Baroness Vere of Norbiton
That this House takes note of International Women’s Day and the steps taken to promote the economic inclusion of women.
The Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury (Baroness Vere of Norbiton) (Con)
My Lords, I am delighted that the noble Baroness, Lady Casey of Blackstock, has chosen this debate in which to make her maiden speech. She has worked tirelessly over the last 30 years in an extraordinary career dedicated to public service and helping others; she is truly a worthy addition to your Lordships’ House. I am sure that all noble Lords look forward with great interest to what she has to say.
It gives me great pleasure to open this year’s International Women’s Day debate. This day is celebrated all over the world in different ways, and I am pleased that we are recognising it in your Lordships’ House today. International Women’s Day is an opportunity to reflect on the vital contribution that women make across different spheres—political, cultural, social and economic—while also recognising that work still needs to be done to ensure the safety, security, equality and empowerment of women around the world.
The theme of today’s International Women’s Day is “Inspire Inclusion”. Inclusion is not about women being present—being in the room. How often are women in the room, but, frankly, not really expected to speak? Inclusion should mean women actually feeling able to express an opinion, playing a key part in the decision-making process at all levels of an organisation, government and across society. It means women—more women—becoming leaders. Yet, globally, women continue to be excluded from any level of the labour market, and when they are employed, they work longer hours for less pay—on average 20% less, in fact. Women represent only 30% of entrepreneurs and receive just 4% of financing. There is still much to be done for women’s inclusion, real inclusion, to be fully realised.
I turn first to international policy and aid. The UK has long been a global champion of women’s rights, and many Members of your Lordships’ House have been and continue to be at the forefront of that work; I look forward to their contributions today. Women’s rights are most under threat when they live in a country at war. We have witnessed that in Ukraine, where Russia’s illegal invasion has led to millions of families being displaced and a sharp rise in poverty. My thoughts are with the millions of women and girls who have suffered in the two years and two weeks since that conflict began. The UK continues to stand with Ukraine. The fiscal support the UK is providing contributes to maintaining public services, and our humanitarian funding protects the needs of the most vulnerable, including women and girls—for example, by supporting survivors of gender-based violence. Conflicts such as these throw into sharp relief the importance of legislation that facilitates the economic and social inclusion of women, both domestically and worldwide.
We continue to uphold our International Development (Gender Equality) Act, which sets out a legal requirement to consider gender equality in how we provide official development assistance. We continue to look at ways we can go further to prioritise women and girls in our international work. To set out an agenda that puts women and girls centre stage, we published the international women and girls strategy in March last year and the international development White Paper in November. As set out in the White Paper, our target in the UK is for at least 80% of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s bilateral aid programmes to have a focus on gender equality by 2030.
The White Paper also announced a new global campaign for women’s economic empowerment, which will drive forward global efforts to ensure that every woman has the equal right to decent work, the freedom of safe work of her choice and the resources to reach her potential. A key part of that is integrating gender equality into our economic diplomacy, which means leading by example to create meaningful jobs for women and identifying evidence-based solutions to expand women’s voices.
A strategy that focuses on women and girls has many benefits. The evidence shows that investing in women and breaking down the barriers they face accelerates international development. That is why British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution, continues to champion “gender-smart investing” and why it has pledged that 25% of its new investments in the period 2022-26 will focus on supporting women’s economic empowerment. In Bangladesh, for example, BII is providing a $52 million loan for the construction of a greenfield manufacturing facility, which will support new business growth in the manufacturing sector. The loan is expected to create 1,000 jobs, and 50% of these will be held by women.
Building on this, the SheTrades Commonwealth programme helps to provide women-led businesses with various elements of support, including technical assistance, networking and support from specialised business support organisations. With UK funding, SheTrades Outlook is a unique global online platform that tracks and compares countries’ progress on trade and gender equality, sharing good practice and lessons learned and promoting women’s economic empowerment.
Ideally, different policy goals must work in tandem. Later this month we are hosting a dialogue at Wilton Park on “Building Women’s Economic Empowerment into Climate Transitions”, which will bring together key actors—academics, civil society, multilateral institutions, the Government and the private sector—to explore how we can build women’s economic empowerment into the green growth agenda. The UK Government will continue to use the full weight of our diplomatic and development offer to put women and girls, in all their diversity, at the heart of everything we do.
Turning now to the domestic front and gender equality in the UK, it is encouraging to see that the gender pay gap across UK employees fell in 2022 to 14.3%, a fall of 3% over the past three years. Transparency is a key tool in tackling the gender pay gap. Back in 2017, some seven years ago, the Government introduced regulations requiring large employers to publish the differences in average salaries and bonuses for men and women. It happens to be the first piece of legislation that I took through your Lordships’ House.
These regulations have been effective, motivating employers to scrutinise their approach and improve equality in the workplace. But a key driver of the gender pay gap is lower levels of female participation in the workforce, accounting for around half the gap, which widens in the 20 years after the first child in a family is born. We know that high childcare costs present a real challenge for many women when weighing up whether or when to go back to work, and how many hours they can work when they have young children to look after.
We are dealing with this head-on through the Government’s tax-free childcare scheme for working parents. For every £8 that parents pay into their childcare accounts, the Government will add £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 in top-up per year. This applies to each child up to the age of 11. For children with disabilities, the maximum amount of government top-up is £4,000, until the child is 16.
Building on this, at the Spring Budget last year, the Government announced the biggest ever investment in childcare in England by providing eligible working parents with 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks per year. Parents can access this from when the child is nine months old until they begin school. This expansion in early years entitlement is worth an estimated £1.7 billion in the financial year 2024-25. As a result, we expect that 1.5 million mothers will increase the hours they work by 2027-28 and that around 60,000 more will enter the employment sector. At the Spring Budget this week, we confirmed that the Government are guaranteeing the hourly rate paid to childcare providers to deliver the free hours offer, which will give childcare providers the confidence to invest in expansion.
Alongside support with childcare, workplaces must offer their employees flexibility in how and when they work. Flexibility benefits women and men, but we must recognise that women still bear more of the childcare workload and face particular challenges in balancing their professional aspirations with family responsibilities. But it does not have to be this way. If we embrace adaptability in working arrangements, dismantle the rigid structures that have historically hindered women’s career progression and, in turn, offer an environment where talent, not time spent in the office sitting at a desk, is the currency of value, it will have a transformative effect on women’s inclusion.
That is why this Government have introduced the right to request flexible working from day one of an individual’s employment. This will come into force on 6 April this year and will bring around 2.6 million additional employees in scope of this entitlement. We have also passed the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act, which includes measures that support people who wish to discuss flexible working arrangements with their employer. These discussions are important, as we know that the extent to which flexible working is suitable will depend on both the individual’s and the business’s circumstances, so we want employers and employees to come to the arrangement that works for both parties. This will benefit fathers as well as mothers, giving them the opportunity to do their part in the home; and, more broadly, flexible working can lead to more diverse leadership, the development of innovative service and products, and more resilient organisations.
Further, we are committed to supporting pregnant women and new parents who wish to participate in the labour market. So, the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 extends the existing redundancy protections that currently apply to those on maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave. From 6 April, these protections will also cover the period of pregnancy and a period of time after that. This means that employers are obliged to offer a suitable alternative vacancy where one is available, giving women on maternity leave or who have recently returned from maternity leave priority over other employees who are also at risk of redundancy. This same protection applies to parents taking adoption leave or shared parental leave.
Additionally, the Government announced new measures in Wednesday’s Spring Budget to help parents balance work with looking after their children. From April, the Government will raise the threshold for the high income child benefit charge—HICBC—to £60,000, taking 170,000 families out of paying this tax charge. The Government are also raising the top of the taper at which child benefit is withdrawn to £80,000. This will reduce the marginal tax rate, which will improve people’s incentives to continue working or take up more hours. The OBR estimates that, as a result, those already working will increase their hours by a total equivalent to around 10,000 full-time individuals by 2028-29.
Beyond difficulties in entering the labour market, women can also find it more challenging to reach leadership levels in the organisations that they are part of. In 2016 the Treasury launched the Women in Finance Charter to improve female representation at senior levels with a view to improving the productivity, innovation and competitiveness of the financial services sector. More than 400 firms, employing more than 1.3 million people across the financial services sector, have signed up to the commitments of the charter, from global banks to credit unions, from leading insurance companies to new start-ups. The first wave of signatories to the charter started out with an average level of senior representation of 27%. Today, the signatory base has grown substantially and the average level of senior representation stands at 35%.
The charter’s five-year review found that the average proportion of women on UK executive committees had increased from 14% in 2016 to 22% in 2021, while the proportion of women on UK boards had increased from 23% to 32%. The increase for executive committees is nearly 60% and for boards it is nearly 40%. Average representation on boards and executive committees was higher for firms that had signed the charter— 50% higher for executive committees and 40% for boards. It is really encouraging to see that charter being emulated in other sectors, including aviation and maritime; in other countries, such as Norway, Luxembourg and Ireland; and across diversity strands, such as in the Black Talent Charter. I look forward to the charter’s next annual review report, which will be published later this month.
There is still quite a lot of work to do to continue our progress towards true gender equality and inclusion. In implementing these domestic policies and through our international leadership in putting women centre stage, the UK Government have demonstrated our unwavering commitment to women and girls around the world. I am very pleased to open this debate in your Lordships’ House, and I beg to move.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Baroness Barran) (Con)
My Lords, it is an extraordinary privilege but somewhat of a challenge to be closing this International Women’s Day debate. I thank all noble Baronesses and noble Lords for their important contributions. In particular, I want to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, for her speech. She is now in a very elite weak tear-duct club, of which I am a proud member. To all of us across the House who know the noble Baroness, she demonstrated the courage for which we are so fond of her and the integrity that she brings to every role. Those of us who have been or are in government will recognise the incredible value of someone who is able to execute, deliver and implement well.
I also take this opportunity to offer the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, her daughter and potential granddaughter my very best wishes for whenever the three of them are in the same place.
I started with an 1,100-word speech and have finished with 5,000 words of notes and no speech. So I will do my best, but I fear that I will have to write to many of your Lordships at the end of the debate.
We heard from your Lordships about the importance of economic empowerment, which my noble friend covered in her opening speech. I remind the House that, since 2010, the national living wage has risen by over 30% in real terms—something of which this Government are very proud. These issues were picked up in detail by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, as well as the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, who obviously understands better than I do the law in this area. On her challenges around equal pay, of course, as she knows, paying men and women differently has been illegal for almost 50 years and the Government remain fully committed to the equal pay protections in the Equality Act 2010.
I thank my noble friend Lady Moyo for focusing on progress and the role of women in leadership. She, the noble Baroness, Lady Gohir, and my noble friend Lady Sater all talked about the importance of financial inclusion for women, particularly those from minority communities. We are conducting a joint review, together with the FCA, of the boundaries between financial advice and guidance. We have set some initial policy proposals to improve the support available to all consumers, but clearly those who are the most excluded have the greatest to gain. We also have a major focus on financial inclusion within our dormant assets programme. I thank organisations such as Fair4All Finance for the important work that they do in this area.
The noble Lord, Lord Davies of Brixton, returned to the subject of the pensions gap, which is of course important. I think he acknowledged that automatic enrolment has helped millions of women to save into a pension. Pension participation rates among eligible women in the private sector have risen from 40% in 2012 to 86% in 2022, which is equal to men eligible for automatic enrolment. We have supported the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023, which received Royal Assent last September and introduces powers to lower the age for automatic enrolment and remove the lower earnings limit. That will dispro-portionately help women on lower earnings.
The noble Baroness, Lady Merron, talked about her work with Smart Works. As she knows, I am firmly in the Smart Works fan club and enjoyed visiting its work a few years ago. The Government believe that a lot of effort has gone into the role of Jobcentre Plus work coaches. The noble Baroness knows that if what we intend to happen is not happening in real life then my colleagues in DWP would, I am sure, be delighted to follow up on that.
My noble friend Lady Lampard raised the issue of women and problem gambling. I acknowledge the work of GambleAware and the excellent campaigns that it has recently run, focusing on stigma and gambling harm among women. The Government recently under-took a major review of gambling and will introduce a new range of provisions, including requirements to ensure that operators check customers’ financial circumstances at the appropriate point for signs that their losses may be harmful, as well as tackling aggressive marketing practices and some other measures.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, for her powerful speech. The essence of it, if I may, was about getting a real shift in attitudes to some of the issues which limit women’s potential, including the role of men in caring. There are many examples, which I know she is aware of, where the Government are improving protections: for example, in redundancy for pregnant women, improving flexible working, introducing carers leave, and introducing leave and pay entitlements for parents of children who have time in neonatal care.
The noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, was calling for a wider attitudinal shift, particularly in relation to supporting fathers to take paternity. History suggests that men have got quite a good voice in calling for change, so maybe we can encourage them to do a bit more of that. She will be aware of the very significant changes and increases that we are making for working parents in the childcare offer, which should close the gap between parental leave ending and the Government’s current entitlement. We will be spending over £8 billion a year on free childcare by 2027-28.
I agree with my noble friend Lady Rock about welcoming the opportunities for women in farming specifically, and in the wider rural economy more broadly.
On women’s health, as the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Bolton, pointed out, while women make up 51% of the population, our health system does not meet our needs. It was not designed with women in mind, particularly not women from minority communities, as the noble Baroness, Lady Amos, said. In relation to maternal care, we have established the maternal disparities task force, which is improving access to effective preconception and maternity care. We have invested £6.8 million in equity and equality guidance for the NHS, focusing on actions that reduce disparity for women and babies from ethnic minorities and those in the most deprived areas. In January, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced the first ever National Institute for Health and Care Research challenge funding call, which is backed by £50 million, to find new ways to tackle maternity disparities.
On violence against women and girls, the noble Baronesses, Lady Gale, Lady Donaghy—who stuck to her knitting—Lady Jones, Lady Casey and Lady Thornton, particularly highlighted issues of misogyny. It will not surprise the House to hear that I share wholeheartedly almost all the sentiments we have heard today on the continued need to tackle violence against women, not just in this country but internationally. This is a good moment to acknowledge the incredible leadership of my right honourable friend Theresa May MP on this issue, as Home Secretary and Prime Minister. I worked quite closely with her when I led the charity SafeLives, and I know her absolute commitment to ending this injustice. I hope we continue to hear her voice on this issue.
At its most basic, women and children need to feel safe in their homes, in their workplaces and on the street. We are making good progress delivering on our commitments set out in the violence against women and girls strategy and the domestic abuse plan. A number of noble Lords focused on emergency funding so that women and girls can flee their homes in an emergency, something that the noble Baronesses, Lady Gale and Lady Taylor of Stevenage, both highlighted. I recognise all too clearly the importance of being able to leave—but I really do not think that we have achieved what we need to achieve, when our expectation is still that a woman uproots her life, puts it in a black plastic bag and, at worst, moves to the other end of the country to live in one room with her children, leaving her teenage sons behind. That is not okay in 2024, and we should be focusing on making sure that women can stay safe in their homes. That is why I welcome so much the Government’s commitment to addressing the behaviour of perpetrators. We can keep one woman safe, but we then have that man’s next partner, who we have to keep safe all over again. If we do not work with the root of the problem, we will not resolve it.
On the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, about Clare’s law, in part she answered it herself, in that 45,000 is an extraordinary number of referrals. Of course, there is more work to do to raise awareness of that issue, and I will write to her on the specific points that she raised.
My noble friend Lady Owen was right to raise the important issue of violence spreading into the online space, which is obviously something that we recognised in the Online Safety Act. I acknowledge my noble friend’s point about the creation of deepfake images without consent not being a crime, and I would be delighted to meet her and ministerial colleagues in the Ministry of Justice to explore that issue further.
Turning to the international stage, last year we launched our first international women and girls strategy and international development White Paper. We are aiming to tackle violence against women and girls not just at home but also on an international level. At a time of terrible conflicts in the world, the House has been right to raise the scourge of sexual violence in conflict. The UK is proud to be a global leader in its prevention. This time last year, we launched the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, which brought together Governments, multilaterals, survivors and civil society. I know that there are many champions in your Lordships’ House working to address this issue, not least my noble friend Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, who will be going on Monday to New York for the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
The noble Baroness, Lady Northover, asked about the changes in ODA spending, as did the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Southwark. The UK is one of the most generous global aid donors, spending nearly £12.8 billion in 2022. We remain committed to protecting the most vulnerable and continue to work towards the target of restoring funding for vital work on women and girls. The new target, set out in the FCDO’s International Women and Girls Strategy, is for at least 80% of the FCDO’s bilateral aid programmes to have a focus on gender equality by 2030.
The noble Baroness, Lady Northover, the noble Lord, Lord Loomba, and my noble friend Lady Hodgson raised the important issue of sexual and reproductive health and rights. There are over 200 million women in low and middle-income countries who want to avoid or delay pregnancy but are unable to use modern contraception. Almost half of all pregnancies are unintended. One of my noble friend the Foreign Secretary’s priority campaigns is to address sexual and reproductive health and rights. We are contributing up to £200 million to Women’s Integrated Sexual Health’s Dividend programme, which will reach up to 10.4 million women and prevent up to 30,600 maternal deaths, 3.4 million unsafe abortions and 9.5 million unintended pregnancies in sub-Saharan Africa. That is quite a thought.
The noble Baroness, Lady Barker, asked about the work we are doing to uphold LGBT rights globally and, in particular, in Uganda. My right honourable friend the Prime Minister, my noble friend the Foreign Secretary and my right honourable friend the Minister for Development have all raised concerns with Ministers in Uganda about the law to which the noble Baroness referred. We will continue to use our voice to stand up for the rights and freedoms of LGBT Ugandans and others all around the world.
The noble Baronesses, Lady Armstrong of Hill Top and Lady Thornton, also talked about gender-based violence internationally. We announced in November last year new funding of £33 million to tackle gender-based violence, which will include an additional £18 million to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, supporting grass-roots women’s rights organisations. It also included £15 million for a new programme in Somalia on gender-based violence, which will reach over 117,000 people.
The noble Lord, Lord Oates, raised issues of women’s health internationally. The UK Government have, within the international women and girls strategy, a focus on championing women’s and girls’ health rights, and in particular supporting preventable deaths of mothers, babies and children by 2030.
Turning to education, there are an estimated 244 million children not in school globally. Girls are more likely to be out of school than boys, and this is exacerbated in conflict settings. These issues were raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Goudie. The noble Lord, Lord Addington, talked about the role of boys within schools making sure that the girls feel safe and welcome, and of the importance of sport. There were questions from my noble friend Lady Hodgson and the noble Baroness, Lady Goudie, about the education of girls in Afghanistan, the only country in the world where girls are forbidden to have a secondary education. We condemn the Taliban’s decision to restrict the rights of women and girls and remain committed to at least 50% of those reached with UK aid in Afghanistan being women and girls. We continue to support the delivery of education there. In the last academic year, it reached 83,700 girls.
Closer to home, as we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, and the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, there is no cause for complacency. In 2020, women made up less than one-third of the STEM workforce. I recognise the points made by my noble friend Lady Sater about the importance of financial education, not just in terms of future careers but in the area of STEM—although obviously mathematics is an important link there—and more broadly for women’s economic independence. I thank organisations such as Maths4Girls which particularly focus on these areas.
I will say a word about representation and women’s voices in public life and the media. The noble Baroness, Lady Gale, is absolutely right to raise political representation in the UK—although, of course, issues of women’s representation are even more challenging internationally. As the noble Baroness, Lady Merron, raised, it is also important that we hear women’s voices and that women feel safe to work in areas of journalism. We have set up a national committee to address that issue.
On voice and representation, I am afraid I absolutely refute the description from the noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, of the UK Government’s position on Gaza. The priority must be an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out, and then progress to a sustainable and permanent ceasefire. The Government have been quite clear about that.
I will finish—I am sure the House will bear with me for one minute more—with the names of the women that the noble Baronesses, Lady Anderson and Lady Casey, read out. It is hard to find the right words. It was a stark reminder of the work that we still have to do. When I worked at SafeLives, we used to have a motto: whatever we did should be what we would want for our best friends. Here we go—I have joined the tear duct club; that is two years in a row. What would we want for our best friends? We would want the best healthcare and the best education. We would want them to be safe at home and safe online. We would want them to have a political voice. We would want them to have economic opportunity, so that they have the greatest opportunity to contribute to society. To all the extraordinary women all around the world who are unable to live as we do, we thank you and we stand with you in spirit.