Live Women and Equalities Questions House of Commons

need to be sorted out in those talks

with those parters, of course, we

are in the right position and we

look forward to transitioning those

agreements to be a key part of our

trading future.

THE SPEAKER:

Questions to the

minister of women and equalities.

Question number two, Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER:

The Minister for Women

and Equalities. Justine Greening.

All Government departments carefully

consider the equalities impact of

individual policy decisions taken on

those sharing protected

characteristics, including gender

and race in line with strong spits

to ealitiy. The national living wage

will increase by 4.4%. Past

increases have disproportionately

gone against women as well as the

disabled.

Thank you. I does the

minister accept the figures

contained within the equalities

report by women's budget group an

done me trust showing

disproportionate income on tax with

women and those from ethnic

background?

Imam aware of that work.

Part of the challenge is we need to

see a clearer, broader picture in

relation to how budgets affect bane

women. That doesn't take into

account the affect of the national

living wage, the childcare

amendments we've made. It doesn't

take into account the work reducing

the gender pay gap or the

introduction of shared parental

leave or the introduction of

increased flexible working. The IFS

has been very, very clear what's

possible falls a long way short of a

full gender impact assessment.

That's the underlying weakness in

the analysis.

Would the Secretary of

State agree there's a welcome

announcement in the budgeted

yesterday that £600 per pupil

towards maths to higher GS level

will be a huge benefit for women

across the board as we have many

studies showing women can eastern up

to 20% more with those higher

qualifications.

She's right. This

has been a focus for this Government

tor the past seven years. The next

steps announced yesterday, £600 for

extra young people enrolling on

A-levels. Of course, alongside that

a commitment to do more transparency

on stem A-level subjects girls are

take can so we can focus in on the

gender disparities and address them.

It is worth pointing out since 201,

maths A-level has in about the most

popular A-level in our country. It

shows we've a long way to go but

this Government's already making a

difference in encouraging young

people to take maths.

The

Chancellor's £1.5 billion package or

Universal Credit will do little to

address the disproportion alley feck

on EU women women will be £400 worse

off. Can we make representations on

behalf of these women.

Two thirds of

people who will benefit from the

national living wage increases that

will be increasing by 4.4% from

April next year, two thirds of those

people benefitting will be women.

Because of the tax changes that

we're making, 800,000 women will be

taken out of tax altogether because

of the increase in the personal

allowance from 2015-16 to 2017-2018.

We should all welcome that.

Thank

you very much. We know black and

minority ethnic women face

disadvantaged in society. Good

information is crucial for sound

policy making. I listen to the

ministers concerns about the

published information, about the

impact for the budget. If the

Government was to publish its own

analysis on gender and race,

everybody would be able to see and

ministers could make good policy

decisions about that impacts so all

groups were protected.

I think, as

I've set out, the postibility is

difficult. The underlying point

everybody recognises it is difficult

to do analysis. It relies on

assumption on how incomes are shared

in house Hodd. For Bale women and

minority people, there are 3.8

million ethnic minority people in

work. That's a rise of 1.7 million

since 2005. It is worth me saying to

the House, we have a particular push

in relation to aapprenticeships and

seeking diversity in who's taking

those and a growing number of Bale

women are doing that.

Question

three.

Thank you Mr Speaker. The

2017 spring budget made a £5 million

available for those in the public

sector and private sector. We have

already announced a number of

programmes to help people return to

work, including ones for allied

health professionals, civil servants

and social workers. I thought the

Minister was seeking to group this

with the honourable gentleman from

Dudley South.

My aologies, Mr

Speaker. If I may group this with

question 4!

Thank you. The gender

pay gap can be explained in part by

professional women and others

returning to the workplace in roles

lesser to the ones they left before

taking time off to raise families or

look after loved ones. Could my

honourable friend highlight what the

Government is doing to address this

particular shortfall?

Yes, can I

thank my honourable friend for

raising what ask an important point.

It should be remembered 89% of

people who take time off work for

caring responsibilities are women.

Closing the gender pay gap is

extremely important. Analysis by the

Institute for Fiscal Studies showed

women earned 2% lesson average for

every year spent out of paid work.

For women who are highly paid that's

more. We're gathering evidence of

what works and hope to public some

best practise for small and

medium-sized employers in the spring

next year.

Can my honourable friend

also tell the House what measures

the Government's taking to help

employers to support women who've

taken career breaks to care for

children or other relatives?

The £5

million available for returns

programmes will be aimed at

employers. What we need to do is

understand it. It is a complex set

of reasons that puts people off

returning to work. That evidence

will be gathered through that work

will be important in making sure, as

I said before, that the best

practise guidance is published in

spring and gives clear direction to

employers to make sure they can

harness the skills of those who take

time off work.

What steps are being taken to ensure

that older workers, including 1950s

born woman who wish to return to

work, are given access to adequate

training programmes in their own

local communities?

The honourable

lady makes an important point and I

make an interest as I consider

myself an older worker. She is

absolutely right. People choose to

return to work at the Bradys times

and we must make sure that

facilities are available. -- various

times. We need to dig deep to find

out what are the obstacles.

Confidence building with women is a

significant issue when they have

taken time off. The longer they are

out of the workplace the more

difficult that becomes.

According to

Government data, 54,000 women are

discriminated against, forced out of

work when pregnant. The £5 million

is welcomed, can the Minister set

out in more detail how many women

will benefit from the scheme and

mentioning the civil service,

what'll be done to get women back

into work after having a child?

It

is not just the civil service we're

looking at Allied health

professionals, civil servants and

Horschel social workers. The social

work programmes in London and the

West Midlands, and the East of

England. He makes an important

point, encouraging women to get back

into the workplace is critical. Also

employers should be aware that there

are very clear laws about what they

can and can't do as far as these

employees are concerned when taking

time off work for maternity leave.

Despite some of the best laws in the

world, women in this country who are

in work face more discrimination

when pregnant at work than they did

ten years ago. Will the Government

look at making it clearer that

employment tribunal 's have

discretion in allowing individuals

to bring discrimination cases in

special circumstances outside of the

General three month limit. And

surely pregnancy has got to be a

very special circumstance?

She is

absolutely right. Pregnancy is a

special circumstance. It is the case

that both women and employers are

not aware of their legal

obligations. Some of the work that

we are doing on the gender pay gap

reporting, will be an important part

of that. It will highlight some of

these issues and enable us to dig

deeper into the reasons behind that

the gender pay gap and I have no

doubt that some of that will be due

to discrimination against women in

the workplace.

Further to the

response that the Minister gave to

my honourable friend, can she tell

us what concrete action the

Government are actually taking in

order to address the issue that

54,000 women are forced out of work

in this country every year due to

maternity discrimination. Women want

to see action, not just warm words.

I would point out to the honourable

lady that it is illegal and unlawful

to do so. They are breaking the law

in doing that. One of the things

that we can all do as constituency

MPs, certainly any cases that come

to your surgery, we can highlight to

the women that that BC, and we all

meet... The lady said from a

sedentary position that she wants

action from the Government. The

action has been taken, it is against

the law.

With your permission I

would like to group question five

and seven. Refugees provide shelter

for people of softening of domestic

abuse. We have invested £30 million

supporting victims of domestic abuse

as well as supporting our refuges.

Refuges are places of safety for

women and children in flight from

domestic services and can be

life-saving. Does concern

organisations like women's aid that

the changes in supported Housing can

have the effect that seeing under

pressure? Can he make sure we get

the answer right to make sure we

have a national network of refuges?

The honourable gentleman raises an

important point and knowing his

experience with the police force he

will understand this is a very

complicated area. The Government is

absolutely determined to get this

right because it is of vital

importance that we do so. It is no

question that refuges providing

life-saving role in the community

and that is why we are consulting

for the best way of ensuring that

future funding is right to make sure

they are supported as permanent

parts the community.

Further to my

honourable friend's question, will

the Minister agreed to meet Women

Aid and other all -- organisations

to talk about their concerns with

the new funding model for refuges?

I

want to be sure that the honourable

lady, the discussions are taking

place. Ministers and my department

have already met with Women's Aid

and they will play a part in the

future funding of refuges. The

consultation closes on the 23rd of

January and I will ask all members

of this Parliament to take part.

Women's Aid is one of the most

inspiring organisations I have

visited in my constituency but the

finances are fragile. When

considering future settlements for

refuges, though the settlement be as

long as possible pre-5 years in line

to make sure that they brave and

brilliant people who run refuges

have the security to continue?

He

raises an important point and I

would courage him and Women's Aid to

take part in the consultation. In

terms of the long-term funding of

refuges for women, nothing is off

the table. The Government has not

ruled out a national funding scheme

if that is what the consultation

shows is correct.

The Government has

recently announced reforms to

supported housing, it suggests that

entitlement housing benefit means

that when women enter a refuges, the

money will be paid to local

authorities. This is pulling the

plug on secure funding and

jeopardising the security of life

saving refuge organisations. Given

the answers today about stating he

will work with refuges, will he meet

with me and with the organisations

to discuss the grave concerns they

have about the sustainability of

this model?

I find it offensive that

of the idea that giving funding

direct to local authorities to

support women in crisis in their

community is in summary pulling the

plug on them. We have been

absolutely clear we will continue to

review the funding for care and

support and forever housing costs

should be paid directly as grants to

local authorities or not. We

continue to explore all the options,

including a national model for

refuge provision.

Childcare is the

biggest challenge for working

families, the Government is

committed to supporting men and

women to balance obligations. That

is why we have doubled the

entitlement from 15 to 30 hours. The

right to request flexible working to

allow parents to arrange care that

works for them.

Thank you for the

response. Can he outline how the

Government will practically support

small and medium-sized businesses.

They are the largest employers in

Northern Ireland. To build flexible

working time for them.

Flexible

working is good for the employer as

well as the employee, helping

morale, productivity and... It is

vital that businesses retain and

recruit key staff. Progressive

companies understand this and how

flexible working is an essential

element in securing success. We are

working with groups on how to

promote genuine two-way flexible

working.

Brothers have a critical

role in child care but the woman in

a heard from some fathers that the

take-up of paternity leave was very

low. What more can the Minister do

to encourage fathers to take an

early role in child care?

It is not

what the Government can do, it is a

cultural change that needs to take

place in this country. She had a

maternal leave did come in in April,

2015. We want to see the take-up of

that extended.

The public

consultation about how best to

ensure that there is appropriate

and... Legal protection closed on

the 18th of September. We received

13,000 responses and is being

analysed and we will respond in due

course.

Thank you for that answer.

Given the thousands of responses

that will have been received from

British Hindus stating that having

caste as a protected characteristic

is divisive, will my friend take

action to remove that from the

legislative book that was introduced

by the Party opposite?

We appreciate

that caste is sensitive and an

emotive subject that is important to

many people. It is not unanimous

view amongst consultation about how

best to provide the best legal

protection for caste discrimination.

We are considering responses

carefully and will take into account

all relevant points made.

Does the

Minister recognise that leaving

people to recognise only on case law

would not be sufficient because they

would be uncertain whether the

individual case would follow

previous cases that might have been

decided in relation to caste

discrimination and that is why it is

important to have legislation on the

statute and she has expressed an

opinion and we are looking at 13,000

opinions in response to that

consultation.

We want a

proportionate response because we

oppose any form of discrimination

because of the person's caste. How

we ensure that happens has to be

proportionate and we will respond to

that consultation in due course.

The

Government recognises that the

provision of changing facilities is

an important issue for people whose

needs are not met by standard public

lavatories. We have worked with

Mencap, to have a searchable app for

people to find the nearest changing

location.

We would like to thank

them for their work for better

facilities across the country are

for global campaign is approaching

me. Their campaign is right about

more suitable changing places in

areas of leisure, including football

stadiums, weird you could be changed

with dignity and safety. Can the

Minister outlined further support?

Thank you Mr Speaker. I can tell my

honourable friend that due to her

and other organisations campaigning

on this issue, since 2007, the

number of changing places lavatories

has increased from over 40 2/1000.

This is not enough. I want to remind

all public buildings and all

buildings in which services are

provided that they have a duty under

the equalities act to make

reasonable adjustments so that

changing places can be provided.

As

cheered the disability all-party

Committee I hear repeated

distressing stories about disabled

people being changed on toilet due

to lack of provision. It is

unacceptable and unacceptable and

degrading in today's society will

the Government talk about putting

this on an equal footing?

There is

already a need for this under the

equalities act. Building regulations

are going under review and I would

not wish to prejudge that. To

highlight the extent of this

problem, there train stations out of

the 2500 that have changing places.

Only 12 motorway service stations

out of the nearly 100. Only 50 out

of 500 shopping centres have them.

That is simply not good enough.

Over the last month we were both

able to attend the event recognising

the patchwork foundation's excellent

work engaging underrepresented

groups in politics as well as many

other colleagues from across the

House. I was also lucky enough to be

able to join the UK youth Parliament

day when it was heard in Parliament

if you Fridays ago debating

important issues on equalities like

LG BT rates and the need to have a

more diverse parliament over the

coming years. Increasing diversity

in Parliament is critical and this

Government remains committed to also

increasing equality in the

workplace. It is good news that the

new gender pay gap shows that the

full-time gender pay gap is now the

lowest it has ever been. This week

marks the launch of our latest

programme for returners in the

public sector for those wishing to

be joining the civil service and my

own department is leading the way by

offering retirement places in the

Government's equality office.

What steps the the Secretary of

State planning on women being able

to vote?

He has announced a 5

millioned about fund. It will help

us to fund the statute in Parliament

Square, secondly, there will be a

grass roots funding element which

are are alerting grass roots

communities around the country on to

do their own local projects.

Thirdly, the announcement of seven

Centenary cities and towns in

England who have a strong sufferage

history will receive funding to

really make sure as places were the

push for women's votes happened

strongest, they can play their role

in really helping us remember such

an important milestone.

THE SPEAKER:

Parliament itself is

engaged with these matters. That

will be taking the form of a huge

exhibition in the course of 2018

which I'm sure all colleagues will

wish to visit and to encourage

others to visit #z.

Is yesterday a

budget proved that austerity is a

failed economic project and women

have paid the price. Since 2010, 86%

of net savings to the Treasury have

come from women. Last year, the

Treasury refused to send a minister

to the women and equalities select

committee to answer questions on the

impact of Government's budget plans

and fiscal statements on women. The

ininter sexuality of the cuts takes

into account all the benefits to

women, they are still ten or 12

times worse off. If the minister

disagrees, does the minister think

it is about time a comprehensive

equality impact assessment is done

by the Government and the Treasury's

held to account on their policies

regarding women and diverse

policies?

In the factory environment

the opposition lives in, it is easy

to ignore what respected

comen#25i9ers like the IFS say about

this analysis. They've stayed "what

is possible falls a long way short

of a full gender impact assessment

"requests the reason they make that

point, the analysis looks at tax and

welfare on the budget but doesn't

take into account the impact off

national living wage, childcare

policies. The work on the gender pay

gap, legal changes on flexible

working. It gives a very narrow

picture of how much this Government

is doing to support women. Of

course, the other piece of this is

it misses the fact there are now

more women in work than ever before.

If we're really interested in

women's economic empowerment, surely

that's the main statistic we should

focus on?

THE SPEAKER:

Where is the fella? No

doubt in more com! What a pity. Mr

Cleverly, the honourable gentleman.

Thank you. Does my Right Honourable

Friend share my encouragement that

over 100,000 people took part in the

Government's LGBT survey. Can I ask

what further steps she is making to

ensure greater LGBT equality in

British society?

The survey received

an unprecedented response making it

one of the largest LGBT surveys in

the world. We will analyse those

results closely and set out further

steps to promote LGBT equality next

year. The Government is taking

further action including running a

large anti-homophobic, bi-phobic and

transphobic bullying programme in

our schools.

Recent research showed

it would take 100 years to close the

gender pay gap at the current rate

of change. A report by the women and

equalities select committee

suggested we will only achieve true

economic equality if we make all

jobs flexible by default and

introduce non-transferable paternity

leave. What steps will the

Government taking?

This is an

important topic. Paying men and

women unequally for the same work

has been unlawful for 50 years. A

spoke with Francis O'Grady for us to

work collective to tackle this. In

the Department for Education, we

held a flexible working summit with

the teaching profession last month.

I agree improving flexible work

something part of how we can make

sure the women are better able to

get back into the workplace. In

relation to legal pay, it is a legal

requirement. Gender pay gap

transparency is how we can continue

to shine a light on these range of

issues.

Many women's rights

campaigners have raised concerns

about women's safety in relation to

the use of women's facilities

ranging from toilets through to

women's prisons where people use

them on the basis of

self-certification they are now

women. What response would the

Secretary of State give to those

women's rights campaigners who are

concerned about women's safety?

The

Equality Act 2010 allows

organisations to provide single sex

services. We've no intention of

changing the safeguards women's

single sex services already have in

place to protect vulnerable women.

The co in solateation on the reform

the gender recognition act will be a

wide and open consultation. We want

to hear views from all stakeholders,

including women's groups and

refuges.

THE SPEAKER:

We're out of time.

There is heavy pressure on business

today. I I'm making one exception.

The voice of Kettering must be

heard.

The noble Lord, is a leading

disability rights campaigner and was

a superb nominee for the post of

disabilities commissioner. After his

nomination was made known to the

equalities and Human Rights

Commission, the post was abolished.

Has the Government equalities office

informed the Prime Minister's office

of this disgracement development and

if so, when?

Well the roles and

responsibilities givens to board

members are matters for the

commission itself. The Government

has no power to reinstate the EHRC's

disability commissioner role.

THE SPEAKER:

Far be it from me to

deny the chair of the women and

equality select committee of the

House the final question of this

session? Mrs Mayor eya miller.

Thank

you. Parliament and the leaders of

the House are tackling the difficult

issue of sexual harassment in this

place. That's to be applauded. 50%

of women in the workplace suffer

sexual harassment as well. What is

the Government going to do to make

sheer the very strong laws that are

set out in the Equality Act and

beyond are actually abided by, by

businesses in this country? I think

the debate we've been having in this

place is part of how we raise these

issues of sexual harassment in the

workplace. We need to be very, very

clear that is illegal, it is

unacceptable and it needs to be

Satch stamp theed out wherever we

see it. There is legal protection.

In addition, we need to understand

at Ood fundamentally need to change.

Finally, the DFE can play a clear

role in making sure young people at

school, whilst in education, get the

kind of education they need to