Social Mobility: Local Roots, Lasting Change (Social Mobility Policy Committee Report)

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Friday 4th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, this was a fascinating committee with a very impressive chair and enthusiastic members. We asked witnesses for a definition of social mobility and received a very wide variety of answers. We ended up with, “Ensuring that the situation that you are born into or grow up in does not determine your outcomes in life”. In theory, of course, this could mean down as well as up—duke to dustman, for instance—but we felt it more productive to concentrate on people bettering themselves rather than moving down.

The government response has warm words and sets out plans for tackling the NEETs, who should be a scar on our society. We look forward to Alan Milburn’s final report and welcome the £2.5 billion to support young people, as well as the proposals for work experience and youth jobs grants, but fear that the penalties for employers in taking on young people will act as a deterrent to those opportunities. Will the Government consider relaxing the employee rights for young people trying to get into employment? We moved amendments to the Bill to ensure that apprentices should not have their hopes dashed by acquiring full rights from day one, but it is important that all those trying to find work should give employers the chance to try them out.

Messing about with vocational qualifications is never a clever way to encourage take up. We had well-tried and tested BTECs and City & Guilds qualifications when the last Government introduced T-levels under the misapprehension that changing “vocational” to “technical” would, at a stroke, raise their status. T-levels are beginning to be understood and there is some encouraging take-up, but why introduce V-levels when existing provision covers the same fields? We plead with the Government not to defund existing provision until there is very sound evidence that the new qualifications on the block are valid, valued and working. To stop when T-levels and V-levels are introduced, as in the response to recommendation 9, is no use if they have not been properly evaluated and understood by students, colleges, training providers and parents, who are some of the most difficult people to convince.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, said, we were very impressed by the work in Blackpool, particularly at Blackpool and The Fylde College, where young people relish doing real work in building and engineering. Local collaboration is obviously vital for such schemes to work and the partnerships that the college has built up with local businesses, large and small, was a key factor in its success.

As the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, said, however, we must not ignore the huge contribution made by universities to social mobility. We need to ensure that financial and structural barriers do not prevent students from disadvantaged backgrounds accessing and succeeding in higher education.

We welcome the measures that the Government have announced—the Minister set those out for us in our debate yesterday—particularly to review careers guidance, to help care leavers leaving care and being left adrift, to transform the growth and skills levy, and to ensure that unspent funds go back into apprenticeships rather than into the Treasury. We shall watch with interest, in the hope that the intentions get translated into actions to enable disadvantaged people, young and old, to have the opportunity of social mobility and to become productive, happy and fulfilled members of society.

Horizon 2020

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Duncan of Springbank]

The noble Lord is right. The fund is based on excellence. British scientists are excellent and we therefore get significant benefit from the programme. We collaborate at the highest possible level and are able to deliver science at the highest possible level, and that is therefore a benefit to our university system and more broadly. It is very difficult to quantify but I do not think that there is a single scientist in our universities who would not applaud and recognise that.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, British scientists are indeed excellent but that is partly because they can collaborate with European scientists. What assurances can the noble Lord give that those collaborations will continue after we leave the EU?

[Lord Duncan of Springbank]

It is difficult to comment on specific collaborations but I stress that British scientists and academics and our university system are all excellent. Collaboration is therefore of mutual benefit to both sides of this issue.

Independent Monitoring Commission for Northern Ireland

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Wednesday 18th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Harris of Richmond]

My Lords, the intent of my Question is to ensure that we do not forget about Northern Ireland and to remind the House that this is still a work in progress. We have a responsibility to ensure that a politically devolved Northern Ireland remains committed to transformation of its society. We spend a great deal of money—£14,000 million, or £14 billion—to help it through this process and it is important that we keep ourselves informed about progress. Since the 26th and final report from the Independent Monitoring Commission for Northern Ireland was presented to the House in July last year, a number of extremely violent incidents have occurred there. Although everyone must be relieved that the appalling terrorist activity has apparently come to an end, it has not completely disappeared and we must be vigilant about any recurrence.

I believe that the IMC has done a fantastic job. It was set up five years after the signing of the Belfast agreement, at a time of great turmoil in Northern Ireland. There was no real political agreement on a way forward and there was a continuing atmosphere of mistrust between political parties. As the report recognises, at the time that the IMC was set up paramilitary groups had not decommissioned their weapons and, although generally not attacking the organs of state, they were still engaged in illegal and often violent activity. Some also had strong links to political parties. Article 3 of the terms of the agreement stated that the IMC was set up,

“to carry out its functions … with a view to promoting the transition to a peaceful society and stable and inclusive devolved Government in Northern Ireland".

It had a very difficult task to perform. During its time it reported on abductions, murders, violence of a terrible nature, robberies on a grand scale—most notably that of the Northern Bank in Belfast—and ongoing feuds between paramilitary organisations.

As well as its six-monthly paramilitary reports, the IMC produced a number of ad hoc reports on various initiatives that it had undertaken, either on its own or at the behest of the Irish and British Governments, and the progress evident through these reports is remarkable. They chart the steady progression towards a normalised society. All those concerned with the IMC over the years are to be warmly congratulated on their work, bravery, dedication and commitment to the building of the very different Northern Ireland that we see today, some seven and a half years since they began their task. I pay particular tribute to my noble friend Lord Alderdice, who is unable to be with us tonight and who was a member of the IMC throughout its term of office.

The IMC’s work must, at times, have been utterly gruesome. Covering a land area not much bigger than that of my home county of North Yorkshire, Northern Ireland had four paramilitary murders and more than 200 brutal paramilitary shootings or assaults in 2005, a year after the IMC started its work. In the seven years since, there have been 21 murders and more than 800 reported casualties of paramilitary violence and a resurgence of serious violence by dissident republicans. Can the Minister tell me how many paramilitary-related incidents have taken place since the IMC's last report was published? How many incidents classed as violence have occurred in Northern Ireland in the past six months, and how does that compare with the preceding six months?

I was privileged last year to meet some of the victims of these crimes. They were cared for and supported by an extraordinary organisation called WAVE, led by a young man called Alan McBride. The organisation offers support to people bereaved of a spouse as a result of violence in Northern Ireland. I met many other truly inspirational people who are doing a marvellous job helping those afflicted as a consequence of the Troubles. My programme was organised by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Consortium, to which I owe a huge debt of gratitude for showing me the magnificent work done by these groups. They all work tremendously hard in desperately deprived areas of Belfast, which we must visit if we are to understand the difficulties that organisations face in their efforts to support those in most need.

Northern Ireland is different. Paragraph 5.6 of the report states:

“Members and former members of all paramilitary groups remain very active in non-terrorist types of crime—a bequest from the Troubles which will dog Northern Ireland for years and will require a substantial continuing effort from law enforcement agencies”.

Perhaps I may ask the Minister how many PSNI officers there are now compared with six months ago, and whether it is the Government's assessment that these numbers are sufficient to ensure the safety of the people of Northern Ireland.

We should never forget how far we have come since 2004, when there were still more than 14,000 British troops in Northern Ireland, occupying 24 bases in an area—I remind your Lordships—not much greater than that of North Yorkshire. Army personnel were based in 13 police stations, and nine sites were used for observation and communications. For 38 years there had been a regular military role in law enforcement—the largest in British military history so far—and the IMC clearly had a huge role in helping Northern Ireland overcome the terrible years of mayhem, when it seemed to many that there would never be peace. However, much still needs to be done and the Secretary of State has promised regular six-monthly reports to the House about progress towards a shared future. Is the Minister able to confirm that a report will be presented shortly?

My sincere hope is that there will be much more integrated education to enable the young people of Northern Ireland to live together, respecting each other’s cultures, instead of being separated as they have been for too long. I pay tribute to the tireless work of the noble Baroness, Lady Blood, who has been an indefatigable promoter of integrated education, as has the noble Lord, Lord Dubs. Neither of them is in their place this evening.

Finally, I will quote again from this excellent report. On page 55, in the section “Looking Ahead”, it states:

“In our view, Northern Ireland should now address its continuing issues by conferring full responsibility on its own political and other institutions. … Paramilitary violence is still a real issue. Dissident republicans are an active and serious threat, especially at the moment against members of the PSNI. … Loyalists … have yet to inspire confidence that they are capable of finally going away as paramilitary organisations, as PIRA has. Some members and former members of all groups remain heavily involved in a wide range of serious crime … presenting a challenge to law enforcement which is significantly more serious than it would otherwise have been. … Northern Ireland's political and other institutions, and the UK Government in respect of national security, therefore have a heavy continuing responsibility to complete the process whereby paramilitary groups finally cease to play a part in society. That responsibility goes wider, to the communities in which paramilitary groups still play a role. … There are some in those communities who have to learn that paramilitary groups hold back their social and economic development and that only by rejecting them and whole-heartedly supporting public and voluntary institutions and the rule of law can they fully throw off the bequest of the Troubles. … The main responsibility for dealing with these challenges rests with the Assembly, the Executive and local politicians, working in conjunction with community leaders, churches, the law enforcement and other public institutions, and ultimately with the people of Northern Ireland as a whole. … It is this inclusive leadership which must now jointly guide Northern Ireland along the rest of the road”.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, perhaps I may point out that the timing on this debate is very tight. The minute the clock shows that five minutes have elapsed, noble Lords should sit down; otherwise, other noble Lords will be denied their chance to speak.