Ukraine

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Tuesday 1st November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

I totally agree with my noble friend. That is why I am proud of the fact that, notwithstanding the tragedy that is unfolding on the Ukrainian people, the United Kingdom has stood, along with other key partners, as a true friend to Ukraine.

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

Could the Minister answer my noble friend Lord Collins’s question? He referred to cyberattacks and asked whether this was being co-ordinated with other allies.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

The short answer is yes, of course. We work with our closest allies to see how we can improve our defences against such cyberattacks.

Women and Girls: Economic Well-being, Welfare, Safety and Opportunities

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Thursday 14th July 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Gale for giving us the opportunity to debate this important subject. Clearly, in a weak economy and with a Government not exactly firing on all cylinders—although I exempt the Minister from that comment—the sharpest decline in living standards since records began in the 1940s will impact on men as well as women, but it will most affect those with the lowest incomes and in the least secure jobs, the majority of whom are women.

Women predominate in the lowest-paid jobs—caring, cashiering, catering, cleaning and clerical work—and even though employment levels may be recovering, the recent surge in job vacancies is entirely driven by low-paying occupations, according to the IFS. Wages are not keeping pace with inflation. Average wages today are no higher than they were before the financial crisis in 2008, which represents a wage loss of £9,200 a year. The UK lags internationally on hourly pay adjusted for purchasing power, and similarly for household incomes. We have a weak social security net. Basic unemployment support is now down to 13% of average pay, its lowest level on record. The Government’s policy of starving people back to work has been successful, and I hope that they are proud.

The employment rate of women is highest in the south-west and south-east, at 75% and 74% respectively, and lowest in Northern Ireland and the north-east, at 68%. Perhaps that 6% to 7% gap points a way to how real levelling up might take place, as opposed to dealing out occasional grants to favoured constituencies. Those 30% of women on the national minimum wage are still trapped in low-paid jobs: they must simply love it when politicians urge them to get a better-paid job.

The Covid pandemic had a particular impact on women, not just in terms of extra work caring for the elderly, home-schooling and being in jobs that made them particularly at risk of catching the virus. The number of black and ethnic minority women in work fell by 17% between the third quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020, which is likely to lead to a further increase in gender and race inequalities.

The furlough scheme also had a gender impact. Women were less likely than men to have their wages topped up by their employer beyond the 80%, putting them at an economic disadvantage. Some 46% of mothers made redundant during the pandemic cited a lack of adequate childcare as the cause. According to the TUC, 70% of furlough claims made by women with caring responsibilities following school closures in January 2021 were denied. The Self-employment Income Support Scheme discriminated against women on maternity leave and, although statutory sick pay is only £95.85 per week, 15.5% of women do not even earn enough to quality for it. Women in employment were twice as likely as employed men to be key workers and experience high levels of exposure to Covid-19; they were therefore more reliant on that inadequate sum.

Fifty years ago, we talked about equal pay for women, the problem of job segregation, the importance of childcare and adequate benefits, and job security. Why do we still have to discuss these issues 50 years later? The gender pay gap is still stubbornly high, at 8%. We know that benefit increases can rapidly boost income and reduce poverty; they played an important role in cutting absolute poverty in early 2020 and most of 2021. It is a crying shame that they were reversed.

We know that the employment rate for disabled women is 53%, compared with 72% for full-time women. Just think of the loss of talent and opportunity that this figure represents for disabled women. We know that a public sector pay freeze will have a particular impact on women, who make up two-thirds of all public sector employees. We know that extending employment rights and investing in strong, effective enforcement will help to reduce insecurity among low-paid workers.

Working Practices (International Agreements Committee Report)

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Thursday 19th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

My Lords, I pay tribute to my noble friend Lady Hayter for her introduction today and her work as chair of the committee. It will save a little bit of time to just say that I agree with every word the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, has said.

I took part in the debate on Treaty Scrutiny: Working Practices in September 2020 when my noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith, the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, and my noble friend Lady Taylor presented their three reports. The work of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, was also acknowledged for its continuing engagement on this important topic. I mention that because this is a responsibility for the whole of Parliament, not just for one committee.

My noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith quoted Bagehot from 1872:

“Treaties are quite as important as most laws, and to require the elaborate assent of representative assemblies to every word of the law, and not to consult them even as to the essence of the treaty, is prima facie ludicrous.”


My noble and learned friend indicated that

“we lag far behind many countries in our parliamentary scrutiny of international commitments.”

However, he proposed a “pragmatic approach” to testing the new arrangements, rather than proposing amendments to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act—CRaG.

The noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, referred back to the exercise in 2019 when the EU Committee and its sub-committees—I had the privilege of chairing the EU Internal Market Sub-Committee and then the EU Services Sub-Committee, both within the confines of the CRaG Act, it has to be said—published 22 reports on more than 50 agreements, following the model set by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee for its own work. The noble Earl echoed the Constitution Committee’s statement of 2019 that

“the CRAG Act is poorly designed to facilitate parliamentary scrutiny of treaties.”

In all those reports by the EU committees, the only agreement on which we were able to take evidence was the UK-South Korea deal. Had the Government had a welcome change of heart? No. It was thanks to Mr Johnson advising the Queen to prorogue Parliament in 2019 that there was extra time to take evidence. Most speakers in that debate said that the CRaG Act was not fit for purpose. However, in the interests of balance, I should say that the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, defended the Act and referred to

“an insatiable beast lurking in the committees of your Lordships’ House.”

She felt that having more information about treaty activity, because of the House’s dislike of Brexit, would

“recede in importance as we start to live in a post-Brexit world.”—[Official Report, 7/9/20; cols. GC 105-124.]

Well, that is going very well, is it not?

The International Agreements Committee was quite right to adopt a pragmatic approach. It is clear to me that we are going backwards. However, today’s announcement by my noble friend Lady Hayter that the Grimstone rule survives is perhaps again going towards the glass half-full suggested by the noble Lord, Lord Lansley. So, there was a Grimstone rule, then there was a government response which went into a lot of detail about why there was no Grimstone rule, and now there is a Grimstone rule. So this is all pretty good.

I accept that the Government will never agree to amend the CRaG Act, but apparently we are not even going to get a concordat. This is pretty thin gruel. In the Government’s response to this report—I am repeating a bit of what my noble friend Lady Hayter said, but it bears repeating—they said that they would

“caution against referring to non-legally binding arrangements as ‘agreements’ as the Committee does in the Report, such terminology being more appropriate to describe a treaty.”

The response went on to say:

“It is established Government practice that non-legally binding arrangements are not routinely published”


unless they raise

“questions of public importance. Ministers consider this on a case by case basis.”

This brings me to a question I have for the Minister about the security assurances given by the Prime Minister, Mr Johnson, to the Prime Ministers of Sweden and Finland pending NATO membership. I checked yesterday’s Hansard and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Newnham, said in a question to the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, that

“we have seen the Prime Minister go to Finland and Sweden and offer bilateral security commitments. That could be seen as very brave, but is it credible?”—[Official Report, 18/5/22; col. 460.]

I read through the noble Lord’s response. He had 60-odd speakers to respond to, so I do not blame him for not mentioning that matter, but I will mention it now. Sending our troops into battle does not get much higher in terms of “public importance”—as referred to in the Government’s response. I take comfort from the fact that it is not legally binding, but will the Minister clarify what assurances were made, and whether the leaders of Sweden and Finland were aware of what the security assurances amounted to? Alternatively, was it just a bit of springtime hand-patting? It would be unfortunate if the Prime Minister were to be accused of being “prima facie ludicrous”.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Thursday 2nd December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend Lord Collins of Highbury for initiating this debate and Tulip Siddiq MP for her tireless campaigning. I also add my congratulations to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford on her most moving maiden speech.

This is not an issue between the people of Iran or the people of the UK. It is between two Governments. I do not believe there was ever a golden era of British diplomacy; it has always been about power, money and leverage. Having said that, when the Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service were better staffed and we had more talented political leaders, I feel sure that this case would have been handled much better.

As it is, we are mired in a multi-level mud pile: a debt which an international court has said we owe, so we are breaking international law—no change there, then; a court case which no doubt has suited both sides to drag on for decades; the UK’s own legislation passed post Brexit, as my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti mentioned, which replaced the EU’s sanctions regime with its own, meaning that paying the acknowledged debt would contravene the UK’s own legislation; and, I suspect the main problem, relations with the USA, which could apply its own sanctions to UK entities and, more importantly, affect future trade agreements between the USA and the UK.

I believe the latter is dead in the water anyway until either Joe Biden or Boris Johnson goes. The Prime Minister’s active support for Mr Trump could hardly endear him to the current Administration. As has already been said, when asked whether the US would stand in the way of the UK meeting a payment to Iran, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that it was

“a sovereign decision for the United Kingdom.”

For heaven’s sake, what else was he going to say—“We have informed our 52nd state that we will not be buying so much as a pencil from them if they do not do as they are told”? I doubt it very much. As I said, there are multiple layers of mud.

The Government might be surprised to know that I agree that payment of the debt should not be linked to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release; nor should we be seen to give in to blackmail, as she and others are clearly political hostages. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s current sentence is linked to her demonstrating outside the Iranian embassy in 2009. No doubt, this is a trumped-up charge but, before we start to feel superior, is not the legislation currently going through Parliament intended to curb the right to protest and demonstrate? Similarly, countries have the right to decide whether or not to recognise dual nationals. Remember Australia, where a few parliamentarians had to stand again for election because they were not born there. Iran has this right, no matter how inconvenient it might be.

We are left with the human story of an individual who is being used a political pawn. Her rights and freedoms have been denied. Her family has been subjected to untold mental suffering. When I chaired ACAS, I witnessed the most incredible staff coming up with solutions—so many were unlikely, but they worked. Sometimes it is about changing the agenda. Completed deals do not have to be good deals—they just have to be acceptable to both sides. If the UK and Iranian Governments would consent, I would willingly travel to Tehran at my own expense to collect Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and bring her home. I am sure others in this Chamber tonight would do the same. It would not be part of any deal. It would not be linked with anything. I would promise not to make any statements which would hinder future relations. I express my solidarity with Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe. I suggest that the Government need to change their agenda.

REACH etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Tuesday 8th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab) [V]]

In supporting my noble friend Lady Hayman of Ullock, I am concerned about the resources and capability of the Health and Safety Executive to carry out its new role, about the risk of safety issues falling through the gaps and about the cost to business, which the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Dillington, just outlined so graphically. This House is on record as regretting the Government’s decision not to participate in the European Chemicals Agency, which would have saved all this uncertainty. I am sure that my noble friend Lord Whitty, whose regret Motion was carried in 2019, will want to say more about that.

Let me make it clear: I am a supporter of the wonderful work carried out by the Health and Safety Executive. I worked closely with it 10 years ago when I was preparing my report on fatalities in the construction industry, and I have been horrified at the extent of the cuts to its budget by successive Conservative Governments. As the UK chemicals authority, the HSE will take on the role that was formerly carried out by the European Chemicals Agency. The question of staffing and resources of the HSE has been raised before. I was a member of Sub-Committee B of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee in 2019. It expressed concern in its report on the REACH regulations that the HSE did not have the resources to recruit the necessary expert staff. Now the current Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, under the able leadership of the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, is expressing deep concern about the same thing over a year later. Why have the Government not taken action when they were warned of the difficulties? The new regime comes in on 1 January 2021 but recruitment to the HSE is nowhere near concluded.

What contingency plans exist to ensure that safety and standards are maintained during this crucial period? What assurances can the Minister give that the HSE will be adequately funded? Will the Government work with stakeholders to develop an open and transparent structure? As the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, explained, the advantage of the European Chemicals Agency, which the Government have decided to leave, is that it had a committee structure which ensured that its work would be challenged, and Cruelty Free International has emphasised that this open structure ensures that “the best information is available, including on animal testing.”

Will the Government guarantee that there will be no repeat animal testing because of a failure to share data, and how will they carry out that guarantee in practice? In most cases, UK firms do not own the testing data that is required to support registrations under UK REACH. The majority of this data is owned, as has been said, by a consortium of European countries. I appreciate that the Government are seeking agreement with the EU on data sharing, referred to as a chemicals annexe. If this agreement is reached, it would mitigate the need for the chemical industry to provide full data packages to the new agency, thus avoiding considerable cost to business.

I accept that extending some of the dates is intended to assist the industry and give it time to adjust. However, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has supported the view of the CHEM Trust, a chemical safety charity, that extending the period to more than six years would hamper the ability of the agency to regulate the chemicals industry. The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee agrees that this could undermine the HSE’s ability to regulate chemicals properly.

The noble Lord knows that the House has been expressing concern on these issues for nearly two years. The Government created the uncertainty by refusing to remain within the European Chemicals Agency and agreeing a Northern Ireland protocol without considering its fundamental implications. They now have an obligation to sort out their own mess and maintain the safety and security of the chemicals industry.

Treaty Scrutiny: Working Practices (EUC Report)

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 Grand Committee

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, first, I congratulate the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, my noble friend Lady Taylor and my noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith on their reports. They provide an excellent basis for the future if the Government are prepared to listen.

I am a member of the EU Select Committee and I chair the EU Sub-Committee on Services. I also chaired the former EU Sub-Committee on Internal Markets. We scrutinised a number of rollover treaties, such as those with South Korea and Switzerland, and experienced the weaknesses of the current CRaG Act procedures. The CRaG Act needs reform, even though the Government have stated that they are not minded to do it. I agree with the Constitution Committee’s conclusion that the current system of treaty scrutiny is “anachronistic and inadequate”.

An article in Parliament Research entitled Treaty Scrutiny: A New Challenge for Parliament, said that the CRaG Act

“relegates Parliament to a ‘weak form of sign off at the end of the process’.”

Parliament has a responsibility to develop its scrutiny capacity, even within the confines of the CRaG Act. This House has responded with the setting up of the International Agreements Committee, which will aim in principle to be open and transparent and will have a good chance of securing time for debates on significant treaties.

We have had warm words from the Government about drawing on the extensive experience and expertise of both Houses, but we should not be used just as a reference library. Treaties, whether on trade, the environment, protecting our public health service or jobs and employment standards, directly affect our daily lives, which is why parliamentary scrutiny and accountability are so vital. It is also why keeping faith with the devolved Administrations is so important. They have a legitimate interest in any agreement reached on their behalf in terms of both policy and devolved competencies. It might just help to keep the United Kingdom together.

The content of future treaties is for another debate. However, the House might be interested to know that one of the witnesses to the Internal Markets Sub-Committee produced a complete table of contents of modern free trade agreements—a massive piece of work. Countries bind themselves to various restrictions, standards or regulation in order to reach a deal. We should remember that when we hear all the stories of the UK freebooting on the high seas.

Incidentally, all such treaties contain some reference to level playing fields or non-regression clauses. Disguise it as you will, any Brexit deal will have to cover this—as will all other treaties. The irony is that we are applying for membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, where the UK will be expected to conform to some kind of restrictions on standards, dumping or dispute resolution. If it is half a world away, it is okay; if it is a country within half a day’s travel, apparently it is not okay.

Queen’s Speech

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

My Lords, a week ago I enjoyed an evening with the Involvement and Participation Association, of which I am vice-president. Employers from top-rank organisations talked about employee engagement, trade unions were respected and HR directors were committed to encouraging a voice for workers whether or not they were in a union. However, I noted that this is an unusual experience in the UK, where the world of work is more likely to witness increasing levels of inequality in our society and no consultation. It was reported at that AGM that an alarming number of employers cited e-mails as the main method of communication and even consultation with their employees. Fairness and dignity at work are not just about money. An example was given of a FTSE 100 company that sent a standardised retirement letter to an employee after 40 years’ service and managed to get the spelling of his name wrong as well. His colleagues were more agitated about this than any other more tangible grievances about pay and conditions.

The world of work is central to all of us, whether it is the 30 million people in the UK who are in work or those who are seeking it. Work provides an income essential for living, helps to place us in society and sometimes provides dignity and enjoyment, but when is it ever discussed as a central issue in this Parliament? It is referred to in terms of statistics to show how successful or otherwise a Government are in providing jobs, when loosening worker protections on the premise that employers will grow their businesses on the back of it and when employers want to make it easier and easier to dismiss workers. You would think that employment tribunals are the only things that matter in the world of work, when they are in fact the rarest element—something that the vast majority of workers never experience and never will. However, the tail continues to wag the dog. Having said that, I believe that the changes to employment tribunals made by the coalition Government are a disgrace and the sooner they are repealed the better.

However, the fundamental issues in the world of work are what kind of society we want to be, why we are less productive in this country, why there is growing inequality and diminishing fairness at work and why the relative pay gap between workers and executives has stretched almost beyond belief. Job insecurity and casualisation have not, and will not, improve productivity. As my noble friend Lady Drake said, that does not help with applying for mortgages, planning for one’s children’s future or saving for a pension. We are building a legacy of long-term poverty and giving future generations a choice between increased state dependency or a return to the dark ages.

I am not saying that casual working should be abolished: it has always been with us. I remember that at the University of London in the 1960s the Senate House had a pool of what were referred to as “call girls” to assist at the busier times. In some industries the workforce prefers to opt for a flexible system which suits both employee and employer—although not necessarily the collection of tax. However, I am talking about the wholesale abuse of casualisation. I applaud the proposals in the Pickavance report, commissioned by Ed Miliband, which calls for a code of practice to be drawn up, in conjunction with ACAS, protecting workers after six months if they work regular hours and banning compulsory standby and exclusivity. An amendment to the Employment Rights Act 1996 to require employers to provide information about basic terms and conditions to all workers within two months of commencing work would also be welcome—in other words, extending the right which employees already enjoy.

The increasing pay gap between worker and executive represents a massive corporate failure in the UK and is a threat to the public’s trust in business. Seventy-six per cent of voters think that big business has too much power over government. In 1980, the pay for a FTSE 100 chief executive was 20 times the national average; in the late 1990s, it had risen to 60 times the national average, and today it is 160 times the national average. The exasperation of the public with our political system, although manifested in our newspapers as exasperation with the failure to deal with immigration or with politicians on the make, may really be about inequality and a feeling of powerlessness. I find it interesting that 80% of UKIP voters are as likely as the wider population to demand government action to reduce inequality.

The Government have no programme to make this a priority or even to tackle increased inequality; instead, they search for ways to deprive people of their rights. For instance, why on earth are they proposing to take the police out of health and safety legislation? Are the police not workers, too? I congratulate the leader of my party, Ed Miliband, on saying that low pay will be a priority for the next Labour Government. It is important to retain the independence of the Low Pay Commission and in doing so and to strengthen it.

Similarly, why not have a statutory requirement for workers to sit on boards? It is only a tiny aspect of worker involvement but it will be resisted as if it was the equivalent of the peasants’ revolt. It was resisted by employers in Germany but is now part of the country’s culture and its successful economy. Relativity should be central to every enterprise. Unfair pay differentials have consequences—more sickness absence and higher staff turnover as well as lower productivity.

It is good news that we have 30.43 million people in work in the first quarter of this year, but then we have more people due to demographics and immigration. However, 2.2 million unemployed is not good news. The number of unemployed women aged 50 and over has increased by almost half since the coalition came to power: 162,000 older women are unemployed. They have talent and experience and they vote. We need an honest appraisal of what kind of jobs will be needed in the future. The Edge Foundation has said that nine of the 10 occupations most in demand in the future will require vocational skills.

Finally, the references to employment in the Queen’s Speech were predictable, with some being good and some bad depending on the detail. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Higgins, said, there is also a reference to,

“work to build a fairer society”.

I have seen no evidence of this yet but, if the Government are sincere, they should come forward with proposals to ensure that workers have a voice, are not treated as commodities, are paid fairly, are given appropriate job security and are not paid 80 times less than their boss. That really would be a fairer society.

EU: Prime Minister’s Speech

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Thursday 31st January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Donaghy]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, for her welcome initiative. She may remember that many months ago we had a conversation about Europe, and I told her that I was one of the only members of my local Labour Party to take the day off work during the 1975 referendum to urge people to vote no. The noble Baroness informed me that she, too, had taken the day off work to campaign for a yes vote. We have both developed different points of view from all those years ago—I because of the Social Chapter possibilities, which gave workers rights and women opportunities during an era, the 1980s and 1990s, that was pretty bleak for both. The noble Baroness’s view was affected by the very same issues, which I think she sees as red tape. I have a great deal of respect for her views, even though we may not agree. I simply want to illustrate that, as Europe develops, we are all entitled to change our minds and openly debate issues on their merits.

For 10 years, during the 1990s, I was one of the representatives of the TUC on the European TUC executive. I was privileged to move in the ETUC executive acceptance of the framework agreement on part-time workers, so I plead guilty but proud of my part in ensuring that workers, particularly women workers, should be treated equally. The irony was that we were working hard at the European level on these Social Chapter issues. They were negotiated and agreed with the social partners, which included the CBI, and I watched these directives being implemented, except in the UK. That Alice in Wonderland position was put right when the Labour Government were elected. While I think that the Prime Minister’s clever speech contained something for all views, except for those of us who support workers’ rights, a referendum is too far off to get worked up about. However, I agree that we should trust the British people, if and when the time comes.

Finally, I may be alone in this view but at present we have expert debates in this House arising from the European sub-committees, which are too rich for my diet, or we have one-dimensional exchanges in Question Time: “We should all leave Europe”, “Oh no we shouldn’t”. Those of us who are interested in the wider framework issues are looking for opportunities to discuss them in an intelligent, challenging forum where not everything is black and white and where there are no easy answers.