people, many of the categories that have been | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
listed. The mag knocks workers for example in my constituency, over 120 | :49:52. | :49:57. | |
have written to me, they were given protection with other nuclear | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
industry employees, as the right honourable member for Aldershot | :50:02. | :50:05. | |
said, in schedule eight of the energy act 2004. When the recent | :50:06. | :50:11. | |
pension act was going through and their conditions were threatened, | :50:12. | :50:17. | |
and a vote in this House of Commons to take away their protected rights | :50:18. | :50:21. | |
was done, and amendment in the House of Lords restored that protection. | :50:22. | :50:25. | |
These were protections that would give in to these workers by Mrs | :50:26. | :50:31. | |
Thatcher and Cecil Parkinson in the 1980s, and they were honoured by | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
other Conservative ministers. I will give way. I thank my honourable | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
friend forgiving way. I also think it is important to point out that | :50:40. | :50:42. | |
the Treasury didn't actually allow the employees of these companies to | :50:43. | :50:46. | |
remain in the public sector pension schemes when they were privatised, | :50:47. | :50:50. | |
so it is completely inconsistent now to call them on. There is a huge | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
inconsistency here. The workers I'm referring to were actually protected | :50:56. | :50:59. | |
in 2004. They were actually given that protection in statute. This | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
Government is using a very crude analysis by the ONS that they are | :51:05. | :51:07. | |
public sector workers and that they are fat cats and they should be | :51:08. | :51:11. | |
treated all the same. But they are breaking their own promises. And I | :51:12. | :51:14. | |
think that is the strong feeling that I got in the letters that I | :51:15. | :51:18. | |
received from the employees. These were safeguards that were given by | :51:19. | :51:27. | |
previous governments during privatisation, and they are now | :51:28. | :51:30. | |
being taken away from them at a whim. And I say to members opposite | :51:31. | :51:33. | |
to think this, it was not in the Conservative manifesto to take away | :51:34. | :51:35. | |
the protected status of these people. The opposite, we are talking | :51:36. | :51:39. | |
about City Hall fat cats at the time. And many of us agree that | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
people shouldn't actually be rewarded for failure. But these are | :51:44. | :51:47. | |
people doing dangerous work now. And when I mentioned the fact that if | :51:48. | :51:53. | |
this comes in an October many of the private companies are refusing to | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
make these redundancies is now, holding them back until October so | :51:59. | :52:01. | |
that they get reduced conditions of service. And I think that is wrong. | :52:02. | :52:06. | |
But this Minister cantered Doda micro I will give way one more time. | :52:07. | :52:12. | |
Surely the biggest safeguard of all is that an occupational pension | :52:13. | :52:16. | |
scheme is the fair pay, and his constituents could have made more | :52:17. | :52:21. | |
money working for other companies but chose to stay where they were | :52:22. | :52:25. | |
because they were going to get a good pension scheme. That is the | :52:26. | :52:28. | |
conditions of service they signed up to, and it has been taken away in | :52:29. | :52:31. | |
this Bill today, that is the reality. I will give way one more | :52:32. | :52:36. | |
time. I have been listening very carefully and have a lot of sympathy | :52:37. | :52:39. | |
with what he says, but I don't follow the one point that he made | :52:40. | :52:43. | |
regarding private companies versus public companies. If they really are | :52:44. | :52:51. | |
private companies, how can the Bill apply, or am I missing something? It | :52:52. | :52:54. | |
is for a confusing and it hasn't been made clear. My understanding is | :52:55. | :52:56. | |
that if these people were to leave today, they will be given the full | :52:57. | :52:58. | |
package. But that the companies have package. But that the companies have | :52:59. | :53:01. | |
been told that this will apply from October, and these very companies | :53:02. | :53:04. | |
are now saying to them, they can't go until that period. That is what | :53:05. | :53:09. | |
has been said by his constituents and my constituents, who are writing | :53:10. | :53:12. | |
about this. You know, there is confusion about it. But this | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
Minister could end it today. She could say, she will honour, as Mrs | :53:17. | :53:21. | |
that she did and other Tory ministers have done, the protected | :53:22. | :53:24. | |
rights and status of these individuals. We could have a vote. | :53:25. | :53:32. | |
Lawyers will argue that a pension can be protected, but we shouldn't | :53:33. | :53:35. | |
leave it to the lawyers. This House of Commons has the opportunity | :53:36. | :53:38. | |
today, and I hope that members across the House will support new | :53:39. | :53:44. | |
schedule one. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I will be moving Government | :53:45. | :53:48. | |
amendments related to clause 41, enabling Welshmen as does to make | :53:49. | :53:51. | |
regulations on exit payments which they feel are suitable -- Welsh | :53:52. | :53:58. | |
ministers. That has been agreed, as you might imagine, with Welsh | :53:59. | :54:00. | |
ministers through the Welsh Assembly and I am grateful for that. The | :54:01. | :54:05. | |
Conservative manifesto was a clear that we would introduce this cap and | :54:06. | :54:10. | |
set it at ?95,000. Of course it relates to redundancy pay is, and I | :54:11. | :54:14. | |
think that is extremely important to remember. It will curb only the top | :54:15. | :54:19. | |
end of exit payments, just the top 5% in value of all exit packages | :54:20. | :54:24. | |
across the public sector. Amendment 15 I would suggest is merely a | :54:25. | :54:30. | |
device based on an article written in the Daily Telegraph by the member | :54:31. | :54:34. | |
for with, the honourable member for with, back in January of 2015. It | :54:35. | :54:38. | |
was not part of the manifesto promise that was made and there is | :54:39. | :54:42. | |
no honour if I may say in putting forward that other than a member of | :54:43. | :54:48. | |
this place as a junior Treasury Minister wrote an article in the | :54:49. | :54:53. | |
Daily Telegraph. Can I be absolutely clear, the cap will not affect a | :54:54. | :54:56. | |
classroom teacher earning the maximum of the the pay range of | :54:57. | :55:01. | |
?38,000 with a normal pension age of 60, the cap will not affect anybody | :55:02. | :55:07. | |
working in the NHS earning below ?47,500. It will also not affect | :55:08. | :55:12. | |
firefighters. Police officers I am told cannot be made redundant. Nope | :55:13. | :55:16. | |
you wheeze officer in any event earning low ?54,000 would be caught | :55:17. | :55:22. | |
-- no police officer. The Cabinet Office confirmed that they believe | :55:23. | :55:26. | |
it is possible that a civil servant earning below ?25,000, sorry, no | :55:27. | :55:33. | |
civil servant below 25,000 will be captured. Some earning around | :55:34. | :55:37. | |
?25,000 will be captured. But the reality and truth of it is that we | :55:38. | :55:44. | |
can find no such example. So, a librarian earning ?25,000 with 34 | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
years' experience would still be able to retire on an unreduced | :55:50. | :55:51. | |
pension age to 55. We think it's unlikely that anyone | :55:52. | :56:05. | |
receiving less than ?27,000 would be hit by this cap. It's extremely rare | :56:06. | :56:11. | |
in the private sector for anybody on a wage of ?25,000 to expect on | :56:12. | :56:19. | |
redundancy a payment of ?95,000, nearly four times their annual | :56:20. | :56:23. | |
earnings. I really do think though, having said all of that, one of the | :56:24. | :56:28. | |
most important points was the point made by my right honourable friend | :56:29. | :56:30. | |
for Bedford, who's no longer in his place, it's right that we look at | :56:31. | :56:34. | |
the value of the cap, as opposed to looking at the amount of salary or | :56:35. | :56:38. | |
income that somebody is earning at the point when they are leaving. | :56:39. | :56:42. | |
Finally, Mr Deputy Speaker, I really want to address the very important | :56:43. | :56:46. | |
points that have been made about schedule, new schedule 1 that's been | :56:47. | :56:50. | |
put forward and ask honourable members please not to support the | :56:51. | :56:53. | |
amendment. I listened with great care to the excellent points made by | :56:54. | :56:58. | |
both my right honourable friend the member for Aldershot, pay tribute to | :56:59. | :57:01. | |
the workers he's mentioned and indeed the honourable gentleman who | :57:02. | :57:07. | |
represents him. Make it clear, the reasons why we oppose this new | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
schedule is, we think it's wrong to put the exemptions on the face of | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
the Bill, special exceptional circumstances are what the | :57:18. | :57:21. | |
relaxation part of the clause is for after proper ministerial scrutiny. | :57:22. | :57:26. | |
So I can absolutely assure both honourable gentlemans that I indeed | :57:27. | :57:33. | |
will continue to speak to honourable and Right Honourable friends in the | :57:34. | :57:37. | |
trez aand add how much I agree with the very helpful and wise | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
interventions for Westminster and the City of London which I | :57:44. | :57:46. | |
absolutely adopt. I hope at this stainingth stage, if I may say, | :57:47. | :57:50. | |
honourable members, I hear the points they make, I will continue to | :57:51. | :57:54. | |
speak to honourable members. I will not give way, forgive me, the clock | :57:55. | :58:00. | |
is against me. But now is... No, there are reasons, no need to | :58:01. | :58:04. | |
interrupt. Now is not to time to do this, Mr Speaker, there are other | :58:05. | :58:08. | |
ways we can do this if it's the right thing to do. It's the right | :58:09. | :58:12. | |
thing we are true to a very clear manifesto commitment which we made, | :58:13. | :58:18. | |
to put the cap at ?95,000, people... THE SPEAKER: It's not a point of | :58:19. | :58:25. | |
order, come on. I think it's for me to decide and I'm sure that it was | :58:26. | :58:29. | |
going to be about time and I'm sure we are all aware of the time. | :58:30. | :58:40. | |
I was bobbing up and down like a November 5th apple. I don't know | :58:41. | :58:44. | |
what all the fuss is about because I'm concluding my comments in any | :58:45. | :58:48. | |
event. Based on everything I've said, I would usualth urge | :58:49. | :58:52. | |
honourable members to support the clause but reject the other | :58:53. | :58:56. | |
amendments which are not necessary. I respect your ruling that my point | :58:57. | :59:00. | |
of order which I didn't say is out of order. | :59:01. | :59:05. | |
THE SPEAKER: It's not for me to tell you how much time's left, you know | :59:06. | :59:08. | |
that better than I do. Thank you. I note the minister was | :59:09. | :59:13. | |
unwilling to give way because of time. The only point I want to make | :59:14. | :59:18. | |
in relation to concluding the debate, Mr Deputy Speaker, is this, | :59:19. | :59:27. | |
on the point about what the Treasury minister said, she's confirmed to | :59:28. | :59:31. | |
the House, and I thank her for that, that when ministers say something, | :59:32. | :59:35. | |
you can't believe a word that they say. She confirmed it officially on | :59:36. | :59:39. | |
the record for the House and I thank her for that. On that basis, would | :59:40. | :59:46. | |
she like me to give way, is that what she is saying? I'm happy to | :59:47. | :59:53. | |
give way if it's in order, Mr Deputy Speaker. | :59:54. | :59:55. | |
THE SPEAKER: Is it from a saiden tear position or point of order? The | :59:56. | :00:00. | |
record will confirm I did not say a minister's word could not be | :00:01. | :00:03. | |
trusted, I was talking about comment in a newspaper that does not form | :00:04. | :00:06. | |
part of Conservative Party policy nor indeed the manifesto. That's | :00:07. | :00:10. | |
what matters the most. THE SPEAKER: You have clarified your | :00:11. | :00:17. | |
position. You can't believe a word they say. Now, what I would simply | :00:18. | :00:25. | |
say, Mr Deputy Speaker, what the minister's said, as in committee, | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
she's confirmed nothing that will give comfort to the workers so | :00:30. | :00:31. | |
therefore I'll ask my right honourable friends and honourable | :00:32. | :00:33. | |
members if they support the workers, to support us in dividing the House | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
in relation to new schedule one. The question is that new schedule 1 | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
be added to the Bill. As many of that opinion say aye, to the | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
contrary no. Division, clear the lobbies. | :00:47. | :01:58. | |
THE SPEAKER: Can you just sit down. Order. Just jump down. That's it. | :01:59. | :02:05. | |
The question is that new schedule 1 be read a second time. As many of | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
that opinion say aye, the contrary no. The tellers to the ayes, Vicky | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
and Geoff for thes no, we have Sarah and Mel. | :02:16. | :08:59. | |
The ayes to the right, 266. The noes to the left, 291. | :09:00. | :14:54. | |
The eyes to the right, 266, the noes to the left, 291. The noes Havret, | :14:55. | :15:08. | |
the noes have it. -- we need to bring to the conclusion the | :15:09. | :15:12. | |
principles. Alan Brown to move the amendment. The question is that | :15:13. | :15:20. | |
amendment 18 be made, as many of that opinion say i. To the contrary, | :15:21. | :15:27. | |
no. Division, clear the lobbies. The question is that amendment 18 be | :15:28. | :17:24. | |
made. As many of that opinion say aye, to the contrary, no. | :17:25. | :23:31. | |
The ayes to the right, 268. The nos to the left, 293. | :23:32. | :29:25. | |
THE SPEAKER: The ayes to the right, 268, the noes to the left, 293. The | :29:26. | :29:34. | |
noes have it, the noes have it. Unlock. The minister to move | :29:35. | :29:41. | |
Government amendments 3-9 formally. The question is that Government | :29:42. | :29:47. | |
amendments 3-9 be made. As many are of that opinion say aye, to the | :29:48. | :29:51. | |
contrary no. I think the ayes have it, the ayes have it. | :29:52. | :29:58. | |
Bill to be further considered what day? Tomorrow. | :29:59. | :30:03. | |
Tomorrow. Thank you. Order. We now come to the backbench motion on | :30:04. | :30:08. | |
International Women's Day 2016. Thank you, Mr Speaker. For the | :30:09. | :30:19. | |
benefit of the House, given the business has concluded earlier than | :30:20. | :30:24. | |
expected, could the minister please clarify whether it's her intention | :30:25. | :30:28. | |
for the Government to continue with the House beyond 7. 30? Mr Speaker, | :30:29. | :30:33. | |
it's not our intention to keep the House beyond 7. 30. | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I beg to move the motion on the | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
order papers related to International Women's Day. It's a | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
real honour to be opening this debate. I have to begin by thanking | :30:48. | :30:53. | |
the backbench business committee for granting this debate and the time | :30:54. | :30:55. | |
for it. And the honourable member for | :30:56. | :31:00. | |
Gateshead who lobbied, the leader of the House for... | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
THE SPEAKER: Order. I do apologise for interrupting the honourable lady | :31:05. | :31:07. | |
but it's for the benefit of the House that colleagues should be | :31:08. | :31:13. | |
clear. The position is that this debate will not continue beyond 7 | :31:14. | :31:19. | |
o'clock. There is of course an adjournment debate to follow but I | :31:20. | :31:22. | |
think what the honourable lady meant was clear to me and it's important | :31:23. | :31:26. | |
that it should be clear to the House, there is effectively a | :31:27. | :31:30. | |
provision of three hours for this debate and I hope that that's | :31:31. | :31:35. | |
helpful to colleagues. I admit that, on this occasion, I was tipped off | :31:36. | :31:41. | |
by the whip on duty who felt the need of clarification and I think | :31:42. | :31:45. | |
his tip-off was a shrewd one. Thank you, Mr Speaker. | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
Thank you also to the leader of the House for this time and, I hope this | :31:51. | :31:55. | |
debate will be as full as possible. There are many areas in which | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
inequality exists still for women. This debate will range, I hope, | :32:01. | :32:05. | |
across complex and varied parts of our society and across the world. In | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
the run-up to today, International Women's Day, it's meant that I've | :32:11. | :32:13. | |
spoken to and engaged with many colleagues across this House and in | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
the other place. Talking about the importance of this day, the issues | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
facing women at home and abroad and of course, with many gentlemen, the | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
importance of international men p Men's Day. The debate perhaps will | :32:28. | :32:32. | |
today boil down to this question. In the age in which we cherish equality | :32:33. | :32:38. | |
of opportunity, why do women not actually get the same chances as | :32:39. | :32:42. | |
men? And what is this Parliament doing to see this happen here and | :32:43. | :32:47. | |
around this wonderful planet of ours? The chance for women to run a | :32:48. | :32:54. | |
business or lead a business is there. A chance for women to | :32:55. | :32:59. | |
properly contribute to their community. The chance to influence | :33:00. | :33:04. | |
the world around them, to be paid the same, to be treated the same | :33:05. | :33:09. | |
and, as we stand here today, to be able to speak in this cherished | :33:10. | :33:12. | |
chamber. And to really be heard. | :33:13. | :33:18. | |
For women, we do not want to be under threat or danger, just by | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
walking home alone, or because of the dangerous and threatening nature | :33:23. | :33:26. | |
of our personal relationships, or due to our religion because of a | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
perceived position in our community or society. | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
This day we celebrate and have the chance to talk about the | :33:36. | :33:39. | |
achievements of women across the world and this day, we must choose | :33:40. | :33:43. | |
to highlight all those inequalities that still exist. | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
I have two daughters and I want to see them grow up in a society where | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
your gender has no relevance to your opportunities and what you can | :33:53. | :33:59. | |
achieve. In fact, today is my second daughter's birthday, she's six and | :34:00. | :34:04. | |
International Women's Day has true meaning in my house and she's a true | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
international woman in the making, I hope. There are invisible barriers, | :34:10. | :34:15. | |
I'm afraid, to my daughters' futures and others and today I hop we'll go | :34:16. | :34:20. | |
some way to confront them. Equality is about choice. | :34:21. | :34:23. | |
It makes me very proud to know that here in the mother of Members of | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
Parliament, we can act as a beacon of equality for women across the | :34:29. | :34:32. | |
world. Today, sixth form girls from across | :34:33. | :34:35. | |
the country are joining us. They have taken part in a series of | :34:36. | :34:39. | |
events throughout the day and I know some are watching us here from the | :34:40. | :34:42. | |
public gallery. As the chair of the all-party women | :34:43. | :34:49. | |
in Parliament, it fell to me and my team to make sure we mark this day | :34:50. | :34:53. | |
rightly and we open this day to students across the UK and may I | :34:54. | :34:57. | |
thank my team and all those supporting me and the MPs in making | :34:58. | :35:05. | |
this happen because we have almost 70 girls from Wales to Scotland, | :35:06. | :35:13. | |
from Eastleigh to Ealing to come to this day and contribute and to hear | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
our democracy in action. I welcome in particular two local students | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
from Barton College and Eastleigh College. | :35:22. | :35:29. | |
Yet only in this session we will finally get a women Select Committee | :35:30. | :35:32. | |
looking at key issues this Parliament is involved with. I'm | :35:33. | :35:37. | |
very proud to serve under the brilliant chairmanship of the Right | :35:38. | :35:42. | |
Honourable member for Basingstoke whose son has a birthday today on | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
International Women's Day, so many happy returns. It's very easy on | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
this day to think the challenge of equality are in the past. But it | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
took until 1995 for the first woman Chief Constable to come into | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
position, until 2009 for the first female Poet Laureate and 2011 for | :36:04. | :36:08. | |
the first woman commander of a Royal Navy warship. Of course, this | :36:09. | :36:12. | |
country's only been led by one mighty female Prime Minister. | :36:13. | :36:18. | |
This House of course led by one female speaker. Rapid progress for | :36:19. | :36:25. | |
women is absolutely not though a subject for historical study but an | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
urgent and pressing need. Earlier in our panel debate, we listened to | :36:31. | :36:34. | |
students and spoke about whether successful women are still seen as | :36:35. | :36:40. | |
pushy, bossy, tokens or indeed why we don't actually get the | :36:41. | :36:44. | |
opportunities we want because it's just confidence. | :36:45. | :36:51. | |
Thinking about successful women, one in seven chefs hired in London in | :36:52. | :36:54. | |
Michelin-starred rest rantses are women. I wonder what Mary Berry has | :36:55. | :37:00. | |
to say about that. -- restaurants. Are our stay-at-home | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
mums given the opportunity to choose and make choices right for them, and | :37:06. | :37:09. | |
are women still being judged? I chose to stay at home and be with my | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
children when they were very little. I wonder if I would still feel that | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
is a safe decision to make now. Are we still judging our women or are we | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
really offering them answers to all the questions that we can give them | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
to effectively be part of the community in any way they choose. In | :37:29. | :37:34. | |
order to get true parity, that is what we need to be striving for. All | :37:35. | :37:38. | |
too off none these set piece debates in the chamber which will draw the | :37:39. | :37:42. | |
focus from political commentators, perhaps we only see women in one | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
way, the press will perhaps focus on the high politics of our nation | :37:47. | :37:51. | |
rather than the huge contribution of many people every day. We need more | :37:52. | :37:59. | |
women councillors, school Governors, magistrates, Mayors, MEPs, assembly | :38:00. | :38:03. | |
members and police commissioners. Often women will step forward into | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
these roles but areth are likely not to continue and move on too quickly. | :38:08. | :38:12. | |
Why is this? Is it because women join these roles to deal with single | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
issues, or do women still see barriers to the top? | :38:17. | :38:20. | |
In business, we need more women on board and in senior roles. And this | :38:21. | :38:25. | |
Government's taken a course to get more women into stem and a | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
generation further into leadership roles. Progress remain toos slow. | :38:29. | :38:36. | |
33% of local councillors in England are women in 2013, compared to 28 in | :38:37. | :38:42. | |
1997. That is too slow progress and we need to step up the pace. | :38:43. | :38:51. | |
We must be minded yes of course. I thank the honourable lady f give | :38:52. | :39:02. | |
-- for giving way. On the question of progress when I went to study | :39:03. | :39:08. | |
electrical engineering in imperial College in 1984, 12% of those | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
studying engineering were women. Today, the figure is exactly the | :39:14. | :39:18. | |
same. A quarter of a century has passed and yet we seem to have made | :39:19. | :39:24. | |
no progress in ensuring that science, engineering and maths | :39:25. | :39:28. | |
represent the half of the world who needs them as well. Does the | :39:29. | :39:32. | |
honourable lady agree with me that that is absolutely unacceptable? | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
Just this afternoon in the panel debate, exactly that issue was | :39:37. | :39:42. | |
highlighted, and I absolutely do agree that we need to encourage more | :39:43. | :39:47. | |
women into this area. 40,000 jobs available in the construction | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
industry, 45,000 in the agricultural industry, we are perhaps barring | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
women from future opportunities, and absolutely it worries me that if we | :39:57. | :40:00. | |
haven't changed since the 80s. We must be minded in this House that | :40:01. | :40:05. | |
the power of women is at the ballot box. That they should be registered | :40:06. | :40:09. | |
to vote, and that we should be making sure that all women feel that | :40:10. | :40:14. | |
it is important to make their own decisions. Yes, of course. Thank | :40:15. | :40:18. | |
you, I thank the honourable lady for giving way. Does the honourable | :40:19. | :40:24. | |
lady, like me, celebrate the fact that everyone knows that women were | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
given the vote at the end of the 1914-1918 war, but actually the | :40:30. | :40:35. | |
women's folk was used to cloak of the fact that working class men were | :40:36. | :40:41. | |
also given the vote, and women by their campaigning also lead to men | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
accessing the vote, and that should never be forgotten. I think women | :40:45. | :40:53. | |
campaigning to make it generally better for men, absolutely. We must | :40:54. | :40:56. | |
be reminded about the power that women have at the ballot box. It was | :40:57. | :41:00. | |
women voting in higher numbers for the Conservatives in May last year | :41:01. | :41:05. | |
which saw a majority government returned, and it will be women again | :41:06. | :41:11. | |
who decide whether we are in war out of the EU and who is the Mayor of | :41:12. | :41:17. | |
London. -- we are in or out. We need women to come together and vote and | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
be active import eggs, because always their effect is | :41:22. | :41:24. | |
extraordinary, as we have just heard -- in politics. I'm sure members | :41:25. | :41:28. | |
around the House will be thinking of the brilliant work of women | :41:29. | :41:32. | |
campaigners, such as the wasp campaigners who came together and | :41:33. | :41:35. | |
made real impact. I watch with interest to see the results that | :41:36. | :41:38. | |
these women have. Women involved in this will not stay quiet, and I | :41:39. | :41:46. | |
salute them in their course. This is a genuine challenge to this | :41:47. | :41:48. | |
Parliament, and we can get the best outcome for these and all women. I | :41:49. | :41:51. | |
am pleased that this Government is taking the necessary action to bring | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
further recorded. There are more women in work since 2010, in fact, | :41:55. | :42:00. | |
more than 1 million more. And legislation that deals with the | :42:01. | :42:04. | |
issues of stalking has been dealt with by this Government, and I | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
welcome this action. We are not afraid to tackle issues which have | :42:09. | :42:13. | |
been left for many years unaffected by this Parliament. Yes, of course. | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
I congratulate her on securing the debate today from the Backbench | :42:19. | :42:23. | |
Business Committee. Does she also welcome the actions of this | :42:24. | :42:27. | |
Government on outlawing revenge pornography, which was for too long | :42:28. | :42:31. | |
something that blighted the lives of many women in this country? Agreed I | :42:32. | :42:38. | |
absolutely concur with that, on Thursday we had action on people | :42:39. | :42:43. | |
posing behind aliases, which the CPS is doing consultation on, where | :42:44. | :42:46. | |
bullying and threatening behaviour is used on social media. It is | :42:47. | :42:50. | |
absolutely right this Government continues to lead the way on | :42:51. | :42:56. | |
bullying, stalking, and indeed using personal relationships to affect | :42:57. | :42:59. | |
people, a dangerous place to beef we do not tackle it. Recent | :43:00. | :43:05. | |
announcement from the Government on the gender pay gap should continue | :43:06. | :43:10. | |
to shine a light companies which do not shine a light on their pay gap. | :43:11. | :43:17. | |
Work in progress continued yesterday with a hugely forward. We can expect | :43:18. | :43:21. | |
they would have to wait 70 years for full parity in executive level, and | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
that is not right. We need to put a better structure in place for | :43:27. | :43:32. | |
carers. Yes, of course. The gender pay gap, a lot of women in my | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
constituency are in part-time work, and they are technically paid, | :43:38. | :43:43. | |
likely to be three times more likely than men to be paid below the Living | :43:44. | :43:49. | |
Wage. Now, these are often women who are not well off. And I would ask | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
the honourable lady to join me in calling on Government and the front | :43:55. | :44:00. | |
bench to do all they can to address this a gap that affects the low so | :44:01. | :44:09. | |
badly. -- the low-paid. We are shining a light on this issue. It is | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
interesting when we hear about part-time work when it comes to | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
women, and I will touch on that shortly in my speech, I feel you may | :44:18. | :44:21. | |
have been reading it. When it comes to men, it is agile working, and | :44:22. | :44:29. | |
women appear to be sadly in some places the downtrodden part-timers. | :44:30. | :44:32. | |
That means to be corrected. We need but a better structure in place for | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
our carers. I was a carer to my mother, and I am a mother. And for | :44:37. | :44:40. | |
many people in my shoes, they continue to be too many obstacles to | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
being at home and being a part-time worker. We need a true carers' | :44:47. | :44:51. | |
volution in this country, which does not penalise women wore indeed meant | :44:52. | :44:56. | |
he would choose to stay at home with their children and look after their | :44:57. | :45:02. | |
loved ones -- wore indeed men. I'm -- I spent time with my parents at | :45:03. | :45:06. | |
that age, and I would never, ever change that if I had the choice. | :45:07. | :45:11. | |
Does she agree with me that flexible working will allow parents and | :45:12. | :45:15. | |
carers to look after their loved ones whilst continuing to work, and | :45:16. | :45:19. | |
it is imperative that employers take that into account? I absolutely | :45:20. | :45:25. | |
agree. Flexible working is really important, to attend doctors' | :45:26. | :45:28. | |
meetings, to make sure you know what is going on at home and not to be | :45:29. | :45:32. | |
worried about work. I know many people who work part-time and don't | :45:33. | :45:36. | |
open their laptops of an evening and make sure they are up-to-date with | :45:37. | :45:40. | |
what is going on, perhaps because they have had to go home and care | :45:41. | :45:44. | |
for their talks on all loved ones. Part-time work is valuable, it is | :45:45. | :45:49. | |
important and useful for both workers and employers. Yet | :45:50. | :45:52. | |
part-timers are often seen as a stopgap. Not being taken seriously | :45:53. | :45:57. | |
enough or maybe as the expendable employees. It is time to see | :45:58. | :46:02. | |
part-timers as agile, capable multi-skill as he while flexible, | :46:03. | :46:06. | |
come in and make a real difference, they look after families, homes and | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
communities and hold down equally important part-time roles. And I | :46:12. | :46:14. | |
challenge anyone in business not to see these workers as valuable and | :46:15. | :46:20. | |
helpful, and just as useful as their full-time members of staff. If that | :46:21. | :46:24. | |
is not the case, then maybe it is time for employers to reassess and | :46:25. | :46:28. | |
listen harder to these vital and often more nimble workers. And I do | :46:29. | :46:33. | |
also want to say that whilst we conduct this debate, I want to say | :46:34. | :46:39. | |
very clearly, it is not my intention to exclude men. Now, I know many | :46:40. | :46:43. | |
male colleagues from across the chamber will be contributing with | :46:44. | :46:47. | |
their own ideas and how we can make a more just and equal society, as | :46:48. | :46:54. | |
fathers, grandfathers, proud dads tickly of daughters. Now, | :46:55. | :46:58. | |
international men's day on the 19th of November highlighted summary | :46:59. | :47:03. | |
serious concerns -- particularly of daughters. Around male suicide and | :47:04. | :47:07. | |
the modern pressures of men. This changing society will have a big | :47:08. | :47:12. | |
impact if we don't bring men fully on this equality journey with us. Mr | :47:13. | :47:18. | |
Speaker, I am the 380th woman ever to be elected to Parliament. In the | :47:19. | :47:21. | |
history of this House, women have not played anywhere close to an | :47:22. | :47:26. | |
equal role. But we are getting there. I welcome the fact that we | :47:27. | :47:30. | |
are moving towards better representation, both in this chamber | :47:31. | :47:34. | |
and on all the issues that we focus on. However, there is much left to | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
be done. Madeline Albright, former Secretary of State in the US, said | :47:40. | :47:43. | |
there is a special place in hell for women who don't help each other. | :47:44. | :47:48. | |
Looking around this chamber today, at many honourable ladies and a | :47:49. | :47:51. | |
woman who have come to mark this important day, I can see that | :47:52. | :47:56. | |
they're in this House is a unified view that our work can ring true | :47:57. | :48:00. | |
equality on International Women's Day. I'm delighted to have wide and | :48:01. | :48:07. | |
broad support from men... I pay tribute to her physical and go | :48:08. | :48:12. | |
debate. When she talks about women's representation in Parliament, which | :48:13. | :48:16. | |
you also look at around the world, for example, Benazir Bhutto was the | :48:17. | :48:20. | |
first female Prime Minister of Pakistan and the first one in the | :48:21. | :48:24. | |
Islamic world who lost her life in an act of terrorism. We should pay | :48:25. | :48:30. | |
tribute to women around the world. I served as an adviser to Benazir | :48:31. | :48:36. | |
bluetit from 1990 to 2007. Parliaments across this world will | :48:37. | :48:39. | |
be looking at themselves today and rightly asking, are they doing | :48:40. | :48:44. | |
enough to make equality reality? Mr Speaker, today an International | :48:45. | :48:49. | |
Women's Day it is our chance in this debate to do just that. The question | :48:50. | :48:59. | |
is as on the order paper. Jess Phillips. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I | :49:00. | :49:06. | |
would like to pay credit to the member for Eastleigh and Mike | :49:07. | :49:12. | |
honourable friend from Trent Central for securing this debate. It will be | :49:13. | :49:19. | |
no surprise... In 2015, a woman was murdered in the UK every three days. | :49:20. | :49:24. | |
Women murdered by men that they should have been able to trust. | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
Commonly, women are murdered by their partners, husbands and | :49:30. | :49:32. | |
boyfriends. But also in some cases by their fathers, sons and brothers. | :49:33. | :49:38. | |
We wish to give voice to honour the women who died. Today, ice bound to | :49:39. | :49:42. | |
honour every victim and the fight and violence against women -- I | :49:43. | :49:47. | |
stand. Here are the names of the women who died since International | :49:48. | :49:54. | |
Women's Day last year. Lucy I risk, aged 25. Alison Wilson, 36. Janet | :49:55. | :50:04. | |
Miller, 21. Sarah Pollock, 41. Joe Goldsmith, 49. Cecilia Powell, 95. | :50:05. | :50:20. | |
Marion Smith, 74. Violet Price, 80. Karen Buckley, 24. Susan Davenport, | :50:21. | :50:32. | |
63. Sandy Thomas, 57. Sarah Fox, 27. Bernadette Fox, 57. Eileen Bell, 60. | :50:33. | :50:43. | |
Francisco Neary Senior, 49. Tracey Woodford, 47. Mario look at worth, | :50:44. | :50:54. | |
36. Anna Rosenberg, 43. Wendy Milligan, 46. Gloria Perrin, 76. | :50:55. | :51:06. | |
Mahal roads, 42. Martha Lippman, 26. Emma Crowe Hirst, 46. Joanna Dobbin, | :51:07. | :51:21. | |
55. Shealy Kumar, 35. Meyler Kumar, 13. Near Kumar, 13. Grace Kissel, | :51:22. | :51:34. | |
33. Janet Jordon, 48. And Dunkley, 67. Phyllis Hayes, 65. Nazir Afzal, | :51:35. | :51:42. | |
31. Nadia Khan, 24. Jennifer Edwards, 45. Stacey Henderson, 35. | :51:43. | :51:50. | |
Rita Stevens, 67. Jennifer Williams, 25. Amy Smith, 17. Anita Kapoor, 34. | :51:51. | :52:03. | |
Linda nor Cook, 56 -- 46. Lisa Anthony, 47. Dave Anthony, 14. -- | :52:04. | :52:13. | |
Eva Anthony. Lorraine Barwell, 54. Laura Davies, 21. Tracey Baker, 42. | :52:14. | :52:27. | |
Joel Moon, 62. -- Jill Moon. Isabel Parker, 23. Gillian Phillips, 54. | :52:28. | :52:39. | |
Our Abdi, jenny foot, 38. -- Amal Abdi. Denise Selman, 75. Jan | :52:40. | :52:52. | |
Bennett, 67. Laura Holder, 36. Eva Baker, 34 -- Aoife Baker. Wendy | :52:53. | :53:09. | |
Mann, 26. Laura Masters, 20. Natalie, 38. Julie Callier, 55. | :53:10. | :53:20. | |
Karen Reid, 53. Petra Atkinson, 42. Anne-Marie, 47. Nicola Cross, 37. | :53:21. | :53:31. | |
Shelley, 45. Sarah Garber, 27. Jordan, 22. Maxine, 42. Helen | :53:32. | :53:42. | |
Lancaster, 54. Louchats Patel, 44. Leanne Cameron, 25. In old, 49. | :53:43. | :53:54. | |
Kerry Reeves, 26. Christine, 57. Bianca Shepherd, 58. Barbara, 43. | :53:55. | :54:02. | |
Kayleigh Haywood, 15. Susan Michelson, 45. Kelly Pearce, 36. | :54:03. | :54:10. | |
Jean Robertson, 85. Wendy Goodman, 48. Josephine Williams, 83. Sian | :54:11. | :54:20. | |
Roberts, 36. Hilda Oakland, 71. Ravinder, 43. Jackie Abbott, 54. | :54:21. | :54:33. | |
Sian Blake, 43. Kathleen Griffin, 57. Katie Locke, 23. Rita King, 81. | :54:34. | :54:56. | |
Marjorie, 83. Katie Rourke, 25. Katrina O'Hara, 44. Georgina Simons, | :54:57. | :55:04. | |
25. Lisa Little, 49. Andrea Lewis, 51. India, 20. Ellie, 25. Geraldine | :55:05. | :55:15. | |
Newman, 51. Leanne Warne, 36, Jessica McGrath, | :55:16. | :55:36. | |
37, Maria Byrne, 35, Lisa Reynolds, 30, Natasha Bredbury, 28, Julie | :55:37. | :55:45. | |
Hill, 51, Rose Hill, 7 5. I want to thank Karen Smith in the counting | :55:46. | :55:48. | |
dead women project. She doesn't allow the women to be forgotten. She | :55:49. | :55:53. | |
shouts their names so we can do better. I want to note that, as I | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
read each and every woman's story, the variety of women struck me. | :55:58. | :56:02. | |
These were not all poor women, these were women of every age, teachers, | :56:03. | :56:08. | |
dinner ladies, doctors, dancers and daughters, their perpetrators were | :56:09. | :56:13. | |
no less drunks, respected fathers, imminent lawyers, Citibankers. | :56:14. | :56:16. | |
Violence against women has no one face. We must do better. These women | :56:17. | :56:23. | |
are gone here in this place, we must not let them die in vein, we owe | :56:24. | :56:28. | |
that much to them, we know them much more than what they got. | :56:29. | :56:37. | |
Maria Miller. THE SPEAKER: I should just say, I'm | :56:38. | :56:42. | |
moved by the significance of what we have just heard as I neglected my | :56:43. | :56:46. | |
duties, and I should tell the House with immediate effect on the account | :56:47. | :56:49. | |
of the large numbers of members wishing to contribute, there'll be a | :56:50. | :56:54. | |
four-minute limit on speeches. I thank the member for Birmingham | :56:55. | :56:57. | |
Yardley for what she has said. Maria Miller. | :56:58. | :57:01. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. It's difficult to follow my right | :57:02. | :57:03. | |
honourable friend the member for Birmingham Yardley. I call her my | :57:04. | :57:06. | |
right honourable friend because we are fellow committee members and I | :57:07. | :57:09. | |
think we have a shared passion to make sure that the voices of women | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
are heard loud and clear in this House. I think what the honourable | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
lady has done has helped to make sure that those women's stories are | :57:19. | :57:22. | |
remembered, that their voices are heard, even if they are now | :57:23. | :57:26. | |
departed. Mr Speaker, International Women's | :57:27. | :57:30. | |
Day comes around for us every year and since we last celebrated | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
International women's day, we have another celebration as well, the | :57:36. | :57:41. | |
establishment of the first women inequalities Select Committee. | :57:42. | :57:43. | |
Everybody in this House and those no longer in this House should be | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
congratulated for the work Thai done in establishing that committee and I | :57:48. | :57:51. | |
have the privilege of chairing it. Today, we've been able to turn the | :57:52. | :57:55. | |
tables in the committee and have young women be the people who were | :57:56. | :57:59. | |
taking evidence from Members of Parliament and I particularly would | :58:00. | :58:04. | |
like to welcome my constituent who has been able to be with me here | :58:05. | :58:10. | |
today and has, I know, enjoyed the day immesurably. Congratulations | :58:11. | :58:13. | |
have to go to my right honourable friend and fellow Hampshire MP, the | :58:14. | :58:19. | |
member for Eastleigh and also the honourable member for Brent Central | :58:20. | :58:23. | |
as well. Both ladies were a formidable force in front of the | :58:24. | :58:26. | |
backbench business committee and I had no doubt at all that they were | :58:27. | :58:29. | |
going to secure a debate on the floor of the House and they have | :58:30. | :58:32. | |
done so at once. I should also add, Mr Speaker, we | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
have thought about adding an extra criteria for being a member of | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
Select Committee that you have to have a child born on International | :58:42. | :58:44. | |
Women's Day, but I look at the member for Hampstead who was a | :58:45. | :58:47. | |
member of our committee and I hope she doesn't feel that it's necessary | :58:48. | :58:51. | |
to give birth today, although of course I'm sure there'll be many | :58:52. | :58:54. | |
people on hand to be able to help out! Mr Speaker, two brief points in | :58:55. | :58:59. | |
this contribution today. Mr Speaker, you know that there are more men in | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
the House of Commons today than there are women ever elected to | :59:04. | :59:08. | |
Parliament. I was elected in 2005 and I was, Mr Speaker, the 265th | :59:09. | :59:16. | |
ever woman Tom today be elected to this House. That's a shocking fact, | :59:17. | :59:21. | |
something that I wasn't aware of when elected. Since women were given | :59:22. | :59:26. | |
the vote in this country in February 1918, 34 million women have been | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
born but just 450 have ever come here to sit on these green benches. | :59:32. | :59:36. | |
No other position has done worse to attract women than being an MP. How | :59:37. | :59:43. | |
can we hope to change in-grained prejudice in society if we fail to | :59:44. | :59:46. | |
hold a mirror up to ourselves and realise that we are not making the | :59:47. | :59:50. | |
progress we need to as an institution to encourage more women | :59:51. | :59:53. | |
to take their positions on these green benches. It's not rocket | :59:54. | :59:58. | |
science, working in two places, a lack of certainty, a long hours | :59:59. | :00:03. | |
culture and presenteeism is not the conditions to encourage more women | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
to come and join us on these green benches. Can I ask members to think | :00:08. | :00:12. | |
long and hard when they come to consider how we organise the | :00:13. | :00:14. | |
business of the house to make this more representative in the future | :00:15. | :00:18. | |
and a place of work people want to live. | :00:19. | :00:21. | |
My second point is on the issue of leadership. I have no doubt of this | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
Government's commitment to putting equality at the heart of their | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
policy and I have no doubt of their desire the see more women in | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
leadership positions. The symbolic importance of Lord Davis's work in | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
getting 25% of women in non-executive positions is | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
important, but we need to go further than that. We have no short fall in | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
talent in this country, what we have is an underperformance of that | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
talent because of in-grained prejudice. I hope the debate | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
today... I'll give way to the honourable lady. I'm very grateful | :00:55. | :00:56. | |
just before the honourable lady comes to the end of her remarks. As | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
she'll be aware, when we organised that photo which is now in the | :01:02. | :01:06. | |
admission audit office for all visitors and members to see, there | :01:07. | :01:16. | |
was only 370 women MPs, now there are 450, there's been 450 women MPs, | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
there's currently 459 male MPs in this House alone, so 450 over 98 | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
years. We are very privileged and happy to be some of those women here | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
today, but does she agree with me that that is not good enough? I | :01:32. | :01:38. | |
think we need to hear from the leaders of every political party | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
represented in this House today. A complete commitment to increase the | :01:44. | :01:45. | |
number of women at the next election. Though that will be a | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
challenge with the boundary changes, it's a challenge we should take on | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a significant | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
increase in the proportion of women on the benches and representing the | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
people who live in our country. Mr Speaker, the work place, whether | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
it's in Parliament or the City, or in other institutions was designed | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
by men for men and has not changed fast enough to retain women, not | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
only in day-to-day positions but in positions of leadership. We need to | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
make sure that jobs are designed, whether it's in Parliament or | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
beyond, based on the people who're living lives today, not as they | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
lived 20 years ago. I know the ministers sitting on the frontbench | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
understand that plainly from the policies that they are putting into | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
place and I urge them to continue with the work they are doing and | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
they'll always find my Select Committee holding their feet to the | :02:41. | :02:46. | |
fire. Valerie Vaz? It's a pleasure to follow the honourable lady from | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
Basingstoke. Apologies. Congratulations to everyone for | :02:52. | :02:54. | |
taking part in this debate and apologies for moving the nine-minute | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
speech into four minutes. We have in this debate against the ball ground | :02:59. | :03:07. | |
of the recent murder of Berta Cazeras, shot for her defence of the | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
rites of indigenous people. I hope many will follow her. The UN | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
Secretary-General said when he took office there were nine Parliaments | :03:16. | :03:18. | |
in the world without women, it's now down to four that,'s four too many | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
and there's still no UN General Secretary. Members are right to | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
mention the number of women in this Parliament. It's now up to 29% and I | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
have to say that Her Majesty's opposition Labour Party is at 43%... | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
I will give way. She remarks we haven't had a UN General Secretary | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
who is a woman but would she like to join me in congratulating the | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
current Secretary-General of the Commonwealth who is our friend from | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
the other place, Baroness Scotland. I do, and I'm delighted she was | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
selected. Thank you for that. But the statistics are still damning. In | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
law, one Supreme Court judge, only one is a woman, only 13% of QCs are | :04:01. | :04:08. | |
women, in sierntion women make up only 40% of the stemmed workforce in | :04:09. | :04:14. | |
the UK, in business, only 5.5 chief officers in FTSE 100 companies are | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
women. What about the gender pay gap, Mr Speaker? In 2014, according | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
to the Office for National Statistics, that was 14.2%, which | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
means that in effect, women worked from I think it's the 9th November | :04:27. | :04:34. | |
to tend of the year without any pay. I want to raise two issues. There | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
was an equal pay judgment in 2008 locally. The women who worked in | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
Birmingham City Council are still await ago payout. The men who did | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
the same sort of work picked up extra pay through routine overtime | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
and other bonuses. Mary Ashby and overfiend Haynes are retired. They | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
have the right to that payout and I would say to the Government, you can | :04:57. | :05:04. | |
find ?375 billion for quantitative easing, could the Government please | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
find this money to make sure that all these women get their payout? | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
The secondish you I want to raise is the closure of HMRC offices. I thank | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
the honourable lady for giving way. An important point about equal pay. | :05:21. | :05:28. | |
Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, women score highly there. | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
When women are doing well in this society, everyone is doing well and | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
it helps her argument. I absolutely agree with the | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
honourable member. The closure of the HMRC offices in Walsall, over 60 | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
jobs have been lost and 90% are female, they have been offered jobs | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
in Birmingham but they have caring responsibilities to need to stay | :05:49. | :05:51. | |
local. There's of course the higher travel costs. The PCS Union worked | :05:52. | :05:57. | |
out when you lose 50 jobs it's worth ?1.5 billion to the economy locally, | :05:58. | :06:02. | |
too much for Walsall to take. If the Government is serious about tax | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
evasion and avoidance, you need local staff to have that | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
institutional memory to help people with tax affairs and built build up | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
the skills over the years soI would suggest... Thank you very much. | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
Would the honourable member... Would you mind if I don't because I'm | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
running out of time. 500 people sign add petition in Walsall town centre | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
and I would ask the minister to look at the dislocation of women's lives | :06:32. | :06:34. | |
and stop the relocation to Birmingham. Burma may have had this | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
fantastic victory of the NLD, but still the Burmese Army's used rape | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
and sexual violence against women for decades as part of their warfare | :06:45. | :06:47. | |
against ethnic minority groups in the country. Many victims were gang | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
raped and many killed. UN report have described rape and sexual | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
violence as widespread and systematic and we must keep up the | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
pressure to get rid of that 25% of the Army in Parliament in Burma. In | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
Delhi there was an outcry following assault and murder of a woman on a | :07:05. | :07:12. | |
bus. India's daughter, by Lesley Udwin showed the devastating impact | :07:13. | :07:20. | |
of her murder. Sue Lloyd-Roberts, the cleric from Gambia, challenged | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
about mutilation. All the girls kidnapped two years ago this April, | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
we need to do more than just have a hashtag. That's where Governments | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
come in, almost every major piece of legislation that has improved the | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
lives of working women has been introduce bid a Labour Government. | :07:39. | :07:41. | |
The work and families act 2006 extended the right to statutory | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
maternity leave to a full year to all employed women regardless of the | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
length of service. Maternity leave in 2003, legislative | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
Protection Force women and mothers under the equal pay act, sex | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
discrimination act and equality act and everyone knows how brilliant the | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
Sure Starts are, how it was affected local children, helped mothers and | :08:03. | :08:04. | |
fathers in our communes, we need to save those. Education is the key, as | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
the honourable member said, and as Gandhi said, you educate mothers, | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
you educate society. Women can't wait to trickle up to promotion, | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
there needs to be positive action. Marion Allsop, the first female | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
conductor at the Last night of the Proms said and admitted being | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
shocked that it can be 2013 and there are still firsts for women. Mr | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
Speaker, let's hope by this time next year, the women's place at the | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
highest levels will be commonplace. We owe to it future generations. | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Last week, I was in Nigeria and I | :08:43. | :08:52. | |
had the honour of meeting a very small team of dedicated and really | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
passionate campaigners. On arrival at the hot, dusty open-air venue, I | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
could haar them chanting and singing and lots of them were wearing red. | :09:03. | :09:09. | |
Every day, the small group of mainly women, but some men, meet in unity | :09:10. | :09:17. | |
fountain in Abuja. They campaign for the return of 276 girls taken by | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
Boko Haram from their school on the 14th April, 2014. | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
57 of the girls escaped shortly after abduction, but 219 remain | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
missing. These young girls were just like our | :09:36. | :09:42. | |
girls. They were daughters, grand daughters, sisters, cousins frsth, | :09:43. | :09:49. | |
nieces and they were loved. They were encouraged to embrace | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
education. They had and their families had and they were preparing | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
for their final school certificate. They had hopes, dreams, aspirations | :09:58. | :10:03. | |
and then disaster struck. But notwithstanding world | :10:04. | :10:06. | |
condemnation and support from Mishaal Obama and our Prime Minister | :10:07. | :10:09. | |
and others, the girls have not been returned. | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
It is likely that many are still held by Boko Haram debuted probably | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
in small groups. Many will be pregnant as a result of rape, often | :10:21. | :10:27. | |
by different men over a prolonged period. Many forced into marriage. | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
Some have been used as suicide bombers, some have died as a result | :10:32. | :10:37. | |
of physical and mental abuse. The Chibok girls are a small proportion | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
of an estimated 2500 women and girls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014. As | :10:43. | :10:50. | |
they return, many face discrimination and rejection by | :10:51. | :10:52. | |
their families and by their communities. Some fear that the | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
girls have been radicalised. Others believe that the children conceived | :10:59. | :11:02. | |
will be the next generation of fighters. Because they carried a | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
violent characteristics of their biological fathers. As a result, | :11:06. | :11:12. | |
children, newborn babies and mothers are facing stigma, rejection and | :11:13. | :11:20. | |
face further violence. I thank the honourable lady for giving way, she | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
is making an incredibly powerful speech about her experiences last | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
week. Is she not equally as saddened as I am is that this is not just a | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
situation in Nigeria but in many countries around the world? I met | :11:34. | :11:36. | |
with representatives of the DDD community, -- they Yazidi community. | :11:37. | :11:43. | |
We have to put the protection of women and girls at the heart of our | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
international policies. I think the honourable gentleman makes an | :11:48. | :11:50. | |
excellent point by wholeheartedly agree with him. Actually, these | :11:51. | :11:56. | |
groups, the children, the babies and mothers, they are victims. They have | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
done nothing wrong. They should be getting all the help and support | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
they need and deserve to move on in their lives, and reintegrate. As I | :12:05. | :12:11. | |
stand in this chamber today, I can still hear the chance of those | :12:12. | :12:14. | |
Nigerian women, and I can still see their round and pain faces. They | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
said, bring back our girls, now under live, bring them back now. | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
Rarely have I witnessed such strength and determination. But now | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
support. As we approach the second support. As we approach the second | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
anniversary of the girls' abduction. So, from the seventh to the 14th of | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
April, there will be an international week of action to | :12:39. | :12:41. | |
raise further awareness and to keep the issue in the spotlight. We want | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
people everywhere to write, e-mail, tweet, hashtag, BBOG to hold | :12:47. | :12:57. | |
rallies, talks and chats. We need agencies and governments around the | :12:58. | :13:00. | |
world to share credible intelligence, and we need to keep | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
these girls, these innocent girls, in our thoughts and in our prayers. | :13:05. | :13:11. | |
Just one tweet, one post, can make a difference, and can bring our girls | :13:12. | :13:18. | |
home. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I wanted to structure my speech around | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
the motion that is before us, which starts by expressing my solidarity | :13:24. | :13:26. | |
with International Women's Day, but the way I am doing that is that I | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
have dressed myself in the suffragette colours today. As just | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
one symbol of that solidarity, underneath I have a Fawcett Society | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
feminist T-shirt! The second part of the motion notes with concern that | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
despite women making up 51 the scent of society, more progress needs to | :13:46. | :13:51. | |
be made in letting women to Parliament -- 51% of society. I, | :13:52. | :13:57. | |
like you, Mr Speaker, was a member of the speakers' conference of | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
representation of this place. We have made progress, I am very proud | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
of the Labour Party, which still provides more than half of the women | :14:06. | :14:09. | |
in this place, because we took the decision, not nurses are really | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
easily throughout our party, of using women only short lists. I was | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
originally one of the so-called way to women, but everybody has | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
forgotten that now because they realise that I am and effective | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
member of Parliament! -- so-called quota women. We need to ensure we go | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
further than we have. I welcome the new Conservative women who are here, | :14:32. | :14:38. | |
I am glad that they were beneficiaries of the collapse of the | :14:39. | :14:40. | |
Liberal party, who have done less than any of it -- any other party on | :14:41. | :14:48. | |
this issue in my view. We need to remind ourselves of why we need to | :14:49. | :14:54. | |
have women here. Democracy fails if people cannot hear their voices in | :14:55. | :14:57. | |
Parliament. It is an absolute failure. Do women make a difference? | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
Absolutely. I remember at the turn-of-the-century asking the clerk | :15:03. | :15:05. | |
to the Defence Select Committee what a difference having women on that | :15:06. | :15:07. | |
committee for the first time had made. I was sure the answer would | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
be, of course, it has made an enormous difference. I said, what? | :15:13. | :15:18. | |
He said, we just used to talk about how big the bombs were, and now we | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
talk about the families and people who fight. I just know that what | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
would make me brave is knowing that my family is safe. And women do | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
bring something additional to Parliament. One of the things that | :15:32. | :15:38. | |
we achieved from the previous Prime Minister was the first ever stealth | :15:39. | :15:41. | |
tax cut, when he couldn't bring himself to mention during the budget | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
that the level of VAT on sanitary protection had gone down. I am | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
actually very disappointed that we get patted on the head on some of | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
these issues, so that the most recent tax cut has turned into a | :15:57. | :16:02. | |
wake of actually making a kind of voluntary tax. Guess what, fees | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
appeal, we will give it to -- we will give it to the evil appeal. I | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
am glad that they are getting the money, I am a survivor of a very | :16:12. | :16:24. | |
encounter myself, -- the Eve appeal. Thank you for giving way. Does she | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
agree with me that the Government should perhaps look at some of the | :16:29. | :16:35. | |
big strategic issues on women, such as human trafficking and slavery | :16:36. | :16:42. | |
Bill. The honourable ladies is anticipating where I am going to | :16:43. | :16:45. | |
next. The next part of the debate motion that we are debating talks | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
about equal pay. We have made some progress on that, but I'm very glad | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
that the equalities committee is looking at the fact that older women | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
are being left behind when it comes to equal pay. They are being left | :16:58. | :17:00. | |
behind in many other ways, too. We need to try and sort that out. And | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
then the final thing on this is to call for greater action against FGM | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
and other practices that are harmful to women. Well,. Mike certainly. I | :17:11. | :17:19. | |
commend the Government on setting up the FGM centre, helping women fight | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
against this barbaric act and helping amenities. It is run by | :17:25. | :17:32. | |
Barnardos, there is a funding decision at the end of this month. | :17:33. | :17:35. | |
While the honourable member join me in calling on the Government in | :17:36. | :17:42. | |
helping keep our daughters safe? It is essential to have a strategic | :17:43. | :17:45. | |
response to violence against women and girls. We have been moved by the | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
speech of the honourable member for Yardley. We know that women, | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
internationally and in the UK, are particularly likely to be victims of | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
violence, whether it is so-called cultural practices like FGM, whether | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
they are going to be victims of human trafficking, and I'm glad that | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
the Government has introduced the Modern Slavery Bill and is focusing | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
on that, because we know internationally that the largest | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
reason for trafficking in human beings is trafficking for sexual | :18:18. | :18:22. | |
exploitation. And we also know that when women are murdered, if they | :18:23. | :18:30. | |
have been in prostitution, their perpetrator is much less likely to | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
be caught and convicted down the perpetrators. Our average conviction | :18:36. | :18:42. | |
rate for murder is 75%. But actually at the moment we only convicted 23% | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
of the murders of prostitutes. That is a shocking figure. And in my | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
view, we failed to have an unintelligent, strategic response to | :18:53. | :18:59. | |
the existence of prostitution -- and intelligent. Recognising that as it | :19:00. | :19:02. | |
is actually practised, it is a mechanism for violence towards | :19:03. | :19:05. | |
women, for exploitation, sexually, of children. For turning women into | :19:06. | :19:14. | |
commodities and making all women's lives less safe. And I'm very glad | :19:15. | :19:18. | |
that the Home Affairs Committee is looking at this issue. But I do not | :19:19. | :19:26. | |
think that until we follow the lead of Sweden, in targeting the men who | :19:27. | :19:30. | |
create this problem, in saying that is an offence to pay for women's | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
sexual services, that we will end the horror which is the reality for | :19:35. | :19:41. | |
most women and girls involved in prostitution. The horror of drug | :19:42. | :19:45. | |
addiction, the horror of pimping, and the horror of exploitation and | :19:46. | :19:49. | |
trafficking. And that is one of the things we really need to focus on. | :19:50. | :19:53. | |
When I first came into this House, we were very reluctant to discuss | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
the word prostitution. I'm glad that we now have a chamber which is | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
prepared to talk about it. But we now have to do things in order to | :20:03. | :20:04. | |
end this form of exploitation. Mr Speaker, it is a pleasure to | :20:05. | :20:14. | |
follow the member for Slough, and can I also extend my congratulations | :20:15. | :20:20. | |
to the member for Eastleigh and Birmingham Yardley to getting this | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
debate today. It was 20 years ago yesterday that I is Minister opened | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
a debate in Government time on International Women's Day, and I do | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
hope that the front bench will consider giving much longer to a | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
debate such as this, a full's debate in Government time, because I think | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
it is appreciated and would be appreciated on all sides of the | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
House. In those days, we had, Mr Speaker, in lady Speaker in the | :20:47. | :20:49. | |
chair, and very formidable she was. But there were only 60 MPs who were | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
female in this House. And even today, we only have 191. And so wall | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
though the percentage figures have increased, I still think that is not | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
good enough, and I share that in common with many of the people in | :21:04. | :21:06. | |
this House today. It is dull not good enough that we are not doing | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
enough to inspire more women to political careers -- it is still not | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
good enough. I have to say, it is little wonder when, despite what the | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
member for Basingstoke said, peoples opinions about the way our | :21:20. | :21:22. | |
parliamentary system operates is viewed through the eyes of Prime | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
Minister is questions, which on a good day off and looks little better | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
than a primary school playgroup. In fact, I have seen primary school | :21:31. | :21:33. | |
play groups that have behaved better. 20 years ago, I was returned | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
from Beijing, where we had negotiated the United Nations | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
conference platform for action, and I was supported by Baroness Chalker | :21:45. | :21:48. | |
and that then member for Tiverton, now Baroness, and we agreed more | :21:49. | :21:56. | |
than 36,000 women attended that conference in China. Since then, I | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
think women's lives have improved. With any four minutes I can pick out | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
only to brief areas -- two brief areas. Firstly, maternal deaths. | :22:08. | :22:15. | |
Back in the 90s the average was 338, the highest level being in sub | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
Saharan Africa, which was appalling at 510 deaths. This has dropped in | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
2015 to 169. I welcome that there is a further target for reducing this | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
to 70 per 100,000 live births as part of the sustainable development | :22:30. | :22:36. | |
agenda. The number of women parliamentarians worldwide has | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
doubled in those years, to 22.7% now. Lastly, Mr Speaker, I just want | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
to mention the position on a crime which particularly affects women. | :22:48. | :22:53. | |
Cybercrime. There is a new technology which, as we heard from | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
other colleagues, can help assist women but it can also be used as a | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
weapon. According to the UN, one in ten women in the EU have experienced | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
cyber harassment since the age of 15. That includes having received | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
unwanted, offensive, sexually explicit e-mails will SMS messages, | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
or offensive inappropriate advances on a social networking site. The | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
risk is highest among young women between 18 and 29 years of age. And | :23:23. | :23:29. | |
so tomorrow I'm very pleased to be supporting the honourable member who | :23:30. | :23:32. | |
will be introducing a ten minute rule Bill covering this area of | :23:33. | :23:35. | |
cybercrime. It has cross-party support and is being prepared with | :23:36. | :23:40. | |
the able assistance of Harry Fletcher and the digital trust. As | :23:41. | :23:43. | |
an officer of the group I'm hoping it will be an initiator of some more | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
updated laws in the UK to deal with technology and defences, as well as | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
consulting those areas of law that relate to cybercrime -- | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
consolidating. When we know how hopeful technology can be, we need | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
to ensure that our Government acts so that technology can be used as | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
yet another weapon in which to beat women -- is not used. Thank you, Mr | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
Speaker. May I start with saying what a pleasure it is taking part in | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
this debate this afternoon. With all the goodwill and consensus we should | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
not forget the long bitter struggle which women in this country had to | :24:19. | :24:22. | |
get their voices heard and the issues that affected them debated | :24:23. | :24:25. | |
and address. It goes without saying that we should take a moment to | :24:26. | :24:28. | |
reflect on the thousands of women across the world who are still | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
fighting that good fight today, in some cases in very desperate | :24:33. | :24:35. | |
circumstances. I hope the House will forgive me if I briefly rake the | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
consensus for a moment just score one political point. The position of | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
Minister for women as it was then was created by Labour back in 1997. | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
Women have played key roles in Labour right from our early days, | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
and of all the sweeping changes in Government brought back in 1997, I'm | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
glad to say that the creation of a ministerial position dedicated to | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
women's issues has been one of most quietly enduring. There are two | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
issues which I would like to mention briefly. First, the issue of gender | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
pricing. We are very familiar with the issues surrounding unequal pay | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
and discriminatory employment practices, but the often larger | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
price tag associated with items likely to be specifically aimed at | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
women is the reverse side of the same coin. To give that just a | :25:19. | :25:24. | |
couple of examples, in research undertaken recently by the Times, it | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
was found that raises for women cost on average and a 50% more than the | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
equivalent product for men. -- razors. In Tesco's, a pack of 10p | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
disposable razors is twice the price of a standard pack. And the only | :25:39. | :25:44. | |
difference being the colour. A pink child's scooter is ?5 more expensive | :25:45. | :25:46. | |
than a blue one. Bic Sell ballpoint pens for girls | :25:47. | :26:01. | |
which cost more than the standard model. Girls products cost more 42% | :26:02. | :26:08. | |
of the time and boys products 12% of the time. In some cases it may be | :26:09. | :26:15. | |
that I terms cost more to produce. -- items. In many cases women are | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
told to buy a specific product because it's the only version | :26:21. | :26:23. | |
suitable for women when in reality there is no difference in the | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
products. It could be argued they are being misled. I urge the | :26:28. | :26:31. | |
Minister to ensure that independent analysis is carried out to identify | :26:32. | :26:39. | |
marketing practices like this in the UK and quantify the cumulative | :26:40. | :26:42. | |
impact of gender differentials in pricing for women to get to grips | :26:43. | :26:50. | |
with this issue. I tried to resist the temptation of intervening but | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
would she be as surprised as I am that despite the select committee | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
writing to a number of individual companies that are involved in that | :27:01. | :27:04. | |
investigation, that actually we have not had a response from all of them? | :27:05. | :27:11. | |
I thank the Honourable Member for the intervention and yes, it is | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
pretty shocking and I think she pre-empted my next point, I would | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
ask the Minister to meet with major retailers to identify the steps they | :27:21. | :27:25. | |
are taking to rectify the situation. My second point is related, over the | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
last few months along with many other Members I have been banging | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
the drum for the abolition of VAT on female sanitary products, periods | :27:35. | :27:37. | |
are not a leisure activity that women indulge in. Tampons and other | :27:38. | :27:45. | |
sanitary products are a necessity, certainly not a luxury that they are | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
taxed as, absurdly. 300,000 people have now signed a petition to call | :27:52. | :27:55. | |
for a change in this ludicrous state of affairs and it's about time | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
decision-makers at Westminster and in Brussels sat up and took notice. | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
Time and time again we have heard that this is in the hands of the | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
European Commission and the UK is keen to press the issue with | :28:09. | :28:15. | |
European partners but the lack of progress left us wondering how | :28:16. | :28:18. | |
committed the Government are on this issue. I asked the minister as I did | :28:19. | :28:24. | |
the Secretary to the Treasury if she will guarantee that the Prime | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
Minister Lord Chancellor will make a statement about this so that the | :28:30. | :28:32. | |
public know where we stand before the referendum. The official theme | :28:33. | :28:39. | |
of this years International Women's Day is Make It Happen and that is | :28:40. | :28:45. | |
what I urge the Government to do. I would like to congratulate the | :28:46. | :28:50. | |
Honourable Member for securing this debate and for many years it was not | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
possible to get a debate in the main Chamber and that in itself is a mark | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
of progress. Today we are observing International Women's Day and the | :28:59. | :29:06. | |
charity Women For Refugee Women is launching a campaign in which 99 | :29:07. | :29:10. | |
women stand in solidarity with refugee women and I have the | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
privilege of supporting the campaign along with notable women including | :29:15. | :29:20. | |
Mary Beard and the women who recently appeared in the film | :29:21. | :29:27. | |
Suffragette. The name of the campaign reflects the 99 pregnant | :29:28. | :29:32. | |
women detained in yards were detention centre in 2014. Of these | :29:33. | :29:38. | |
99 women, only nine were removed from the UK and indeed figures I | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
have seen suggest only a small minority of detained pregnant women | :29:43. | :29:47. | |
are removed while pregnant, suggesting the practice is obsolete. | :29:48. | :29:51. | |
I recently had confirmation from the chief executive of Cerco that the | :29:52. | :29:58. | |
total number of pregnant women held their last year was 69, fewer than | :29:59. | :30:04. | |
the year before but still too many. In 2016I feel strongly that the | :30:05. | :30:07. | |
Government should do all it can to stop the holding of pregnant women | :30:08. | :30:11. | |
in detention centres once and for all. There are better places. In | :30:12. | :30:16. | |
which to deal with detention issues for women expecting a baby. Sarah, | :30:17. | :30:22. | |
not her real name, was detained while pregnant and said, I found it | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
hard to believe I was really in the UK, I was in a place where human | :30:28. | :30:32. | |
rights don't exist, I saw so much misery, depression and mental | :30:33. | :30:36. | |
illness while I was there, constant crying and self harm because women | :30:37. | :30:44. | |
don't know why they are there. 2000 asylum seeking women are locked up | :30:45. | :30:50. | |
there, and the majority are survivors of sexual bilin 's and | :30:51. | :30:57. | |
rape. 90% of women claim to have suffered sexual violence in some | :30:58. | :31:00. | |
form and these are the most vulnerable women we can think of in | :31:01. | :31:05. | |
circumstances far from ideal. The new adult at risk policy should | :31:06. | :31:08. | |
reduce the detention of honourable women. And the need to move away | :31:09. | :31:14. | |
from detention over all. I commend the Home Office for these important | :31:15. | :31:20. | |
steps. The recent Steven Shaw report also made recommendations in this | :31:21. | :31:23. | |
area and I believe that ministers have recognised the need for reform. | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
Along with women for refugee women I hope that these discussions will | :31:30. | :31:32. | |
soon bear fruit so that pregnant women who come to this country as | :31:33. | :31:37. | |
refugees to seek protection will no longer face detention, the cost for | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
an individual woman is so great that we cannot afford to wait any longer. | :31:42. | :31:48. | |
I too met the Yazidi women here today, and it just reminds us is | :31:49. | :31:53. | |
what drives women to come to a country like ours in search of | :31:54. | :31:57. | |
safety. Indeed, there are around 3000 yes CDs in captivity in Iraq | :31:58. | :32:07. | |
and Syria. Their children are pressed into military service for | :32:08. | :32:11. | |
Daesh and children as young as seven are being trained for action, these | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
women are abused and not in UNHCR camps from which we have promised to | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
take refugees. A separate programme is clearly needed. These two issues | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
together a mind us what the drivers are to bring pregnant women here and | :32:26. | :32:31. | |
why we need to make sure absolutely that we welcome them appropriately | :32:32. | :32:38. | |
in our country. The theme of this years International Women's Day is | :32:39. | :32:42. | |
gender parity, and I wanted to focus on the plight of low-paid women. We | :32:43. | :32:47. | |
like to think we live in an enlightened age of women's rights | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
but shockingly the World Economic Forum has calculated that the gender | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
gap in terms of health, education, politics and economy will not close | :32:57. | :33:01. | |
until 2133. It will take another five generations before women are on | :33:02. | :33:07. | |
an equal footing with men. Take women's economic parity with men in | :33:08. | :33:12. | |
the UK. A quarter of women now earn below the real living wage, ?9 40 in | :33:13. | :33:18. | |
London. The so-called economic recovery and increasing employment | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
is being made off the backs of low-paid women, a staggering 60% of | :33:23. | :33:28. | |
the new jobs for women created since 2010 have been in the lowest paid | :33:29. | :33:32. | |
industries. Women make up three quarters of those in part-time work, | :33:33. | :33:38. | |
earning on average 25% less per hour than their full-time colleagues. | :33:39. | :33:43. | |
They dominate the lowest paid sectors. 62% of workers paid below | :33:44. | :33:50. | |
the living wage are women. 90% of nurses are women, 84% of carers, | :33:51. | :33:57. | |
over 70% of hospitality waiting staff are women. In these | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
professions women perform important work but they are hugely | :34:02. | :34:05. | |
undervalued. Even in higher paid jobs, women will earn significantly | :34:06. | :34:10. | |
less, the median gross earnings for men are almost ?30,000 while for | :34:11. | :34:18. | |
women it's just over ?24,000. That's a 25% gap. While women make up half | :34:19. | :34:23. | |
of all apprentices, they are being short-changed because of implicit | :34:24. | :34:27. | |
gender occupational segregation. Women dominate the lowest paid | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
apprenticeships, making 83% of health and social care apprentices | :34:33. | :34:37. | |
and 91% of childcare practices. Meanwhile, men dominate the | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
highest-paid ones, where only 3% of engineering apprentices and 2% of | :34:43. | :34:46. | |
construction apprentices and 10% in IT are women. The gender pay gap is | :34:47. | :34:54. | |
now 21% in apprenticeships and it means that a woman apprentice will | :34:55. | :34:59. | |
earn just ?4 82 an hour on average compared with ?5 85 for her male | :35:00. | :35:08. | |
colleagues. I would like to take the opportunity to celebrate | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
Hewlett-Packard Enterprises' sponsorship which I welcomed into | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
Parliament last week, a remarkable network of clubs to inspire young | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
girls into technology where they are currently hugely underrepresented, | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
and it's available to all schools for free in the UK. The Government | :35:27. | :35:30. | |
gender policies have seen benefit cuts which have hit women | :35:31. | :35:33. | |
disproportionately in favour of tax cuts for higher burners | :35:34. | :35:40. | |
disproportionally benefiting men. ?26 billion of cuts have been made | :35:41. | :35:46. | |
since 2010 in tax credits and pensions and 85% of the total has | :35:47. | :35:51. | |
been taken solely for women. At the same time the Government has watered | :35:52. | :35:55. | |
down the Treasury's gender impact assessments so the true impact and | :35:56. | :36:00. | |
their real impact on women is being disguised. We might think that the | :36:01. | :36:04. | |
introduction of the so-called national living wage would make the | :36:05. | :36:07. | |
situation a lot better for women, can I ask every woman in this house | :36:08. | :36:12. | |
when she listens to the budget next week, just to consider that there | :36:13. | :36:16. | |
are many women who will take home less next month because of the | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
national living wage, because of the stripping away of benefits, London | :36:21. | :36:23. | |
weighting, and double-time on Sunday. Lets them as women stand | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
together and say that those women deserve more, not less. When Eleanor | :36:29. | :36:38. | |
Rathbone was elected to the house one of her first speeches in the 20s | :36:39. | :36:42. | |
was about female genital meet elation and she also went on to talk | :36:43. | :36:52. | |
about family endowment, it is ludicrous to think that a man's | :36:53. | :36:59. | |
earnings could support a family of various sizes. -- female genital | :37:00. | :37:05. | |
mutilation. It went through this House and the House of Lords with no | :37:06. | :37:10. | |
one opposing it, it shows the Hondurans that is needed to push | :37:11. | :37:13. | |
forward good ideas which are eventually adopted and then move on | :37:14. | :37:20. | |
child benefits. When I was first elected, the Chancellor of the | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
Exchequer, a Labour won, not that that is important, arguing that the | :37:25. | :37:29. | |
married couple 's allowance made up for that, not realising that half of | :37:30. | :37:33. | |
the married men had no dependent children and half of the married men | :37:34. | :37:38. | |
had a working wife so it was one of the least directed ways of | :37:39. | :37:42. | |
supporting the needs of children. They can't work and they can't earn. | :37:43. | :37:47. | |
I want to make additional points, if I may. The first is that we need to | :37:48. | :37:52. | |
equalise work and it is taking paid and unpaid work together. We ought | :37:53. | :37:56. | |
to have some kind of indicator which comes out every two or three years | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
showing how much of the unpaid work in a household is done by men and | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
women. Until you get that more consciously equal, the opportunities | :38:07. | :38:09. | |
of equality in paid work will remain distant. The last point I want to | :38:10. | :38:16. | |
make is about expectations, hopes and opportunities. Anybody who went | :38:17. | :38:22. | |
to see the exhibition in the aptly room in portcullis house yesterday | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
where scientists, mathematicians and technologists were showing what they | :38:27. | :38:30. | |
were doing, would not have been able to tell except by the name is | :38:31. | :38:33. | |
whether the research had been done by a woman or a man. One that struck | :38:34. | :38:39. | |
me was that the woman who found a way of finding a marker for prostate | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
cancer, very important and low cost with no false positives, the kind of | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
work you would expect to get a Nobel prize for 30 years ago. When we get | :38:49. | :38:55. | |
maths as something that every child in primary school feels at ease | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
with, you will find that all of our children can reach forward, whether | :39:02. | :39:04. | |
they end up as mathematicians or engineers doesn't matter, they need | :39:05. | :39:08. | |
to be as familiar with that as with drama and sport and the like. Let's | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
have the same expectations and opportunities and the same hopes. | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
Tied to that can I suggest we also try to get more attention to an | :39:19. | :39:22. | |
article in today's Conservative home? They talked about the Marmont | :39:23. | :39:28. | |
curve and how to try to get that curve into a flat line, so no matter | :39:29. | :39:37. | |
whether they are Asian, black, low-paid or not, the opportunity | :39:38. | :39:43. | |
that education and the hopes and expectation of our parents, we are | :39:44. | :39:46. | |
not determined by what our parents were but what they do and what we | :39:47. | :39:59. | |
can do ourselves. We have been one month short of the 105th | :40:00. | :40:04. | |
anniversary... INAUDIBLE In an knob itself their actions were | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
not a turning point but part of a larger movement and societal change | :40:10. | :40:12. | |
that has at least made strides in the right direction. Emily Davidson | :40:13. | :40:18. | |
is a fine example of how it often takes straight forward thinking and | :40:19. | :40:23. | |
direction action that later generations see as normal. | :40:24. | :40:29. | |
It is very seldom easy, especially for women. I'm suggesting it is | :40:30. | :40:38. | |
response at every Government on this earth to help advance the rights of | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
women. Less than weeks ago, the primers that the United Kingdom are | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
told us how his Government had helped armed factions from the UK to | :40:47. | :40:52. | |
sell arms to Saudi Arabia. It is a country where women cannot open her | :40:53. | :40:56. | |
bank account without the husband's commission. Nor can make trial close | :40:57. | :41:06. | |
in a shop. It is a place where a car and I think I'm right in saying the | :41:07. | :41:09. | |
only country in the world where is actually illegal for a women to | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
drive. When a teenage girl was gang raped in 2006, the court sentenced | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
to her to corporate punishment for being out of the House without a | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
shower room. 90 losses for getting raped. -- lashes. She was released | :41:24. | :41:33. | |
from prison where she had been detained for three months without | :41:34. | :41:36. | |
trial for advocating women's issues. She was released when she | :41:37. | :41:43. | |
promised... This is the notion the UK's primers that thinks it is | :41:44. | :41:48. | |
appropriate to celebrate doing business with. Human rights are | :41:49. | :41:53. | |
women's rights and the rights of the women of Saudi Arabia should be at | :41:54. | :41:57. | |
the top of the agenda for intergovernmental relations. | :41:58. | :42:00. | |
International Women's Day has to be about promoting the rights and | :42:01. | :42:04. | |
freedoms of women across the world. It has to be about ending | :42:05. | :42:09. | |
oppression, engendering respect and esteem between women and men. The | :42:10. | :42:15. | |
Government of the UK should be growing when it makes advancements | :42:16. | :42:18. | |
in those areas, rather than providing more weapons to what | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
essentially is a repressive regime if you were women. In the face of | :42:22. | :42:27. | |
all that, women in Saudi Arabia are changing the face of backcountry, | :42:28. | :42:30. | |
instead of the roadblocks that in their way, a woman wrote and | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
directed the first feature film to be shot by and scientists proving | :42:37. | :42:43. | |
that Saudi women can match men in science. In using humour to chip | :42:44. | :42:47. | |
away at the patriarchy is the comedian. They are transforming | :42:48. | :42:53. | |
their lives and making the change which will create a new normal for | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
future generations of Saudi women. But they need the help and support | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
of the international community if they are to succeed. There was | :43:03. | :43:07. | |
Foreign Secretary who stood in chamber once and promised an ethical | :43:08. | :43:13. | |
foreign policy, he has gone and so had any semblance of an ethical | :43:14. | :43:18. | |
foreign policy. It left him before he did. But the civilisations we so | :43:19. | :43:23. | |
read of the pretend to or aspire to demand that such an policy be the | :43:24. | :43:27. | |
guiding light of our international relations. At an International | :43:28. | :43:33. | |
Women's Day, please can every member here pledged that the rights and | :43:34. | :43:37. | |
prediction of women should be uppermost in their thinking about | :43:38. | :43:45. | |
international relations. Thank you. Like many women, sitting at home | :43:46. | :43:49. | |
watching this today, I remember catching a glimpse at the more MP on | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
Kelly and wondering what kind of woman you have to be to enter | :43:55. | :44:00. | |
politics? What kind of women is she? Working alongside that, I have | :44:01. | :44:06. | |
encountered strong women such as the members for easily who brought this | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
debate to the chamber today. Their strength comes from knowing who they | :44:12. | :44:17. | |
are. They have gained respect in a male dominated working build of | :44:18. | :44:22. | |
politics. These pioneers stand today at 191 female members in this House | :44:23. | :44:26. | |
and we on this side of the House could be claim that Iraq should be | :44:27. | :44:33. | |
proud. While being proud, we should also be ambitious for more and we | :44:34. | :44:38. | |
are lucky enough to be here should take seriously our responsibility | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
that those who are not. Mr Speaker, I would like to take a moment to ask | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
the House to join me in so loosing all women today and most of all, so | :44:47. | :44:52. | |
losing all e-mail parliamentarians. That Iraq e-mail. | :44:53. | :45:00. | |
We are all pioneers and have shared experiences of the fight and | :45:01. | :45:08. | |
struggle to have the privilege to sit on these green benches and is | :45:09. | :45:11. | |
our duty to raise issues that previously have gone unspoken. And | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
the collective female membership of this House is a powerful form of | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
change and I want to raise three very brief points. First, how do we | :45:21. | :45:27. | |
as a collective help register 's, Parliament and the UN and better | :45:28. | :45:31. | |
represent the lives and aspirations of women? Here today we have energy | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
to represent women from all walks of life and we need to hold | :45:38. | :45:42. | |
international and national organisations accountable to perform | :45:43. | :45:46. | |
for women, not just the men. Second, how do we have used technology to | :45:47. | :45:52. | |
help and support women? We heard earlier on about online stalking and | :45:53. | :45:57. | |
cybercrime. We are all on social media and all of our female | :45:58. | :46:00. | |
parliamentarians must have been sold at some point. Imagine the response | :46:01. | :46:07. | |
if we women who are the targeted by the trolls also bordered each other, | :46:08. | :46:12. | |
shouting them down. Let's challenge Facebook and Twitter to support | :46:13. | :46:16. | |
women to get online and sharing the billy tactics of anonymous people, | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
mostly men who dared to put us in place. We mustn't just come together | :46:22. | :46:25. | |
for one day produce a collective voice to shout more loudly every day | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
to take over the social media spaces and make them hours. My final point | :46:31. | :46:36. | |
as an MP in this Parliament, I do not have to justify my gender to | :46:37. | :46:41. | |
represent one of my constituents. Nor do I have to justify the way in | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
which I represent someone because of my gender and that is how it must be | :46:47. | :46:51. | |
in society two. In every community, family and organisation. But that | :46:52. | :46:56. | |
unfortunately is not the case of a doubt this country. In my | :46:57. | :47:02. | |
constituency, men and 21.8% more than women. We must champion these | :47:03. | :47:08. | |
women in this House. The testimonies of women are worth half more than | :47:09. | :47:12. | |
all of men, we must represent those women in this House. In communities | :47:13. | :47:17. | |
where gangs group and abuse children, their victims Texan to the | :47:18. | :47:25. | |
fact testimonies are ignored. We still have a long way to go to make | :47:26. | :47:29. | |
sure that testimonies are women are taken as seriously of the | :47:30. | :47:35. | |
testimonies as men. When all society except that our sisters, daughters | :47:36. | :47:39. | |
and mothers are not owned by any man and not owned by anyone but | :47:40. | :47:47. | |
themselves, only then will we have succeeded. It is monitored speaking | :47:48. | :47:56. | |
today's debate. My constituency is not short of tenacious women. It is | :47:57. | :48:02. | |
a great privilege for me to be the first women to represent and have | :48:03. | :48:08. | |
the responsibility of coming on the legacy of all the women who have | :48:09. | :48:13. | |
made a contribution. I am in more than one way standing on the sold as | :48:14. | :48:18. | |
a giant tresses. Now take this opportunity to pay tribute to the | :48:19. | :48:34. | |
first... Winnifred, the British suffragette made her home in my | :48:35. | :48:42. | |
constituency. She was a leading figure in the campaign for women | :48:43. | :48:48. | |
suffragettes in South Wales. Katherine Jenkins, soprano of global | :48:49. | :48:53. | |
recognition grew up in my constituency and help women -- her | :48:54. | :49:04. | |
mother remains a female activists. Bonnie Tyler needs no introduction. | :49:05. | :49:15. | |
The miners strike of 1984, women led from the front picket lines, | :49:16. | :49:18. | |
organised rally support groups and kept spirit alive in homes across | :49:19. | :49:24. | |
South Wales. The story of May 1984 miners strike was recently told in | :49:25. | :49:35. | |
beach higher-ups in film Pride. It showed how lesbians and gay | :49:36. | :49:46. | |
communities supported the miners. Out of this story of Pride, came and | :49:47. | :49:56. | |
innovative community organisation, set out for women by women. An | :49:57. | :50:04. | |
organisation which has been held across Europe as adult community | :50:05. | :50:13. | |
education. It wants to offer women new opportunities to reach rain, it | :50:14. | :50:19. | |
was the birthplace of the community University of the valleys and | :50:20. | :50:21. | |
subsequently supported thousands of women in gaining qualifications, | :50:22. | :50:29. | |
including undergraduate degrees. It is also home to Beth and Howard, | :50:30. | :50:38. | |
founding member of the rugby team and a champion of quality. I must | :50:39. | :50:45. | |
also a tribute to two exceptional women who have had a profound impact | :50:46. | :50:52. | |
on sport in Wales. Professor Laura McAllister and Sarah Powell, those | :50:53. | :50:59. | |
of you had outstanding support -- sporting careers. Great Britain's | :51:00. | :51:10. | |
greatest Olympian of all time. In my sport or squash, we have a player | :51:11. | :51:19. | |
who is richer world ranking place of 24. One of the most tenacious women | :51:20. | :51:27. | |
I have ever met and one of the busiest. She is listing and very | :51:28. | :51:38. | |
strong list of very powerful Welsh women and obviously she is one of | :51:39. | :51:46. | |
them. She did so much within the Welsh Labour Party and continues to | :51:47. | :51:52. | |
stand up for women's rights today. I thank the honourable member. The | :51:53. | :52:03. | |
next reading of the Private members Bill is on Friday which will include | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
mothers names on marriage certificates, something which | :52:09. | :52:13. | |
currently does not happen and equal inequality which is yet to be set | :52:14. | :52:18. | |
right. It was a Labour Government some 46 years ago which passed the | :52:19. | :52:24. | |
equal pay act, and mental men burst like a monumental occasion. Women | :52:25. | :52:32. | |
still only owned an average of 81p for every ?1 for a man. There is | :52:33. | :52:44. | |
much more to be done. Thank you. I hope you win think it's baseball if | :52:45. | :52:52. | |
I declare that my constituency in Lincolnshire Leeds where others | :52:53. | :52:55. | |
follow. Particularly when it comes to collecting e-mail MPs. For I am | :52:56. | :53:01. | |
not first female member of Parliament in this area. In 1921, | :53:02. | :53:09. | |
the good people elected a woman. She has an important place in history. | :53:10. | :53:13. | |
She was the first English born female MP in this place and she was | :53:14. | :53:19. | |
the third ever female MP elected to this place. Fast forward to 2015, | :53:20. | :53:30. | |
and I am the 428 female MP. Because since 1918, only 450 women have been | :53:31. | :53:37. | |
elected to this place. That is a lower number than the total number | :53:38. | :53:41. | |
of men currently sitting in this Parliament. They get all the others. | :53:42. | :53:47. | |
So when people ask why do we need campaigns like International Women's | :53:48. | :53:51. | |
Day I have to say sadly we don't have to look too far. Now we need | :53:52. | :53:57. | |
more women in politics and I don't just mean in the House of Commons, | :53:58. | :54:02. | |
we need more women across the board. We need more women in every party | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
standing up for local communities in councils, we need more women | :54:08. | :54:11. | |
reporting on national and local politics. We need more women shaping | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
policies in think tanks and universities across the country. We | :54:17. | :54:21. | |
need more women are advising ministers on implementing policies | :54:22. | :54:27. | |
here in Whitehall. We need is not because women's experiences are in | :54:28. | :54:30. | |
any way better or worse than men's but because they are different. They | :54:31. | :54:35. | |
reflect the experiences of women and men across the country. Day in, day | :54:36. | :54:46. | |
out. Thank you. Would you consider perhaps we don't have so many people | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
in these high positions because they are not so good at putting | :54:51. | :54:54. | |
themselves forward in the current systems that are in place that they | :54:55. | :54:58. | |
have to get through to get there. The men, admiration for our | :54:59. | :55:04. | |
colleagues, are good at this and the women are not so good. I have two | :55:05. | :55:06. | |
daughters going through the process now. I congratulate my honourable | :55:07. | :55:15. | |
friend's daughters. For a lot of women, women are used to perhaps | :55:16. | :55:19. | |
being the power behind the throne, to use a well worn phrase and I hope | :55:20. | :55:24. | |
one of the things we have done today, celebrating International | :55:25. | :55:28. | |
Women's Day and inviting young women from constituencies into the House | :55:29. | :55:32. | |
of Commons, I hope we give them a little bit more confidence and | :55:33. | :55:34. | |
courage and putting themselves forward when they want achieve | :55:35. | :55:35. | |
something. I will return to 1921. My | :55:36. | :55:45. | |
predecessor campaigned on an issue that sadly is familiar to us today | :55:46. | :55:54. | |
in 2016, the issue of equal pay. After 95 years there is still an | :55:55. | :55:59. | |
inequality of pay, we know that it is getting better and the Government | :56:00. | :56:04. | |
is doing a great deal to tackle this but I welcome the promise of my | :56:05. | :56:06. | |
right honourable friend the Member for Basingstoke in holding the | :56:07. | :56:11. | |
Government to account so that we can do even better than we have done so | :56:12. | :56:17. | |
far. Why does any of this matter? It matters because it is the right | :56:18. | :56:21. | |
thing to do and matters particularly when we meet each and every young | :56:22. | :56:25. | |
woman in Allah constituency, particularly as I said today. I have | :56:26. | :56:32. | |
had the pleasure of meeting Jessica and Ellie. -- our constituency. They | :56:33. | :56:37. | |
made the trip down which takes three hours at best. They themselves have | :56:38. | :56:42. | |
seen Downing Street, they have seen this place in action and debated and | :56:43. | :56:48. | |
listened to the panel. This is important stuff and I hope it will | :56:49. | :56:52. | |
energise and infuse them in their errant careers in the future. -- | :56:53. | :57:00. | |
enthused them. For millions of women this debate is so important but it's | :57:01. | :57:05. | |
not just today, it's what we do until the next International Women's | :57:06. | :57:09. | |
Day and beyond. I am conscious of the time. I'm pleased to see that | :57:10. | :57:14. | |
the Chamber has been so busy this afternoon, and may I also say thank | :57:15. | :57:19. | |
you to all of the male Members of Parliament who have come to support | :57:20. | :57:23. | |
the campaign because whilst we may form 51% of the population we must | :57:24. | :57:27. | |
not forget that they form the other 49% although I may have been | :57:28. | :57:34. | |
controversial without meaning to be. I thank everyone who has supported | :57:35. | :57:39. | |
us today. This is the second debate that I have spoken in in relation to | :57:40. | :57:46. | |
international women's issues. At the event last week the right Honourable | :57:47. | :57:49. | |
Member for the Don Valley who is not here today commented on the fact | :57:50. | :57:54. | |
that it was much harder for women to be elected for Parliament than many | :57:55. | :57:58. | |
of the mediocre men here, so I'm happy to speak under half of | :57:59. | :58:07. | |
mediocre men. -- on behalf of. Earlier today I had the pleasure of | :58:08. | :58:11. | |
meeting two young women who came here as part of the event yesterday, | :58:12. | :58:26. | |
the first was working, both Ph.D. Students from Imperial College, the | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
first working on concrete and the second on the subject of where | :58:31. | :58:37. | |
particles, and they may not sound totally stimulating but I can assure | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
that the presentations were brilliant. I don't think we can did | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
used to much from their presence. Clearly at an international level | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
there was still a huge amount of work needing to be done in relation | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
to women's rights, many Members will have received the e-mail from | :58:56. | :58:58. | |
Amnesty International setting out the six reasons why they think we | :58:59. | :59:02. | |
still need an International Women's Day and one of the examples provided | :59:03. | :59:06. | |
was the fact that for instance in Ireland women with fatal health | :59:07. | :59:10. | |
conditions are often refused life-saving treatment because of the | :59:11. | :59:15. | |
risk to the foetus. There are still major advances that we need to make | :59:16. | :59:23. | |
in terms of women's rights abroad. I know that many Members want to speak | :59:24. | :59:27. | |
and if I give way it will mean less time for others. There are still | :59:28. | :59:31. | |
strong international challenges that need to be addressed. There is | :59:32. | :59:35. | |
certainly no room for complacency at a local level. If I look at the | :59:36. | :59:41. | |
domestic violence the district from Iona Borough, domestic abuse form is | :59:42. | :59:48. | |
40% of all violent crime in Sutton, south-west London and the suburbs. | :59:49. | :59:54. | |
Relatively affluent. -- my own borough. Domestic violence is also | :59:55. | :59:59. | |
severely underreported so that is roughly the order of 50% of | :00:00. | :00:03. | |
incidents only reported to the police. There is certainly no room | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
for complacency locally. In relation to the Lib Dems as a party, there | :00:08. | :00:12. | |
was a rather ungenerous comment from the Honourable Member for Slough. | :00:13. | :00:17. | |
She and I have both discussed gender issues and she could have asked me | :00:18. | :00:23. | |
what have the Lib Dems been doing. I would have explained that for | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
instance in Scotland the first five most winnable seats in Westminster | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
are allocated to men, so barring a dreadful election result in 2020, | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
they showed, which I know some will wish upon us, there should be | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
significant improvement, and the same in England because we are about | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
to agree I hope something we have been pushing at the party conference | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
this weekend, that in all of the seats we currently hold in England | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
where men are standing down, there will be an all women short lesson | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
and again, barring unforeseen bad results, then there should be a | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
significant improvement. The thing I wanted to finish on is the subject | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
of FGM because I know that my colleague Lynne Featherstone in the | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
House of Lords really push this issue very hard when she was a | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
Government minister. There is just 1.I would like to leave with the | :01:19. | :01:23. | |
minister who responds and that is that if we are serious about doing | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
something about F GM, we have to have mandatory PHS a because | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
otherwise there will be schools where this issue is not addressed. | :01:33. | :01:40. | |
Sorry to have to reduce the time limit to three minutes but I am | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
trying to get in as many people as possible. It's a delight to speak in | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
the debate and following on from the words of my honourable friend about | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
the male contribution, anybody reading Hansard from last year's | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
debate will see that there were no male Speakers but male | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
interventions. It is great to see so many men taking part and | :02:06. | :02:07. | |
contributing to the debate because it does affect all of us. It affects | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
our wives and sisters and daughters and grandmothers and it affects us | :02:13. | :02:20. | |
all. None of us in this house will accept if our daughters were | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
prevented from reaching their true opportunity, no one would accept our | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
wives being paid less than a man doing the same job, none of us would | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
accept discrimination against our mother. We must work together to | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
ensure that we bring fairness and equality to Britain, and this debate | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
is an important part of that. It's important to look at the aims of | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
International Women's Day, it talks about rooting out bias in the | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
workplace and of course this is a workplace, and I'm delighted to see | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
that we now have 191 female MPs in this place, a big improvement on the | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
141 from the last parliament. We have to do so much more. It is | :03:03. | :03:07. | |
fantastic that we now have almost 30% women representation in this | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
Chamber. That is the highest ever, it is a fantastic step forward, but | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
we cannot be complacent and we cannot take our foot off the gas. | :03:17. | :03:23. | |
Also I'm incredibly delighted to see 68 conservative women on these | :03:24. | :03:25. | |
benches, making up the Conservative Government. One of the reasons for | :03:26. | :03:34. | |
that was based on the work of an organisation called Women To Win and | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
I would like to pay tribute to formidable women, The Right | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
Honourable Member for Maidenhead, and from another place Baroness | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
Jenkin of Kennington who along with the late Baroness Ritchie Brompton | :03:47. | :03:55. | |
did a huge amount to bring in new women and give them confidence to | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
deliver and I also paid tribute to my honourable friend from Hexham who | :04:00. | :04:02. | |
did a great deal of work to continue that. Does my honourable friend | :04:03. | :04:08. | |
agree that having more women in Parliament is in the national | :04:09. | :04:11. | |
interest to improve the tone and tenor of debate and there I say, the | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
quality of legislation? Absolutely right, if we widen the gene pool, | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
get more women around the table, more diversity around the table, we | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
make better decisions as a result. In the few seconds I have left I | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
wanted to talk about something important to my heart come | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
engineering. Engineering has a turnover of over ?1 trillion, a | :04:37. | :04:42. | |
quarter of all UK enterprise. 64% of employers say that there is a | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
shortage of engineers, and that shortfall will lead to their being | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
55,000 fewer engineers by 2015 than the UK economy needs. Yet only 9% of | :04:53. | :05:00. | |
the engineering workforce is women. That is a scandal and we need to do | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
more to address it. A paper by Engineering UK... I have a few | :05:08. | :05:14. | |
seconds left... The UK has the lowest proportion of female | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
engineers, we have 9% and Latvia have 30%. Girls outperform boys in | :05:20. | :05:27. | |
Stem subjects but failed to continue to a level and beyond. There are | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
12,000 more Stem A-levels being undertaken by women in the last five | :05:34. | :05:40. | |
years but in 2013-14 only 12% of apprenticeships were women which is | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
a huge missed opportunity. We need to make sure that the girls coming | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
through schools now are the engineers of tomorrow, the designers | :05:49. | :05:51. | |
and entrepreneurs, and it's in that way that women will find their place | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
in the UK economy going forward. I would also like to thank the Member | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
for Eastleigh for getting this debate along with my colleague, the | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
Member for Brent Central. I'm so pleased that we are here in | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
Parliament recognising and celebrating International Women's | :06:16. | :06:17. | |
Day. Along with women and parliaments across the world. I'm | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
also happy to be the third consecutive woman representing | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
Brentford and basil worth in this Parliament. We must remember that | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
although women may have guaranteed rights in law in the UK there are | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
still conscious attitudes and practices holding women back. -- | :06:36. | :06:37. | |
Brentford and eyes or worth. It deprives the economy of women's | :06:38. | :06:47. | |
full involvement. There are so many issues that disproportionately | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
affect women that are worthy of debate but I will focus on women's' | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
status in the workplace. In the last 30 or 40 years there has been a | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
significant increase in female employment and positive policy | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
change including workplace rights, childcare and anti-discrimination | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
laws. One of the big issues is flexible working. You can have | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
flexible working if you have been in your post for six months and this is | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
something that many employees are beginning to realise and one | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
employer in my constituency, Debbie Leon, who represents a company in | :07:25. | :07:35. | |
the fashion industry understands that flexible working allows her to | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
get the best employees but unfortunately these practices are | :07:41. | :07:42. | |
not always found in traditional workplaces. I hope that ministers | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
will review the position and in fact the Minister for skills and equality | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
told the women and equality 's committee that he used flexible | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
working arrangements at the point of recruitment in the organisation he | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
ran in order to get the best staff for the job. As ministers could have | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
done that in their previous workplaces, hopefully this will | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
encourage them to bring in similar rights of immediate opportunity to | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
have flexible working at the outset. I want to encourage women at all | :08:17. | :08:25. | |
stages of their care and responsibility to be able to apply | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
for jobs, and not be constrained by fixed work times, workdays and so | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
on. We cannot talk about flexible working hours and workers rights | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
without talking about the European Union, because of Britain's | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
membership that gave British Members the right to paid paternity leave | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
and equal pay and anti-discrimination laws. That is | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
why I will be voting to state in the EU. I would like to congratulate the | :08:54. | :09:02. | |
Member for Eastleigh for securing this important debate. I'm delighted | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
to speak today as chair of the committee on women and enterprise, I | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
really enjoy it but I had to admit I was worried that someone had missed | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
red by name -- had missed red by name and put it back to front. It is | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
thankfully not the case, and it is my pleasure to work with a talented | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
group of inspiring female entrepreneurs from across | :09:28. | :09:33. | |
backgrounds and business sectors. For my contribution today I will | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
focus on one of the key aims which is to encourage Astrup wrote -- | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
encourage entrepreneurship in women of all ages, particularly young | :09:45. | :09:47. | |
women. Does my honourable friend agree that young enterprise is a | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
great way to inspire teenage girls to consider becoming businesswomen | :09:54. | :09:58. | |
in the future? I thank my honourable friend for the intervention and she | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
is right, good to see her raising that point in prime ministers | :10:03. | :10:10. | |
questions last week. There is overwhelming evidence that | :10:11. | :10:11. | |
harnessing female entrepreneurship can only be good for the economy and | :10:12. | :10:18. | |
indeed a report published in 2013 has calculated that boosting female | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
entrepreneurship could develop 60 billion extra in the UK economy. We | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
also know that women bring a diverse dividend whereby gender balanced | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
boards are more successful by every measure according to a study by | :10:32. | :10:32. | |
McKinsey and Coke. Women are twice as likely to be a | :10:33. | :10:43. | |
trivial active as UK women in the US. In 1988, the USA put in place | :10:44. | :10:51. | |
the women's business act which introduce long-term introduction of | :10:52. | :10:54. | |
measures such as the women's business Centre programme and | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
created the National women's business Council. It is no | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
coincidence that since the initiatives have gone live, over 30% | :11:02. | :11:05. | |
of US enterprise female owned and in this respect, I would like the | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
nurses to look carefully at these models. Evidence suggest that one of | :11:12. | :11:14. | |
the biggest barriers to women starting their own business is a | :11:15. | :11:17. | |
beer belly up. While studies often say that female origin and ears, it | :11:18. | :11:26. | |
is not necessary a lack of self-confidence that more an | :11:27. | :11:29. | |
informed assessment of how prepared they feel to embark on that all | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
important first step. This is backed up by the fact that women have | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
undergone some sort of enterprise training are twice as likely to | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
being gauging entrepreneurial activities with specific female | :11:41. | :11:48. | |
process in participation. With this in mind, it is imperative that we | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
give our potential female job is the best possible chance to achieve by | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
having an effective information, guidance and processes in schools. | :12:00. | :12:07. | |
Schemes have an excellent opportunity to plug a hole in our | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
current process. This alone is not enough and we need to encourage more | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
female role models and entrepreneurs into our schools, college 's and | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
universities. Biggs that forward in this respect would be for senior | :12:24. | :12:27. | |
women in business and politics to engage in a practical way with their | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
local students to tell them the story which undoubtedly would not be | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
no plain sailing and essentially inspire support and new generation | :12:36. | :12:43. | |
of female entrepreneurs. We are in exciting place in our history, we | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
understand more than ever about what we can do it support, nurture and in | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
courage be well enterprise. With the right long-term strategy from the | :12:53. | :12:55. | |
Government, partnership with our current budget in years, it is a lot | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
closer that we may think and I look forward to paying my part to make | :13:02. | :13:08. | |
that happen. Thank you very much. I'm delighted to speak at this | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
important debate and pay tribute to the member Eastleigh who chaired | :13:13. | :13:23. | |
before this debate started. There is no doubt that a huge amount of | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
progress has been made for women around the world. Many of you will | :13:28. | :13:37. | |
recall the story of when that first female MP try to you reach a usual | :13:38. | :13:40. | |
place which was in the middle-of-the-road. Other MPs would | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
move closer to leave no space for her to get passed and then laughed | :13:46. | :13:53. | |
as she tried to get by. It is time to move on. To move on from the | :13:54. | :14:02. | |
outdated to all implored would be a welcome change. Best script doesn't | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
work them reassess. I should say that on these benches, 17 of us are | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
women but the 54 of us all 100% feminists and I am very glad that my | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
party is leading the way with Nicola Sturgeon's gender balance cabinet. I | :14:17. | :14:27. | |
thank my honourable friend as she mentions our First Minister Nicola | :14:28. | :14:33. | |
Sturgeon and the reception she has received for having a gender balance | :14:34. | :14:44. | |
cabinet. Absolutely. I welcome that intervention. We stand on the giants | :14:45. | :14:51. | |
that came before us on how to deal with so much in this chamber and | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
beyond. Huge strides have been made to improve the representation of | :14:56. | :14:58. | |
women in Parliament at wetness and indeed at Holyrood but there is more | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
to do and I would like to take this opportunity to pay particular | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
tribute to the 50-50 campaign in Scotland. Is it not quite simply the | :15:08. | :15:15. | |
case that the advances in women representation have came about from | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
positive action and not positive actions required? I believe... I | :15:19. | :15:25. | |
absolutely agree with my honourable friend and unless we are at the | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
opinion that there is a fair... I tried to think of the word. Level | :15:31. | :15:37. | |
playing field, thank you very much. A level playing field and indeed | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
until we find ourselves in that position I think positive action is | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
indeed welcome. It is just as important now that we seek to | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
modernise our practice attitude to women, it was indeed 100 years ago. | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
We cannot stand still. I believe it is vital to democracy that those | :15:58. | :16:00. | |
that make the laws across the world of representatives of their | :16:01. | :16:02. | |
countries at large. This is important in the fight and are | :16:03. | :16:10. | |
continuing membership fee you. I was privileged to chair an event they | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
give a onto on TV feel Mel prospective in Syria. -- female. | :16:15. | :16:23. | |
Women have been at the forefront of action in Syria to combat child | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
recruitment is an groups and have led a coordinated the youth groups. | :16:29. | :16:38. | |
These initiatives also describes the aims of the community projects to | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
keep the word hidden. It is only by taking action that we can prepare | :16:43. | :16:49. | |
Syrian Society for our future beyond the current conflict. Women indeed | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
have so much to offer. As we do in terms of the European debate which | :16:55. | :16:57. | |
to date has seemed likely to be an led by women, it is time for women's | :16:58. | :17:04. | |
voices to be heard. We mustn't underestimate the parts Europe has | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
played in protecting the rights of women across our continent. I do | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
wonder what this world might look like a small women were indeed at | :17:16. | :17:19. | |
the top table. Heading up campaigns in EU institutions, in peace talks | :17:20. | :17:25. | |
and in the home of the. And more equal world and a better place of | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
all, I would respectively suggest. The Scottish Government is | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
determined to working towards gender equality. Everybody appears to | :17:35. | :17:42. | |
believe in gender equality but simply believing in it isn't enough. | :17:43. | :17:49. | |
The female workforce is waiting, victims of domestic violence are | :17:50. | :17:53. | |
waiting. We need to get on with the job of doing it. So here is to those | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
women who championed equality before us against great odds and indeed | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
much higher obstacles and to all those goals that will follow, we are | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
here to support you. And to the men are supporters, we welcome you. | :18:09. | :18:14. | |
Let's not waste a minute in unlocking those doors and creating | :18:15. | :18:17. | |
those opportunities across the world. Equality is a fundamental, | :18:18. | :18:27. | |
human right. Thank you. I'm honoured to be called to speak in such an | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
important debate today and again would like to add my thanks to the | :18:32. | :18:35. | |
honourable member for easily. Today, I am one of 68 women on the side of | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
the House and one other hundred 91 female MPs who have the privilege of | :18:42. | :18:44. | |
representing their constituents and their gender here in parliament. In | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
what remains an male dominated environment and we have illustrated | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
that not only can we can paint with our male counterparts are taxing our | :18:54. | :18:57. | |
input now plays an essential part in good balanced decision-making. | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
Looking at the impact women are having in positions of leadership, | :19:04. | :19:06. | |
particularly in regards to business, we should be proud that there are | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
more women led businesses than ever before. Historically, this country's | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
business culture has handed women who are just accomplished as men | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
when it comes to work and I know when I started out in the retail | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
world, very few women held management positions and were kept | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
predominantly on the shop floor as it were. Often what women luck | :19:27. | :19:29. | |
though is confident and belief in themselves that they can do any job | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
as well as any man. So for me this is a significant thing that we need | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
to install at an early age that girls can believe in themselves. My | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
city of Derby has a rich history in engineering and manufacturing | :19:44. | :19:52. | |
sectors and so often that at the centre of the core. I want to | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
increase more women to get involved instead if they wish to add to | :19:58. | :20:00. | |
eliminate the ongoing perception that it is a male dominated area. I | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
do have I want to make sure that girls and women have choices and | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
that all doors are open so should a young women want to become a chef, | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
and she wants to be a doctor, she can and if she wants to be an | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
engineer, she can. For me it is about aborting girls in their | :20:20. | :20:21. | |
careers of choice and in courage and aspiration, something that I think | :20:22. | :20:31. | |
this Government is committed to. Bans supporting girls in their | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
careers of choice. I could continue at length but I would like to | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
continue by highlighting a very special women, my grandmother. At | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
the age of 97, she had an amazing live, was fiery and 97 as she was at | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
27. She has proved positively that all women, whatever they do, should | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
be proud of themselves and their achievements. I am proud to be an | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
MP, a mum, a wife, but most of all I'm proud to be a woman. I am | :21:03. | :21:15. | |
honoured as big today as my party's first female MP and the first women | :21:16. | :21:22. | |
to represent proudly so. A member of a party that elected its first | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
female leader, Leanne Wood, four years ago. I forgot to say I must | :21:28. | :21:30. | |
thank the members easily for securing this debate and also these | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
extraordinary speeches that we have had so far. She knows that our party | :21:35. | :21:48. | |
is now led by a woman, will she accept that this is also true of | :21:49. | :21:56. | |
Wales, may? Of course agreeing with the honourable gentleman berries and | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
series. Of course I speak as a member of an institution that is | :22:01. | :22:05. | |
still heavily male dominated. In a profession that is still heavily | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
male dominated. Although I think men are still in Daugherty in this | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
chamber today, to see why women might feel excluded from politics. | :22:15. | :22:21. | |
Women are watching debates about the changing state pension age would | :22:22. | :22:23. | |
have seen a chambered operated by men. They would need to work longer | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
before retirement and that somehow this doesn't count as | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
discolouration. It is with this narrowness that I firmly support | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
what will propel us to want is fairer society and a fair economy. | :22:39. | :22:43. | |
We still live in a society where the import of workplaces, the | :22:44. | :22:47. | |
boardrooms, the debating chambers, the engineering course of and the | :22:48. | :22:50. | |
fighter jets are dominated by men. It is those places that are | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
considered insignificant to society, the nurseries and the nursing homes, | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
we will find that poorly paid woman make up the great majority of the | :23:00. | :23:02. | |
workforce doing the things that don't really matter, like looking at | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
their fellow human beings. Surely the time has come for us as a | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
society to adjust our vile use. Why is it that those fears of activity | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
that are traditionally women worked so undervalued? Why should | :23:16. | :23:17. | |
maintaining machinery or playing tricks with money should have such | :23:18. | :23:24. | |
high status and be better paid and caring for people in that old age? | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
While girls have been directed traditionally towards certain | :23:28. | :23:33. | |
careers, boys have grown up thinking caring for their fellow human beings | :23:34. | :23:37. | |
is not alone. In activities such as politics, taking this is valued and | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
respected that girls are still conditioned to tread carefully, live | :23:43. | :23:44. | |
carefully and not cause offence. Not drawing attention to their talent | :23:45. | :23:53. | |
and, to describe a man as ambitious as complimentary to describe a woman | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
as ambitious is a criticism. It is why we must lead as example. The | :23:59. | :24:03. | |
National Assembly of wealth became four while the first gender balanced | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
assumption for a while in 2003. Women like Plaid Cymru leader Leanne | :24:09. | :24:14. | |
Wood who became a member of the National Assembly in 2003. Four | :24:15. | :24:24. | |
years later, at my party's Spring conference this weekend, the ad was | :24:25. | :24:27. | |
introduced to the state by 17-year-old DC you got involved in | :24:28. | :24:33. | |
politics. No young person should ever be prevented from reaching | :24:34. | :24:36. | |
their goal is because of their gender. I think we'd all agree on | :24:37. | :24:43. | |
that. What is equally important is how society enables girls to imagine | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
their goals. As a former teacher, I would urge that we encourage others, | :24:49. | :24:53. | |
girls and women, to take risks. To be fearless and to embrace ambition. | :24:54. | :25:00. | |
As always, we are only limited by our imagination. Thank you. I'm very | :25:01. | :25:10. | |
grateful to be given this great opportunity to speak in this | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
important annual debate. With BT and that, I would just lead to focus on | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
the gender pay gap and the lack of women in senior professional roles | :25:20. | :25:22. | |
in this country. The gender pay gap is stubbornly persistent despite the | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
equal pay act. Women are still woefully under represented in the | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
high levels of British industry. We are aware of the depressing | :25:33. | :25:39. | |
statistics. We cannot let these statistics but they revealed | :25:40. | :25:42. | |
depressing truth that our major indices are still not reflecting our | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
society and are therefore not drawing on wide as Jean Paul as they | :25:49. | :25:50. | |
could. Schools need to play a significant | :25:51. | :26:00. | |
role in overturning stereotypes in what they teach and what careers | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
advice they offer. As the gender pay gap is in part driven by the types | :26:05. | :26:10. | |
of jobs that women do. All attitudes can change. Nearly 40 years ago my | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
own sister was a straight-A student and told her school she wanted to go | :26:15. | :26:19. | |
into medicine and they suggested she might prefer nursing. | :26:20. | :26:25. | |
Characteristically she ignored the advice and fortunately the world was | :26:26. | :26:33. | |
spared an horrendously bossy nurse. Instead we got a superb doctor. | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
Nearly 40 years later the majority of applicants to medical school are | :26:39. | :26:41. | |
women and something similar occurs in war. We know we can change | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
attitudes and we need to make changes in other careers for women, | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
especially in engineering where we desperately need more talent but we | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
need to do it faster than we have changed attitudes in other careers. | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
I welcome the progress in this area in the last five years, a huge | :27:02. | :27:04. | |
increase in the number of girls taking Stem A-levels. The problem as | :27:05. | :27:11. | |
we know it does not end when girls leave school because women's still | :27:12. | :27:19. | |
face a choice between motherhood and building a career so I welcome the | :27:20. | :27:24. | |
Government's move to achieve shared parental leave because we know that | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
when women have families they often felt not so committed to the | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
organisation, especially if they choose part-time work. Whereas | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
Converse late it seems anecdotally that when men become fathers, it is | :27:37. | :27:43. | |
felt they must now require a pay rise and promotion. Having shared | :27:44. | :27:47. | |
parental leave even if men do not take up the opportunity means that | :27:48. | :27:50. | |
they at least have do think it through, about the prospects of | :27:51. | :27:57. | |
their own careers. This could be an enormous benefit because we want to | :27:58. | :28:01. | |
have men and women fighting to make sure that this debate becomes | :28:02. | :28:11. | |
something for the future. When we miss out women from our legislature | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
we make grave errors affecting women and their families, we don't give | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
the attention we should to maternal health and we don't consider the | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
impact of legislation on women, we leave them destitute without | :28:25. | :28:27. | |
recourse to public funds and we have a Chancellor who believes women... | :28:28. | :28:36. | |
Is appropriate. The household payment and Universal Credit and the | :28:37. | :28:41. | |
child tax credit policy and rate clause. I would like to concentrate | :28:42. | :28:46. | |
on the two child policy and the rate clause. This is a vindictive piece | :28:47. | :28:51. | |
policy which judges people and says that this Government only considers | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
the first two children worthy of support, asking a woman to prove | :28:56. | :29:04. | |
that her third child came about as a result of rape stigmatises the child | :29:05. | :29:12. | |
and it is inconsistent with treating children equally under the rights of | :29:13. | :29:20. | |
the child's UN convention. It is most likely to happen to women | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
already in abusive elation ships and these women are in a particularly | :29:25. | :29:29. | |
vulnerable place. My honourable friend will be aware of the | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
additional funding announced by the Scottish First Minister to help | :29:34. | :29:36. | |
abused women get back into work. Does she agree with me that we need | :29:37. | :29:41. | |
more initiatives like this across all governments to help women who | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
have been put in these kinds of positions? I absolutely agree. | :29:46. | :29:51. | |
Members will be aware in questioning the rate clause since the budget | :29:52. | :29:57. | |
last July, we have still not had a satisfactory answer to explain why | :29:58. | :30:00. | |
it is required and how it will work. It was suggested that prove that a | :30:01. | :30:06. | |
woman's third child was born of rape may not be via the criminal justice | :30:07. | :30:13. | |
system but by a GP or social worker, but this does not resolve the | :30:14. | :30:17. | |
problem. These women may not be able to tell their GP and they may not | :30:18. | :30:23. | |
have any social worker involved. I'm not sure how many women will end up | :30:24. | :30:27. | |
claiming under this policy because if a woman is suffering domestic | :30:28. | :30:31. | |
abuse she may be putting herself at risk by making the claim in the | :30:32. | :30:37. | |
first place. A similar issue arises in the household payment of | :30:38. | :30:41. | |
Universal Credit, if a woman requests this payment her husband | :30:42. | :30:47. | |
will know about it. The Government refused to allow an exemption for | :30:48. | :30:51. | |
women escaping abusive elation ship which is what the Scottish | :30:52. | :30:55. | |
Government is trying to counteract. There is still the possibility that | :30:56. | :30:59. | |
women could tell their story and not be believed and these organisations | :31:00. | :31:02. | |
are not known for taking people at their word. There is not yet | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
guidance and the Government won't say who it consulted. The two child | :31:08. | :31:11. | |
policy fails to recognise the complex nature of families in 2016. | :31:12. | :31:15. | |
A couple who have children from previous relationships will lose | :31:16. | :31:20. | |
their eligibility when they come together and there is no detail yet | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
of how multiple births will be protected but there is no | :31:25. | :31:28. | |
acknowledgement of the impact on those who may have religious reasons | :31:29. | :31:34. | |
for having larger families. I have heard it said that families should | :31:35. | :31:38. | |
only have the children they could afford but it does not acknowledge | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
the challenge that life presents. A family may have three children and | :31:44. | :31:47. | |
be able to afford them but what if a parent loses their job or dies? | :31:48. | :31:52. | |
There is no safety net in the two child policy to cover that | :31:53. | :31:56. | |
eventuality, particularly if the lone parent can work less to care | :31:57. | :32:03. | |
for the child. It is ineffectual and unnecessary. The rate clause | :32:04. | :32:06. | |
stigmatises vulnerable women and their families and this is a policy | :32:07. | :32:10. | |
made on the hoof for the sake of a Daily Mail headline and a Tory press | :32:11. | :32:18. | |
release. It is my plea today on International Women's Day to reject | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
this kind of policy, that we reject the two child policy and we support | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
every woman and child in this country equally. Can I start by | :32:28. | :32:34. | |
thanking my honourable friend for East Leigh Fawcett curing what is a | :32:35. | :32:38. | |
hugely important debate? Today on International Women's Day I want to | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
draw the attention of the house to an international crime being | :32:44. | :32:46. | |
perpetrated against young girls and women here in country today. I am | :32:47. | :32:55. | |
referring to breast ironing. This is a ritualised form of child abuse | :32:56. | :32:58. | |
which originated in Cameroon which is now happening in the UK, whereby | :32:59. | :33:04. | |
hot objects heated on a stove are placed on a woman's breast during | :33:05. | :33:08. | |
puberty to retard the growth of the breast in a bizarre and wrong belief | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
that this in some way makes them less sexually attractive to men. It | :33:13. | :33:18. | |
is a hidden crime in a similar way to FGM just a few years ago. It is | :33:19. | :33:24. | |
hidden because it is carried out by a close family Member, normally | :33:25. | :33:30. | |
mother, sister, or a grandmother, and there is a charity that | :33:31. | :33:40. | |
estimates 1000 young women and girls in this country are having their | :33:41. | :33:46. | |
breasts mutilated, today, because of this cultural activity. Because it | :33:47. | :33:51. | |
is so hidden I decided to do a Freedom of information request to | :33:52. | :33:54. | |
all police forces in the UK to find out what they are doing about this | :33:55. | :33:59. | |
abhorrent practice. I'm devastated is a that 15% of all forces did not | :34:00. | :34:04. | |
even know it exists. 38% of those who responded said that they had no | :34:05. | :34:08. | |
information about it and could not tackle it. So, following the | :34:09. | :34:14. | |
shocking figures, I want to talk briefly about what action we can | :34:15. | :34:20. | |
take. We today on International Women's Day must send out a clear | :34:21. | :34:25. | |
message that this is a crime. And the perpetrators, whoever they may | :34:26. | :34:30. | |
be, must and should be prosecuted. There is one case I know about in | :34:31. | :34:36. | |
2013 that was reported to the police, but they had an existing | :34:37. | :34:39. | |
pool of offences to choose from and there is considerable confusion in | :34:40. | :34:45. | |
this area of the law. Today I hope that I can call upon the Government | :34:46. | :34:50. | |
to create a stand-alone offence of breast ironing to protect young | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
girls and women in our country. We are a Government which has taken | :34:55. | :35:00. | |
fantastic action in the area of female genital mutilation. In 2015 | :35:01. | :35:06. | |
we provided anonymity for victims, created an offence of failing to | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
protect someone from FGM, and issued statutory guidance. I hope that | :35:12. | :35:17. | |
breast ironing can be treated in this way. It is a crime that is | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
secret in nature, it has a long-term and irreversible effect on women's | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
breasts, people won't report a family Member, so unless we do | :35:28. | :35:30. | |
something about it this hidden crime will remain just that, hidden. I | :35:31. | :35:39. | |
started today being interviewed by a researcher from Brunel University on | :35:40. | :35:43. | |
the subject of women as leaders. One of the questions she asked was what | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
qualities make a woman a good leader? Well, I don't actually think | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
leadership skills are gender specific, but what women need are | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
more female leaders, to act as role models, and for it to be seen as | :35:57. | :36:01. | |
commonplace that women can take the lead in business, in politics, in | :36:02. | :36:06. | |
sport, and in other areas that tend to be male dominated like science | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
and engineering. The motion we are discussing talks about how to get | :36:12. | :36:15. | |
more women into Parliament, we currently have 191 female MPs as | :36:16. | :36:19. | |
many honourable Members have said and I'm glad to say that 99 Labour | :36:20. | :36:24. | |
MPs. And I am proud to be a Member of that group. As far as female | :36:25. | :36:30. | |
representation in parliament goes, we are getting better but clearly | :36:31. | :36:33. | |
have a long way to go. I believe that one issue with entering | :36:34. | :36:37. | |
Parliament for women is that this place is still perceived as being | :36:38. | :36:42. | |
very male orientated. Improvements have been made with sitting times | :36:43. | :36:47. | |
and I would not want to see any retrograde steps being made to | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
reverse this. I am reminded of how women often have to dance to the | :36:52. | :36:56. | |
tune of men, and for me this is illustrated by ginger Rodgers, when | :36:57. | :36:59. | |
she was asked about dancing with Fred Astaire she replied, it's | :37:00. | :37:04. | |
simple, I follow what Fred does, but backwards and in high heels. For me | :37:05. | :37:10. | |
that sums up many situations were women today and we need to find new | :37:11. | :37:15. | |
ways of working which suit us, our families and responsibilities and | :37:16. | :37:19. | |
commitments. I want to talk about an issue which a few honourable Members | :37:20. | :37:23. | |
have already referred to, and it was indeed mentioned in the opening | :37:24. | :37:27. | |
speech from the Honourable Member for Eastleigh, and that is the | :37:28. | :37:30. | |
raising of the women's state pension age. Women have shown themselves to | :37:31. | :37:35. | |
be committed campaigners against this injustice, these are women who | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
have been excluded from occupational pension schemes because they worked | :37:41. | :37:44. | |
part-time, these women who took long periods out of work to bring up | :37:45. | :37:47. | |
children, child care not being available many. These are women who | :37:48. | :37:52. | |
have suffered ill health, many who have contacted me have had to leave | :37:53. | :37:57. | |
work because of health issues and are surviving on minimal incomes. | :37:58. | :38:00. | |
These are women who are caring for elderly relatives. One of my | :38:01. | :38:04. | |
constituents told me that she had to give up work to care for five | :38:05. | :38:10. | |
elderly relatives and also does foster care. These are hard-working, | :38:11. | :38:14. | |
committed and caring women, who have given much to their communities and | :38:15. | :38:19. | |
families and workplaces. Yet it would appear that their reward is to | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
have to wait longer for the state pension on which they were lying. | :38:24. | :38:29. | |
Wouldn't it be a wonderful gesture if, on International Women's Day, | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
the Government were to commit to proper transitional arrangements for | :38:34. | :38:37. | |
these women? Let them not walk backwards and in high heels but | :38:38. | :38:46. | |
forward and insensible shoes! May I commend the Member for Eastleigh for | :38:47. | :38:50. | |
securing this debate? I wish to focus particularly on the debate | :38:51. | :38:56. | |
part of female genital mutilation. I would like to say that on one day of | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
the year this is a chance to audit where we have come from and where we | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
wish to go to. I agree with the Member for Rossendale and Darwin | :39:07. | :39:11. | |
that we have good legislation, notably the female genital | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
mutilation at 2003, the serious crime act of last year, and | :39:17. | :39:20. | |
importantly, it is now a crime. If you fail to protect a woman or girl | :39:21. | :39:26. | |
from free mail -- female genital mutilation. We have good training | :39:27. | :39:32. | |
and I have done the Home Office free online training but there are | :39:33. | :39:35. | |
improvements to be made. The NSPCC having a free Alexandra number is | :39:36. | :39:40. | |
excellent and the Government is doing excellent work with African | :39:41. | :39:49. | |
led movement to end female genital mutilation and I applaud every | :39:50. | :39:52. | |
African woman and girl who is part of that incredibly important | :39:53. | :39:58. | |
movement. Over 120 million women and girls who have suffered from this, | :39:59. | :40:04. | |
100,000 in our community, we can do more. There have been no successful | :40:05. | :40:08. | |
prosecutions in this country. I will give way. I wonder if you agree that | :40:09. | :40:16. | |
bike raising issues such as FGM and indeed breast ironing as we have | :40:17. | :40:20. | |
heard about in this place it raises the issue and makes sure we get more | :40:21. | :40:23. | |
action against these horrendous crimes. | :40:24. | :40:28. | |
I absolutely agree. I have to say with this motion, we should not hide | :40:29. | :40:36. | |
behind letters or acronyms, we should said female genital | :40:37. | :40:42. | |
mutilation. The Home Office has clinical diagrams, this is hiding | :40:43. | :40:49. | |
the barbarity of this crime. There should be images of this. In | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
fairness to the Home Office training, it did say that the | :40:54. | :40:57. | |
equivalent of female genital mutilation in a man is that the | :40:58. | :41:03. | |
removal of the head of the penis and a removal of the third of the shaft. | :41:04. | :41:07. | |
That is what we are dealing with, it has to be abolished. The most | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
honourable in our community in this country are isolated people, | :41:14. | :41:18. | |
isolated migrant populations. We are not reaching out to them and they | :41:19. | :41:27. | |
are not reaching out to us. If she cannot communicate with me in the | :41:28. | :41:31. | |
same language, it is very difficult to assess their personal questions | :41:32. | :41:35. | |
do an interpreter and even harder if that interpreter is a male friend or | :41:36. | :41:41. | |
relative. We have to do more. I finish with a great because we can't | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
have International Women's Day. She said, if the human rights is | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
considered to be like a bird with two wings, then we can understand | :41:51. | :41:56. | |
why a few damage and make one wing, no wing can fly. It is a pleasure to | :41:57. | :42:04. | |
speak in this debate. I thank the honourable member for easily and | :42:05. | :42:10. | |
Brent Central for setting the scene very vividly and very efficiently. I | :42:11. | :42:15. | |
look forward to the day when there are no longer issues that affect | :42:16. | :42:21. | |
women more than men but still in 2016, we spout a long way to could | :42:22. | :42:26. | |
go. More than 100,000 people in the UK are at risk of being murdered | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
austerity injured as result of domestic abuse. One in three women | :42:31. | :42:37. | |
who have suffered from domestic abuse drink their lifetime reported | :42:38. | :42:42. | |
the first incidence of violent happened when a pregnant, winner at | :42:43. | :42:54. | |
their most honourable. 40% of victims have high risk of abuse | :42:55. | :42:59. | |
report mental health difficulties. Mont than 90% of those victims are | :43:00. | :43:08. | |
female. There are four other issues -- platter. We see women across the | :43:09. | :43:18. | |
world bringing -- breaking the glass ceiling every day. Ten weeks in | :43:19. | :43:26. | |
place, securing Northern Ireland's future and leadership unrivalled. As | :43:27. | :43:29. | |
First Minister, she is truly acceptable. -- exceptional. When | :43:30. | :43:42. | |
Arlene enters politics, she was directly affected by the troubles | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
when her school bus was blown up as a child, half father was shot. | :43:47. | :43:51. | |
Arlene is no shredded to our dark days and with one eye looking to the | :43:52. | :43:55. | |
past 11 and one I focus on the future, we have a real opportunity | :43:56. | :44:00. | |
to make Northern Ireland better than ever. Arlene is living proof that | :44:01. | :44:10. | |
gender... Can I quickly just mention this International Women's Day and | :44:11. | :44:12. | |
there are many parts of the world where women and ladies and girls do | :44:13. | :44:17. | |
not have the opportunity whether it's been education or health, | :44:18. | :44:20. | |
whether it be in the fact that they are abused and raped. We need to be | :44:21. | :44:28. | |
a voice that those people who are poisonous. We have two female first | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
ministers in United Kingdom and party leaders as well. We need to | :44:33. | :44:39. | |
continue to harness role models like this, whether they be in politics in | :44:40. | :44:43. | |
business or academia or any other field so that the glass ceiling is | :44:44. | :44:47. | |
badly broken and we live in a world that is one on solely on merit. It | :44:48. | :44:53. | |
is a measure to participate in this debate. Many congratulations to my | :44:54. | :45:00. | |
honourable friend from Eastleigh to securing this debate. A day to | :45:01. | :45:03. | |
celebrate women and their achievements but also to highlight | :45:04. | :45:06. | |
what still needs to be done and I must praise this Government for | :45:07. | :45:09. | |
bringing forward policies that are helping to bring about balance and | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
fairness for women. So much has been covered already today I'm not going | :45:15. | :45:18. | |
to reiterate it so I walk up to the chase and get straight to one of my | :45:19. | :45:26. | |
main points. It is the thorn early issue of ageing. I was tempting to | :45:27. | :45:34. | |
don a grey wig today to make this point but I believe props are not | :45:35. | :45:37. | |
allowed in this place. Having spent much time in my earlier... | :45:38. | :45:47. | |
LAUGHTER In my earlier career, I spent much | :45:48. | :45:51. | |
time as a television presenter and everyday like many women I face the | :45:52. | :45:57. | |
reality of whether to show that I was older. The question why this to | :45:58. | :46:05. | |
a grey or not to grey. Showing wrinkles and grey hair is perceived | :46:06. | :46:10. | |
differently if you are women, not always but especially in the media. | :46:11. | :46:14. | |
Out of interest yesterday I googled many of my in this House to see what | :46:15. | :46:20. | |
questions were most asked about them on the Internet and for all the | :46:21. | :46:24. | |
women I googled and many of them are here, the most asked questions by | :46:25. | :46:29. | |
the public work, what is their age, what is their marital status, do | :46:30. | :46:33. | |
they have chosen? I tried the same for many of our male colleagues and | :46:34. | :46:38. | |
guess what? Not one of those questions were asked about anyone of | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
the members here. Is that not shocking? It seems that we do not | :46:43. | :46:51. | |
seem to be rated for our experienced person foremost, Whitman and | :46:52. | :46:53. | |
knowledge and our achievements which brings me to a rather grey note to | :46:54. | :47:00. | |
finish up. A fine head of hair of this particular Hughes seems to be | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
revered amongst the male fraternity, we give you the name of the Silver | :47:05. | :47:09. | |
Fox, Mr Clooney, Paul Hollywood, even not deputy speaker. Our Home | :47:10. | :47:18. | |
Secretary, they are few and far between. What I would to say to sum | :47:19. | :47:24. | |
up is really that's like it or not, admitted or not, there is a huge | :47:25. | :47:28. | |
pressure on women to conform to youthful ideals. I would really like | :47:29. | :47:32. | |
to change this view and I think this House can help to change the speed | :47:33. | :47:35. | |
and this is what this day is all about. Let's speak up for experience | :47:36. | :47:39. | |
and be with them that women are bringing to the table to work and | :47:40. | :47:42. | |
through bringing up children if they choose to do so and give them the | :47:43. | :47:46. | |
reverence they deserve. Let's get away from the value judgments being | :47:47. | :47:52. | |
made on the judgment -- basis of our hair colour. Let's continue to | :47:53. | :48:03. | |
tackle all taboos. On around June the 22nd this year, I am due to | :48:04. | :48:09. | |
become a father for the first time. While it is not clear whether this | :48:10. | :48:16. | |
baby girl's middle name would best be your report or Brexit, she will | :48:17. | :48:19. | |
of course become an international woman. She well over because of her | :48:20. | :48:25. | |
school and working my face opportunities that remain almost | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
unimaginable for many born Alf well. She will have a woman -- mother who | :48:30. | :48:47. | |
has had many jobs. Those girls born in Britain however do not simply | :48:48. | :48:52. | |
face first word problems. While I believe that sometimes it is | :48:53. | :48:55. | |
unhelpful to talk in terms of the sex war where a strain of venom is | :48:56. | :49:01. | |
aggressively alienates men, those argument of language and | :49:02. | :49:04. | |
presentation should not obscure the facts. Seven out of ten women say | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
they have experienced harassment in the streets. Childcare still falls | :49:09. | :49:12. | |
predominantly on women and men who take advantage of the Government's | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
hugely positive changes to parental leave are likely to be a tiny | :49:18. | :49:21. | |
percentage of the majority. Even in this place while we talk about | :49:22. | :49:25. | |
paternity leave, it is apparently beyond the wit of man or women to | :49:26. | :49:31. | |
sort out a system that works. I hope my noted self-interest does not | :49:32. | :49:34. | |
invalidate the fact that so long as Parliament says businesses must do | :49:35. | :49:40. | |
as we say rather than we do, we will deserve to make little progress | :49:41. | :49:44. | |
nationwide. Because International Women's Day must surely be about one | :49:45. | :49:49. | |
thing above all else and that is the quality. Equality of opportunity for | :49:50. | :49:52. | |
girls studying any subject they like and not those who coaches assist in | :49:53. | :49:58. | |
saying boys or girls specialise in. Equality of access to their parents | :49:59. | :50:03. | |
because society doesn't pretend men have to go to work and women in the. | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
Equality of access to the workplace because it is time we all | :50:09. | :50:12. | |
acknowledge that men and women in Britain and the world in a fit if we | :50:13. | :50:18. | |
jointly celebrate diversity and difference while acknowledging that | :50:19. | :50:21. | |
each of us has strengths and that some of those major from gender as | :50:22. | :50:27. | |
much as they do from background. I do not think that the pay gap will | :50:28. | :50:31. | |
close by the time my daughter is born or even working and do I | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
pretend that we can have so much equality that and women will ever be | :50:36. | :50:40. | |
equal in bearing children but I know unless we all, men and women, have | :50:41. | :50:46. | |
this equality in mine, in this place and everywhere, we will not be able | :50:47. | :50:51. | |
to lead by example or to ask those who currently think they have | :50:52. | :50:55. | |
something to lose from equality to see in fact to what they have the | :50:56. | :51:03. | |
game. As a token man on the women and equality is select committee | :51:04. | :51:07. | |
until very recently, it is very nice to be in the minority in some parts | :51:08. | :51:16. | |
of this place... Is an absolute privilege to be called in this | :51:17. | :51:19. | |
debate in this really important International Women's Day. I | :51:20. | :51:27. | |
congratulate the member for easily and Brent Central as well for | :51:28. | :51:32. | |
tabling this debate. As well as serving under a superior mental as | :51:33. | :51:36. | |
the right honourable friend for Basingstoke who is the chair of the | :51:37. | :51:40. | |
women and equality select committee geek, she has championed the | :51:41. | :51:46. | |
equality of women in this place for sure. I would like to take this | :51:47. | :51:53. | |
opportunity to concentrate on stem, it is something ability at since I | :51:54. | :51:56. | |
started at this pace. The statistics are utterly staggering. In 2012, the | :51:57. | :52:03. | |
survey conducted by girl guarding farm at the top three careers that | :52:04. | :52:06. | |
they would choose for themselves where teacher, hairdresser and | :52:07. | :52:09. | |
beautician and when it came to engineering, only 3% of engineering | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
applicants are girls. Just 6% of the engineering workforce are female | :52:15. | :52:18. | |
according to the women's's engineering society. Only the 19 for | :52:19. | :52:28. | |
girls. This has to change if we are working towards a more gender equal | :52:29. | :52:31. | |
society. I think International Women's Day is a perfect date to | :52:32. | :52:37. | |
highlight this issue. I know the equality minister has spoken many a | :52:38. | :52:40. | |
time about her passion for championing this case and the real | :52:41. | :52:47. | |
need today to end up producing silo within Government and pay tribute to | :52:48. | :52:49. | |
her work and hopefully in her summing up she was barely act will | :52:50. | :52:55. | |
be able to make that clear at the end. It is an absolute privilege to | :52:56. | :53:03. | |
be able to call to arms every single man in this country to say it is not | :53:04. | :53:07. | |
just a job for women to stand up there and champion equal rights, it | :53:08. | :53:14. | |
is the job for every single one of us. I'm privileged to speak at this | :53:15. | :53:21. | |
International Women's Day today. I'm delighted to be able to speak at | :53:22. | :53:25. | |
this very important debate. Partly because the issue is a very | :53:26. | :53:27. | |
important one but also because too many women do not have a voice. We | :53:28. | :53:32. | |
have heard some very moving speeches today but I will spend their time | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
highlighting some great women in my constituency. They are all great | :53:37. | :53:42. | |
role models. First of all, I want to highlight three businesswomen. There | :53:43. | :53:46. | |
is Caroline Steed and the way she explores her sofas across the world, | :53:47. | :53:57. | |
including China and Russia. Sandra Lee, who just last Friday quadrupled | :53:58. | :54:01. | |
the size of her gift shop. When it comes to educators, Joe McCarthy | :54:02. | :54:05. | |
exudes enthusiasm towards her students in her role as head at the | :54:06. | :54:13. | |
Academy. There are many more women teachers that I could name but I | :54:14. | :54:18. | |
will mention a lady who plays a very important part of one of the junior | :54:19. | :54:22. | |
schools, and that is a dinner lady. She does far more than just be a | :54:23. | :54:28. | |
dinner lady, she runs the school's gardening club and takes the | :54:29. | :54:32. | |
students to Chelsea flower show. Apparently so stretches even further | :54:33. | :54:35. | |
than the dinner table or the garden. Just last Friday she was | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
instrumental in getting the students to clean for the Queen, another | :54:40. | :54:44. | |
great lady. And history charities in the voluntary sector and this gets | :54:45. | :54:49. | |
even longer. We have Holly, he said that the gymnastics club that has | :54:50. | :54:56. | |
recently featured in East Midlands Today that highlights the problem is | :54:57. | :55:07. | |
obesity causes in young rise. Joe Ann Brennan who are dedicated and | :55:08. | :55:15. | |
reserve recognition. Don't forget the many women who dedicate many | :55:16. | :55:21. | |
years to brew future generations, sacrificing their careers in favour | :55:22. | :55:24. | |
of their children. We never know what challenges all the women and | :55:25. | :55:30. | |
have had to had to had in their roles. I can guarantee that they've | :55:31. | :55:35. | |
all had to overcome some challenges. By recognising the celebration of | :55:36. | :55:40. | |
International Women's Day here in this place, I believe in a small way | :55:41. | :55:42. | |
we are playing our part. I congratulate the Member for | :55:43. | :55:51. | |
Eastleigh for securing this very important debate. Raped, beaten and | :55:52. | :55:56. | |
destitute Sarah had nowhere else to go. Aged 28 with a young son, she | :55:57. | :56:05. | |
faced no option but leaving home. Tom, her partner, had becoming | :56:06. | :56:09. | |
recently violent over the past year, stripping her of herself a steam. | :56:10. | :56:14. | |
One occasion, on one occasion he tried to push her out of an upstairs | :56:15. | :56:20. | |
window. On another she woke up to find he had poured methylated | :56:21. | :56:24. | |
spirits on her and tried to set her alight. It only stop when their | :56:25. | :56:29. | |
young son called the police. She tried to leave but on every occasion | :56:30. | :56:33. | |
Tom persuaded her that he had changed and he could not cope | :56:34. | :56:38. | |
without her. On one night everything changed and she realised she could | :56:39. | :56:43. | |
not take any more. This is not a soap opera storyline, this was one | :56:44. | :56:46. | |
of my clients when I was a barrister. Instructed late one | :56:47. | :56:53. | |
evening to apply to the court for an emergency order to get a judge to | :56:54. | :56:57. | |
provide her with accommodation. She would be provided a safe place, | :56:58. | :57:02. | |
support for her son, and keeping her away from the very real threat posed | :57:03. | :57:08. | |
by Tom. Two women die at the hands of domestic abusers each week in | :57:09. | :57:16. | |
England and Wales, on average woman will be assaulted 35 times before | :57:17. | :57:21. | |
seeking help and the cost to the UK economy was estimated in 2009 to be | :57:22. | :57:27. | |
?15.7 million a year. We need to celebrate the achievement of women | :57:28. | :57:30. | |
and also pause and reflect on those areas where statistics like that | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
show where women and girls are still being failed. And words are | :57:36. | :57:39. | |
important, but it is action that will make a real difference. In | :57:40. | :57:43. | |
March 2014 this Government introduced Claire 's law, named | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
after Clare Wood who was tragically murdered by her ex-boyfriend in | :57:48. | :57:52. | |
2009. It allows people to ask the police if their partner has a | :57:53. | :57:56. | |
history of domestic abuse and has already helped over a thousand | :57:57. | :58:00. | |
people. We introduced new domestic violence protection orders to | :58:01. | :58:03. | |
protect victims in the immediate after mass of domestic violence. | :58:04. | :58:08. | |
When they are at their most vulnerable. Domestic violence isn't | :58:09. | :58:13. | |
always physical, it can be psychological and emotional. That's | :58:14. | :58:17. | |
why we have introduced a new offence for coercive and controlling | :58:18. | :58:21. | |
behaviour. Of course these numbers mean nothing to those women and | :58:22. | :58:25. | |
girls still suffering abuse and it is for those that I speak today. We | :58:26. | :58:29. | |
have a duty to make sure that everyone who lives in this country | :58:30. | :58:32. | |
is free from the threat of violence and free of threat. I'm looking | :58:33. | :58:40. | |
forward to the day when there is no longer any need for International | :58:41. | :58:45. | |
Women's Day. When a woman tipped to be the new MNS last taking maternity | :58:46. | :58:50. | |
leave is no longer an newsworthy headline. For the Daily Mail. When | :58:51. | :58:58. | |
we have 50% and not 22% of women parliamentarians across the world | :58:59. | :59:02. | |
and no longer feel the need to state or measure this did to stick and | :59:03. | :59:05. | |
don't need to discuss how to encourage more women into science | :59:06. | :59:11. | |
and maths. Yes, we've come a long way, Government after Government has | :59:12. | :59:14. | |
brought in legislation to ensure we have equal treatment, but we are | :59:15. | :59:19. | |
still striving for parity and why is this? I don't profess to have the | :59:20. | :59:22. | |
answers but I recently read an article about a transgender person | :59:23. | :59:27. | |
who had experienced life as a woman and man. Ben is a biologist at | :59:28. | :59:33. | |
Stanford who lived and worked as Barbra until his 40s and he said as | :59:34. | :59:37. | |
a woman he often experienced by us but when he became then he noticed a | :59:38. | :59:43. | |
difference in his everyday experiences. -- he became Ben. He | :59:44. | :59:53. | |
noticed that he was more often listen to as a man and his authority | :59:54. | :59:57. | |
less often questioned. He said, the reason women are not breaking into | :59:58. | :00:03. | |
academic jobs at any rate is not childcare or academic | :00:04. | :00:06. | |
responsibility, I have had the thought a million times, I am now | :00:07. | :00:10. | |
taken more seriously. I welcome today but I would welcome more time | :00:11. | :00:15. | |
when there is no need to celebrate today, when we are recognised as | :00:16. | :00:22. | |
women and recognised as individuals and not as our achievements as | :00:23. | :00:28. | |
women. Today we celebrate International Women's Day, an | :00:29. | :00:30. | |
opportunity to celebrate great women and also an opportunity to reflect | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
on what more we can do as parliamentarians with this | :00:36. | :00:39. | |
opportunity. While it is true that there are more women in Parliament | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
today than there had never been before, that is primarily why it is | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
incumbent upon us to make sure we take this opportunity to ensure that | :00:48. | :00:49. | |
equality across the board is possible. Women's rights are human | :00:50. | :00:56. | |
rights and yet when it comes to employment women are repeatedly | :00:57. | :00:59. | |
discriminated against. When it comes to pensions we have seen the | :01:00. | :01:06. | |
of the women campaigning to ensure... I will give way. Would the | :01:07. | :01:10. | |
honourable lady agree with me and other honourable ladies and Members | :01:11. | :01:15. | |
of this house that there is a need for the Government, a compelling | :01:16. | :01:23. | |
need to resolve the issue of these women through transitional | :01:24. | :01:25. | |
protection and an announcement may be in the budget next week? | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
Absolutely I would wholeheartedly welcome an announcement next week. | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
This Government will make transitional arrangements for those | :01:35. | :01:37. | |
women and I hope it comes from the budget. When it comes to issues of | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
pensions and employment and domestic violence I recognise the | :01:44. | :01:44. | |
contribution of the Honourable Member for Birmingham and Yardley, a | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
powerful contribution which highlighted that too many women lose | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
their lives to violence everyday. When it comes to welfare, more women | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
are lone parents and carers and the Government must pay attention to | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
that to ensure that we do all that we can to support these women. There | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
are many gaps to address until we have true gender parity. I have | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
called on the Prime Minister and urged him to tackle five key actions | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
for International Women's Day. On the rate clause in the welfare bill, | :02:18. | :02:23. | |
this must be scrapped, I woman who has a third child as a result of | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
rape will be required to justify her position to a Government official to | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
claim tax credits and it's appalling, and I thank the Member | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
for Glasgow Central who has campaigned tirelessly and I support | :02:38. | :02:38. | |
her efforts and I hope the her efforts and I hope the | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
Government will remove this barbaric proposal. I also asked the Prime | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
Minister to ratify the Istanbul convention and take serious action | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
against violence against women. Women lose their lives every day to | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
physical violence, and ratification of the treaty will coordinate the | :02:58. | :03:04. | |
actions of local authorities and charities but also send the message | :03:05. | :03:07. | |
that the UK is committed to tackling all forms of violence. The tampon | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
tax must be scrapped, labelling sanitary products as a luxury item | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
miserably killers and these items are a necessity. An additional VAT | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
charge is absolutely wrong. Instead of forcing the European Commission's | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
hand to lift the unfair tax women will continue to pay the rate and | :03:29. | :03:31. | |
they will then pay for their own services as a result. We must remove | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
this unfair tax and the UK Government must do all it can to use | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
the money while it can to support services, however, women should not | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
be paying for their own services. We must also take firm action on the | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
gender pay gap. The Scottish Government has committed the 50-50 | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
by 2020 to encourage private sector companies to ensure a quality on | :03:57. | :03:59. | |
boards. The Scottish Government has plans to legislate to ensure public | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
authorities of more than 20 boys will have do publish that | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
information, -- more than 20 employees. And it will simply not be | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
good enough as it is currently proposed and not tackle the gender | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
pay gap in the way it hopes it will. Gender and pregnancy discrimination | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
is now more common in workplaces than ever with more women being | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
forced out of employment when on the one hand the Government is trying to | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
help people into work but on the other they continue to introduced | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
employment fees which can and may be a barrier for many women to tackling | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
those employers. This Government must look at tribunal fees and | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
challenge discrimination in all forms. I have presented five points | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
to the Prime Minister, we need deeds and not words and I urge the | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
Government to take on board these recommendations. Let's be bold in | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
delivering the kind of society that we want for a more equal future for | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
everyone. Let's deliver it, it is possible. Thank you very much and | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
let me start by congratulating the Honourable Member for East league, | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
The Right Honourable Member for Basingstoke and my honourable friend | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
the Member for Brent Central for sponsoring today's debate. And I | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
thank the backbench business committee for making the time | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
available and to all participants, women and men, for their | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
contributions. It has been an important opportunity to celebrate | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
women's achievements and share in an ambition that exists around the | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
world, to achieve gender equality. Not only as a matter of justice, two | :05:44. | :05:52. | |
women, but as a prerequisite for a successful, prosperous and peaceful | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
future for our world. Because, Madam Deputy Speaker, equality for women | :05:58. | :06:04. | |
is not a 0-sum game that means that men must lose out when women do | :06:05. | :06:13. | |
well. Whenever women are secure and unsafe and disempowered, everyone, | :06:14. | :06:20. | |
family, communities suffer. When women do well, by contrast, society | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
thrives, health, educational attainment, economic performance, | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
they are all improved and that is why our ambition for gender equality | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
in every country of the world is so important. Of course we have made | :06:34. | :06:40. | |
great strides forward, especially in the UK. Women are achieving | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
educationally, professionally, in public life, in ways that our | :06:47. | :06:49. | |
grandmothers could not have creamed off. The women occupy senior | :06:50. | :06:56. | |
positions in business, in the professions, in sport, as we heard | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
from the Honourable Member for Neath, and we have had choices | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
denied to previous generations of women. I will not give way, forgive | :07:05. | :07:14. | |
me, we are tight on time. To date Madam Deputy Speaker, there is still | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
a long way to go. A long way to go in terms of our economic equality as | :07:19. | :07:25. | |
we heard from the Honourable Member for Slough, the Member for Dewsbury | :07:26. | :07:33. | |
who talked about gender pricing, and we talked about our membership of | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
the European Union in protecting women's economic position and many | :07:38. | :07:40. | |
other honourable Members. We heard about the gender pay gap at nearly | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
20% higher than the European average and the average apprenticeship wage | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
for young women being over ?1 lower than for young men. We heard about | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
women being trapped in low-paid hers, catering, caring and retail. | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
We heard about the disproportionate representation of men in Stem jobs, | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
from many Members, and the disadvantage that women experience | :08:07. | :08:09. | |
in the Labour market feeds into their poverty in retirement. No one | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
who was in the Chamber this afternoon can fail to have been | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
moved and appalled by the name is read out by my honourable friend, | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
the Member for Yardley. She read out the names of those women who were | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
among the two killed every week in this country by a partner or former | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
partner. And we heard from Honourable Members around the house | :08:35. | :08:40. | |
of many other appalling examples of gender-based violence, from the | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
Honourable Lady the Member for Fareham, the Member for Slough who | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
talked about violence in demo in prostitution, the Honourable Member | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
for Rossendale and Darwin who talked about an horrific form of abuse, | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
breast ironing. We heard about female genital mutilation. We did | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
not hear much about it today but we should also remember the special | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
circumstances of lesbian and transgender women who suffer | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
appalling gender-based violence. The Right Honourable Lady for Amersham | :09:12. | :09:14. | |
and the Honourable Member for Wheeldon rightly talked about cyber | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
abuse, and let me join with the Honourable Member for Carshalton in | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
urging the Government once again to consider introducing compulsory sex | :09:26. | :09:28. | |
and relationships education. May I make a special mention of the right | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
Honourable lady for Meriden for speaking up for refugee women, their | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
plight in a civilised country is something that shames us all and I | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
was proud to hear her speaking on behalf of those women and of course | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
we must continue to champion that cause together. We also heard that | :09:48. | :09:54. | |
this Parliament has seen the highest representation we have ever had, but | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
also as many Honourable Members including the Honourable Lady for | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
Eastleigh, my honourable friends from Walsall South and Middleton, | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
the Honourable Member from Louth and many other honourable Members that | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
we still have some way to go. Just 29% of our MPs are women, it's clear | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
that our Parliament continues to fall a long way short of reflecting | :10:18. | :10:19. | |
the population of our country. That is while looking at the | :10:20. | :10:27. | |
contributions we have heard this afternoon, I am so pleased that the | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
sustainable development goals to which we along with all other | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
countries signatory contains dedicated to gender equality and | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
women's empowerment because the sustainable development goals are | :10:43. | :10:45. | |
not just goals for developing economies, they apply to every | :10:46. | :10:52. | |
country, including the UK. And as we celebrate International Women's Day, | :10:53. | :10:55. | |
we recognise that the challenges that women face here at home are the | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
same face by our sisters everywhere. The sure there are differences of | :11:01. | :11:06. | |
degree but not differences of kind. For sure we have heard of them | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
shocking examples of the plight of the Yazidi women, of the women in | :11:11. | :11:18. | |
this Saudi Arabia, as the girls kidnapped by. And just as the | :11:19. | :11:30. | |
challenges of the same worldwide, so to that means we can learn from each | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
other and support one another to achieve solutions. We can work | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
together to ensure we embed gender equality into every aspect of | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
quality and practice. I know that the minister shares my partition for | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
gender equality and I'm sure today she will take the opportunity to | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
reaffirm the Government's commitments systematically to | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
address gender inequality whenever and wherever it arises. I hope she | :12:00. | :12:05. | |
will say as we sign up to the vital sustainability goals that they will | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
shape and underpinned policy right across Government, both domestic | :12:11. | :12:13. | |
policy and in the way that we use our influence and share our learning | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
with others internationally. I hope that this health today will also as | :12:18. | :12:26. | |
an ardent termination that this debate will take place on every | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
International Women's Day in this chamber, in Government's time, in | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
solidarity for our sisters around the world and is a measure of our | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
resolve to placed gender equality at the heart of our politics. May I can | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
in conclusion take the opportunity to wish you and all right honourable | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
member 's and our sisters and brothers around the world are happy | :12:51. | :12:59. | |
International Women's Day. Thank you. May I start by adding my words | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
of congratulations to the honourable members from across the House who | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
have successfully secured this really important debate today and to | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
congratulate everyone that has take part in some of the outstanding and | :13:14. | :13:16. | |
excellent speeches across the House, both male and female members. I'm | :13:17. | :13:20. | |
very pleased to be able to sounded today and sharply cyclical process | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
that has been made under this Government. There are now more women | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
in work than ever before, more women are in boards ever before. There are | :13:31. | :13:36. | |
now more women led businesses than ever before, around 10 million in | :13:37. | :13:47. | |
the UK are women out. -- 1 million. While it is important celebrate how | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
much progress we had made, we must be clear that in today's society | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
there is no place for any pay gap. The theme of this years | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
International Women's Day is the pledge for parity and I'm delighted | :14:00. | :14:02. | |
the Prime Minister has pledged to close the gender pay gap within a | :14:03. | :14:13. | |
generation. Everyone is able to settle their potential in the | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
workplace regardless of their gender and their background. This year the | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
Government has taken our bold step, we will redouble our efforts to | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
deplete the fight for equality starting with the introduction of | :14:26. | :14:31. | |
regulation is involving large companies to publish their gender | :14:32. | :14:34. | |
pay gap. With a focus on transparency, I am confident we will | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
begin to see results. The types of work that women do, it is these | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
sectors that they typically end up in where the pay gap usually starts. | :14:44. | :14:52. | |
Engineering are sectors as we have heard today from some of our | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
excellent speakers and that is where jobs carry a significant wage | :14:57. | :14:59. | |
premium where there is also a massive shortage of girls and women | :15:00. | :15:02. | |
entering the sector and working their way to the top. We're working | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
very closely with both schools and businesses to deliver initiatives | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
such as the standard diversity programme to try and address. | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
Crucially, workers on girls aspirations, it is about dispelling | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
the myth that there are girls jobs and Boyce jobs. There are simply | :15:20. | :15:25. | |
just jobs. Last year we publish guidance entitled your daughter's | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
future which empowers parents to support girls and making decisions | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
about subject and careered choices, free from gender stereotype. There's | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
also much more we can do to support in their careers and achieving their | :15:38. | :15:44. | |
potential. The small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and | :15:45. | :15:47. | |
still they are set up businesses around half the weight of their male | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
counterparts. If women were starting up businesses at the same rate as | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
men, there would be a million more extra businesses and yet we shut | :15:57. | :15:59. | |
tells us that many women tell us they lack the confidence or perceive | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
they lacked in a series girls to do this. We mustn't let the fear area | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
hold back adding talented female lodger veneers from achieving their | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
full dental and that is why we continue to fund the million pound | :16:13. | :16:26. | |
women in broadband project. We have also endeavoured to address the | :16:27. | :16:29. | |
issues wiener armies pertinent to women in work, from the right to | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
request flexible working to share parental leave. We are helping them | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
to achieve a better balance between working and motherhood. It is | :16:41. | :16:43. | |
women's caring response 30s that rally and when their own children's | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
fly the nest. The challenge of balancing terror with SSL in Korea | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
can become mostly cute in a women's working life. Let's not forget the | :16:54. | :17:01. | |
remarkable sandwich generation who are somehow doing both. We need to | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
find ways of supporting them all. That is why the women's business | :17:06. | :17:12. | |
Council has established a report that we will consider what | :17:13. | :17:20. | |
businesses can do to support them. When we talk to women and men it is | :17:21. | :17:26. | |
clear that work plan balanced childcare is the most important | :17:27. | :17:29. | |
issue and that is why we are investing billions more year on free | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
childcare places and to the issue of parity of representation in public | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
life, here we come full circle. We know how valuable female role models | :17:39. | :17:42. | |
can be to young girls and women, raising aspiration is vital to the | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
talent pipeline. We take great pride in being the most gender diverse | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
parliament in British history and the Government is committed to | :17:51. | :17:59. | |
improving public appointments. Equality is mortgages and economic | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
parity, protecting women and girls from violent and supporting victims | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
is also keep a rarity. The list of murdered women at the hands of | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
domestic violence of which the honourable lady from Yardley read | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
out earlier makes more powerful lead that argument then a speech could do | :18:18. | :18:22. | |
and I wholeheartedly agree with her that the voices of these women | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
murdered must remain at the forefront of effective Government | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
policy-making. An new violence against women and girls policy | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
published today will focus on prevention. We are also working with | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
partners to ensure schools have access to safe and effective and | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
high-quality resources. We have launched the next phrase about teen | :18:46. | :18:48. | |
relationship abuse campaign, encouraging young people to about | :18:49. | :19:00. | |
their views on abuse. We've made significant processors 2010 | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
including criminalising forced marriage and revenge pornography, | :19:05. | :19:07. | |
strengthening the law on domestic violence. We have strengthened the | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
law on female Ansel mutilation and introducing FTM production orders. | :19:13. | :19:26. | |
-- FTM. Today let us celebrate how far we have, any achievements of the | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
past year and the past years, at the same time, we need to redouble our | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
efforts to do more. To close the gender pay gap, to ensure no women | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
is deterred from achieving her aspirations and realising her | :19:42. | :19:42. | |
potential. They word as have to live potential. They word as have to live | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
a life in fear because of her gender. Thank you. Thank you very | :19:47. | :19:55. | |
much to all the participants in this debate. And thank the backbench | :19:56. | :20:01. | |
committee for the time allocated to this bait. Their member from | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
Basingstoke touched on the battle to ensure the debate was held in this | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
chamber and it was a bit of a battle, I must say. I took a deep | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
breath when it was suggested that we have it in Westminster Hall. The | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
member from Eastleigh was a little bit more generous than me, subtlety | :20:21. | :20:27. | |
was never one of my strong points. The number of members in this House | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
speaking today on International Women's Day 2016 from all sides, the | :20:33. | :20:37. | |
past at debate shows that it was right this debate was held here in | :20:38. | :20:44. | |
the template. The member for Yardley highlighted women killed by men and | :20:45. | :20:51. | |
read out since 2015, 121 names. Internationally, five women are | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
killed every hour. During this debate, 15 women have been murdered. | :20:56. | :21:05. | |
It is sobering for. -- it is a sobering thought. The bring back our | :21:06. | :21:12. | |
goals campaign and that is going to be an emphasis again to highlight | :21:13. | :21:18. | |
that issue and it truly must never forget the women and the girls who | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
are murdered and killed and kidnapped is still missing. The | :21:22. | :21:30. | |
member of Cardiff south... Mas said that wrong. The member for Slough | :21:31. | :21:38. | |
mentioned prosecution and trafficked women and talked about the motion | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
and it took to write that motion. There were so many issues that could | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
have been put into that motion. It was difficult to know which parts to | :21:50. | :21:52. | |
focus on that there was a common theme that I felt came out of the | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
debate today and that was women are always use as a weapon of war. | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
Whether it be gang 's all wars all violence against women, young girls | :22:02. | :22:05. | |
are always use and they are always right and it is something we can | :22:06. | :22:12. | |
never, ever forget. I have a little bit of a confession. Last night I | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
was thinking about the Chancellor in bed. I was thinking... It is true, I | :22:18. | :22:27. | |
was thinking that the Chancellor has an effect on women and I fear for | :22:28. | :22:37. | |
the budget next week. On the subject of the Chancellor, she is just much | :22:38. | :22:40. | |
to him, surely the Chancellor could take a step in the right direction | :22:41. | :22:43. | |
in terms of International Women's Day by looking at transitional steps | :22:44. | :22:51. | |
for women. I thank my honourable friend further integration. | :22:52. | :22:57. | |
Absolutely. It is just not fair. It is not right as I say, I worry about | :22:58. | :23:06. | |
the budget next week. I sometimes think what is it? It is almost like | :23:07. | :23:13. | |
there is a revenge for women. 81% of the country, this Parliament, will | :23:14. | :23:21. | |
come from women. The majority of 44 hundred thousand houses are on zero | :23:22. | :23:24. | |
hour conduct. We know the debates about Wearside in the chamber today | :23:25. | :23:33. | |
that women are not being treated better at work. 20% of small medium | :23:34. | :23:45. | |
enterprises are led by women because by women too often acknowledged, for | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
their work to be a large, they start their own businesses. It increases | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
every single year. 49% of lone parents are on pre-payment meters | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
which means they pay more, which means it contributes to household | :24:01. | :24:03. | |
debt and guess what? The majority of them are women. 744,000 people on | :24:04. | :24:11. | |
zero hour contracts and the majority of them are women. Wouldn't it be | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
great if we could outlaw zero hour contracts in this Parliament? We | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
have a duty in this House to ensure that we make laws that are not | :24:23. | :24:29. | |
harmful towards women. We have two empower women in this place. This is | :24:30. | :24:36. | |
our duty. I do think there has been mention that PS HD is an important | :24:37. | :24:41. | |
part... I would've liked it to be compulsory because it says the | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
foundation from a very early in schools about constructive | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
relationships. In my opinion, it should be compulsory. Madam Deputy | :24:53. | :24:54. | |
Speaker, I thank you for the House for the way this has been conducted. | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
Thank you very much. Thank you the backbench committee for this debate. | :25:00. | :25:07. | |
The question is as on the order paper. I think the ayes have it. The | :25:08. | :25:14. | |
ayes have it. Subtitles will resume | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
on 'Tuesday In Parliament' at 2300. | :25:19. | :25:29. |