Independent Complaints and Grievance Policy

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Hussein-Ece

Thursday 21st December 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I thank the noble Lord and certainly take on board his comments. The definitions we used in the survey are official definitions. I am afraid I cannot remember if they were from ACAS or elsewhere. We used definitions of bullying, harassment and sexual violence that are accepted in practice.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, I, too, welcome the Leader repeating the Statement and all the work that is going on. I will make a couple of points. First, some of the women who are victims have come forward and quite bravely put their head above the parapet and said what has happened to them. Unfortunately and disappointingly, that has been picked up by sections of the media and they have been vilified; their lives have been picked over in an attempt to discredit them. What can be done and is the committee considering this? It will only act as a deterrent to women and other victims who want to come forward to report anything serious if they are going to find themselves in the media spotlight or on social media.

On the behavioural code, if it is a new code everyone must sign up to and is it a new code that everyone must sign up to and is it key to being a Member of Parliament, whether of this place or the other place? The Leader mentioned sanctions. Obviously, in the most serious cases, there will have to be an ultimate sanction—I suspect, suspension from either House. Will the committee be considering legislation to enable that? As I understand it, at the moment there are no grounds to suspend somebody permanently for that kind of misdemeanour. To change the culture, there have to be sanctions that will act as deterrents, and the ultimate deterrent would be suspension from this place. I should be grateful for answers to those questions.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

Confidentiality is one of the key things we have been concerned about. Getting better processes and structures in place to make sure that when people have complaints they are treated confidentially—both the victim and the person being accused—has been at the centre of what we are thinking about. We want to make sure that this works for both parties to reach a good outcome.

On the new behaviour code, the noble Baroness is right about sanctions. That is why in the Statement I talked about whether we need to look at the functions of the parliamentary commissioner. Obviously that would need changes to the code, and they would be brought forward to the House. If it was decided that the ultimate sanction was needed, as the noble Baroness suggests, we would need to change our code of conduct et cetera to achieve that, but that would be for this House as well as the other place to decide.

Religious Literacy

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Hussein-Ece

Thursday 9th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Liberal Democrats.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

Does the Minister agree that last weekend’s Visit My Mosque initiative, which hundreds—indeed, maybe thousands—took advantage of, was a very good and positive example of promoting greater understanding, community cohesion and tolerance in our society? Does she think that we should have more such initiatives from all faiths to bring people together and establish a more understanding and truthful dialogue?

Women: Representation

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Hussein-Ece

Tuesday 8th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that question. We are waiting for the results of the physiological study before we give a full response but I am certainly happy to acknowledge that we have 15,550 women in the Armed Forces, who do a fantastic job serving our country.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

My Lords, it is very clear now that more women than ever are needed in post-conflict peacebuilding. Can the Minister say how much progress we are making with Diplomatic Service heads of mission in this country? Are efforts being made to attract more young women to enter the service and to crack the glass ceiling in areas such as the FCO? It is said that diplomacy is a man’s world—could she please tell us otherwise?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I am not sure that it would be very diplomatic of me to say one way or the other whether women or men are better at diplomacy so I will sit on the fence on that one. But I absolutely agree with the noble Baroness that we want to encourage more women, both into our Diplomatic Service and across public services. Since 1996, the percentage of women in the senior Civil Service has more than doubled, with women now representing more than 40% of those employed at that level—but I agree that we must do more.

Higher Education: Part-Time Students

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Hussein-Ece

Wednesday 11th November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

We have decided as a Government that we want to focus the resources that we have in a time when money is tight. We believe that it is best value for money to focus resources on those people undertaking and gaining a qualification. That is where our priority and funding have been.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

I am sure the Minister is aware that 60% of part-time students are female, and they could be disproportionately impacted by any of these changes. How will the Government prevent that and ensure that women will not bear the brunt of any changes, or lack of support, in provision to higher education?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I said, we are taking a series of measures to try to encourage people who want to undertake part-time courses. Of course we encourage anybody who wishes to undertake upskilling to be able to do so. As I said, we have seen a 43% increase in the number of higher and degree apprenticeships compared to 2013. We have got them in various industries already and another 11 have been approved for development, so we are looking at other ways in which we can encourage people into part-time study.

Education: Free Schools

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Hussein-Ece

Monday 22nd June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

Yes, I pay tribute to the work of the noble Lord, among others. As I said, free schools are delivering a high-quality education to young people across England. There are some fantastic examples. As I said, their results are really speaking for themselves.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

The Minister is talking about free schools, but will she join me in saying that there are many thousands of teachers in state schools working equally hard and providing excellent education to children, such as my children, who have had a very good education? The rhetoric seems to be, “Free schools good, state schools bad”. Will she dispel that rumour?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I am delighted to join in the congratulations offered by the noble Baroness to hard-working teachers in outstanding schools across the state sector. As I have said, every child deserves the opportunity of a good education. Free schools are one way in which this can happen, but there are many excellent local authority schools. Let me reiterate: free schools are also producing high-quality education, with 74% rated good or outstanding—but I am happy to congratulate all hard-working teachers on their fantastic effort.