House of Lords Appointments Commission

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Thursday 21st July 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, I know that many of your Lordships feel that way, and I have intimated what I think about that in one of my earlier answers. Having been an observer of your Lordships’ House for a long time before I had the honour of becoming a Member, I can put the point that, while it is true that there are some noble Lords who come here infrequently, they none the less make very major contributions to specific and specialised debates. In addressing the challenge put forward by the noble Lord opposite, I beg your Lordships to recognise that quantity of speech is not necessarily consonant with value or quality of contribution.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, only a matter of months ago, the Prime Minister said:

“There is one ‘first’ that is still long overdue and that is the moment when—for the first time—we finally achieve 50:50 … in our Parliament.”


The only place in which the Prime Minister has the power and opportunity to make progress towards this ambition is here in your Lordships’ House. Like other noble Lords, I hope he will show restraint but, if there are more Members to come, it is worth noting that he has so far appointed seven women and 29 men to the Conservative Benches. It is not too late to put this right. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that a new list is an opportunity to redress this balance?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend makes a very good point, to which every past, present and future Prime Minister should pay heed: this House is enriched by all manner of diversity. I strongly agree with what she said about the great importance of a full contribution by women in your Lordships’ House.

Covid-19: Wedding Venues

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord True]

My Lords, I very much understand the point that the right reverend Prelate makes, but the scientific advice at the moment—not only in relation to churches, I may say—is that singing generally, because of its impact, carries the risk of spreading Covid, so it should be avoided in all public spaces.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I understand that 80% of weddings are civil rather than religious ceremonies. What advice can the Government give to wedding venues faced with an avalanche of postponements and cancellation demands from couples who, on the one hand, are not prepared to compromise on the format with regard to social distancing, face masks, et cetera, and yet on the other have been led to believe by the CMA that they will get all their money back if they cancel their weddings?

[Lord True]

I would say to my noble friend that we have only just moved into a new phase, which people are welcoming, in which marriages can actually take place. For a number of months, weddings have not been allowed and managers have had to confront that question. I am afraid that the position must remain that venue managers themselves will have discretion over when they consider it safe to open. Also, the officiant at a wedding, whether in a church or a secular setting, needs to be content that it is safe to proceed.

Intergenerational Fairness in Government Policy

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Thursday 26th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, for introducing this excellent debate, and I particularly endorse her comments about the short-termist approach by all Governments, which is so damaging to this country. I suspect that this is quite an uncomfortable subject for most us in this Chamber, and the more research I did for the debate, the more uncomfortable I have felt. Most of us are sitting on a very substantial asset, or, in many cases, more than one. We own assets that young people of the age we were when we bought our homes—27 years ago in my case, with a couple of young children—cannot even dream of. Here in this Chamber today we are, as we have admitted, mostly baby boomers born between 1946 and 1965. As we have heard, there are also members of the Silent Generation—or Traditionalists; those born before 1945—and we even have the odd member of Generation X, covering 1966 to 1980. But we do not have a single millennial here to tell us for themselves how they feel about the intergenerational shift in wealth and services from young to old. What is more, I doubt that many committees here ever hear from them as witnesses.

I am particularly grateful to have heard from the patron saint of millennials, my noble friend Lord Willetts. I am only sorry that not enough of the baby boomers who now run this country listened to him at the time of the publication of The Pinch, some seven years ago. I congratulate him on the work of the Resolution Foundation and in particular the Intergenerational Commission, which is doing so much important work and thinking in this space.

I first became aware that the millennials had had enough a few years ago when my own children started to get angry on behalf of their generation. It has been a long while in the making but the situation has now come to a head, and as we have heard, there is a risk that the millennials will be the first-ever generation to record lower lifetime earnings than their predecessors. While there is no natural right for succeeding generations to be better off, the cards in this game seem to be unfairly stacked against them.

Hot on their heels and about to jump into the workplace melting pot of Traditionalists, baby boomers, Generation X and millennials are the centennials, who will account for 30% of the global workforce by 2025 and have different characteristics again. They have no idea about a world without digital technology. From the moment they were born, technology has touched every part of their lives. They have never had to cash a cheque, use a hard encyclopaedia for homework or even open a filing cabinet. They have also grown up in the public eye. Social media took off in 2000, so it is in their nature to document their lives online for all to see. Their knowledge of social media can be a great asset. Their phones, which they stick to as glue, are their computers, and it is completely natural for them to take notes on them in meetings and the workplace. They are totally digital natives.

What is urgent for policymakers—and frankly, for all of us—is the revolution under way that will leave our labour market changed beyond recognition. Most pertinent here is that so many of the jobs that were enablers of social mobility from the 1960s onwards will be swept away on a tide of turmoil and tech. In the UK, 35% of jobs are in danger of automation; by the same token, over 1 million new jobs will be required in the digital sector by the end of this decade alone. By the time these centennials enter the job market, it will be unrecognisable to those of us in the Chamber today. But that group of very young people are for another day.

A number of noble Lords have concentrated their remarks on housing, employment and earnings, pensions and pensioner benefits, and the political difficulties in challenging the current position on those. I will highlight just one example of the kind that the noble Lord, Lord Storey, also highlighted. I am 61 and for nearly two years I have been entitled to free public transport in London under the concessionary travel scheme. Frankly, that is ridiculous. This generosity has also had an unintended side-effect because, as the number of people who work beyond state pension age has risen—many of whom work flexibly, without being stuck with regular hours—concessionary fares have enabled more and more of them to travel to work free of charge. Of the over-60s who use the London Underground or Overground network on a given day, at least 25% travel to work free of charge, saving thousands of pounds a year. Surely this benefit should at least be in line with the retirement age.

Many of our generation are fitter today than we were 20 years ago and we intend to remain fit and healthy into old age—or at least I certainly hope so. We have a duty to do so, not only for a more personally enjoyable old age but to reduce our own intergenerational footprint by keeping out of hospitals and adult social care for as long as possible.

No one today has mentioned the cost of sustained immigration. I accept that this issue is very sensitive but with an average of more than 250,000 immigrants every year for the past 10 years, we cannot ignore the effect that this also has on services and therefore on this debate.

This is challenging and difficult stuff and there are no easy answers. The material sent to us all by Age UK, for example, makes a powerful argument in favour of support for pensioners—for the triple lock and so on. The younger generation has no such powerful group to argue similarly on its behalf, but I end with a message of hope. The millennials I know are more thoughtful, more creative, talented and educated, and more resourceful than we were, and thank goodness for that.

Food Poverty

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I have been told by a friend who is involved in the food bank movement that demand for food banks has dipped when schools go back. The Government take some comfort from the fact that the expansion of free school meals in primary schools is clearly, therefore, a help in this regard, whatever the Daily Mail may have said in attacking the whole initiative.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, noble Lords may be aware that I have been a member of this inquiry, which over the past few months has travelled from Birkenhead and South Shields to Cornwall and Salisbury to take evidence, as well as indeed taking evidence from a large number of witnesses and organisations in London, many of whom do outstanding work in their local communities. I would like to take this opportunity to say how much I regret the wording of my remarks at the launch on Monday, not least because they have overshadowed the 76 other recommendations in the report. I ask my noble friend to urge Ministers in the eight different departments responsible to read the report and its recommendations with great care.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the enormous amount of work that the noble Baroness, together with others, has put into this inquiry. I know that she has been committed to these issues for some years. Perhaps I might draw particular attention to the chapter on resilience in this report, which talks about the problems of families who do not have the skills or confidence to cook. I note that the Trussell Trust has been providing courses on cooking for some of those in order to help with diet, so that they eat well and spend less.

UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Monday 24th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, having flown overnight from a different time zone, I was rather tempted to scratch from today’s debate and I now feel a bit guilty that I did not. However, as I was just discussing with the noble Baroness, Lady Prosser, in the Prince’s Chamber, these matters are so crucial that, although we seem to debate them regularly, it is important for the rest of the world to know how much we in this Chamber care and worry about our sisters across the world. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this debate and thank the noble Baroness for so ably introducing it.

I will start by going back to basics with a reminder of what the NAP actually is. The UK national action plan provides a framework to ensure that the provisions of UNSCR 1325 and associated resolutions are incorporated into the Government’s work on violent conflict. The creation of a new UK cross-government plan provides an opportunity to outline how UNSCR 1325 can be integrated into wider defence, diplomacy and development measures, and adopted in armed conflict and post-conflict situations. It helps the Government to identify priorities, determine responsibilities and develop measurements against which progress can be measured at the national level.

Why do we need such a plan? The horrendous impact of conflict on women around the world has long been underestimated and, in many cases, brushed under the carpet. More than half of armed conflicts reignite within a decade of peace. At the heart of this problem lie flawed peacebuilding efforts which have often excluded 50% of the affected population: women. Over the past 50 years, the nature of conflict has changed; almost all modern conflicts are intra-state, although external dynamics still influence conflict realities. This means that it is more dangerous than ever to be a civilian in today’s conflicts.

As wars shift from the battlefields to communities, civilians now suffer more than ever. In World War I, approximately 10% of all deaths were of non-combatants; in Iraq, since 2003, civilians account for around 90% of all fatalities. These changes have impacted enormously on women and modern peacebuilding and security agendas must address this challenge. As Major General Patrick Cammaert—I hope I have pronounced that correctly—former military adviser to the UN Secretary-General, famously stated:

“It is now more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier in modern conflict”.

I do not suppose I will be the only person using that quote today. It is time for the UK and the international community to recognise this and move forward to an era where women are free from impunity. The UN Security Council’s renewed determination to bring women into the centre of all efforts to resolve conflict and promote peace is to be welcomed. The goal is not merely to ensure that women have seats at the table of all conflict resolutions, but also to ensure that communities and societies as a whole can benefit from their expertise and knowledge.

I welcome and acknowledge the UK Government’s commitment to this issue, particularly the Foreign Secretary’s passion to achieve greater justice for women and girls. As he said at the launch of the “No Women, No Peace” campaign, no lasting peace can be achieved after conflict unless the needs of women are met. This means not only justice for the victims of crimes of war, but their active involvement in creating a society in which their rights are respected and their voices are heard.

In the short time available I am sure that others will speak in detail about the importance of June’s conference, where the updated NAP will be launched. I look forward to hearing from others with expertise on the subject.

Credit is also due to Ban Ki-moon for leading the way. He confirmed at the end of last year that women must be involved at every stage of efforts to reassert the rule of law and to rebuild societies through transitional justice.

“Their needs for security and justice must be addressed. Their voices must be heard. Their rights must be protected”,

he said, urging the council to deal with the full range of women’s rights violations during conflict. He is leading by example by appointing more women to senior positions throughout the UN. For the first time in history, five UN peacekeeping operations are led by women: in South Sudan, Liberia, Cyprus, Haiti and Côte d’Ivoire. He has also appointed the UN’s first woman lead mediator in a peace process: Mary Robinson, the UN special envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa.

While that is much to be welcomed, it is important to look beyond the top leadership positions. We need to examine where women are in the overall architecture of peacekeeping missions. Those in middle-ranking positions are just as critical because they are the ones who directly interact with the local populations who are directly affected by the conflicts.

I am going to cut most of the rest of this so as to give the right reverend Prelate a fair whack. I will say only that the only way to combat the dire threat to women across the world is to include them in peace processes. Without their input, no peace will ever be lasting.

G8 Summit

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Thursday 13th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Trimble, for initiating this very timely debate. As we all know, the priorities for the G8 are to push for practical action to achieve fairer taxes, greater transparency and freer trade. These are essential actions in shaping the rules that characterise a fair and open global economy, ensuring that both developed and developing countries benefit. Like others in the debate, I congratulate the Prime Minister and his team on their hard work and commitment in driving the G8 agenda.

G8 summits have sometimes been seen as places where western nations have pointed the finger at developing countries, but this meeting is also about the G8 countries getting their own house in order. To make a difference to developing countries, it is vital to reach agreement on things such as tax transparency and trade. This will allow developing nations to know, when developed nations go into their country, what they are paying for the contracts, what those Governments are receiving, and what the real benefits are for the people of those nations.

As we have discussed, fairer taxation will be a key priority at the talks. It is important that we get political support for ensuring that global tax rules are fit for the 21st century. As the recent hoo-hah has shown, it cannot be acceptable for companies to create shadow shell companies offshore, effectively meaning that neither the developed nor the developing countries get the benefit from tax revenue that should come from profits.

If these companies are not paying tax on their profits, developed and developing nations cannot provide the public services and support that are needed. We do not underestimate the complexities and challenges, but it must be a key part of what we are doing at the G8 to say to companies, “You have to be transparent about who owns you, where you are owned and what tax you are paying”. As my noble friend Lord Brooke pointed out, research suggests that Jersey is now the world’s largest exporter of bananas. We know that that is not true and needs to be sorted out.

Greater transparency of taxation must also be accompanied by greater transparency of other financial flows. The UK, through DfID, has led the way in becoming the world’s most transparent aid donor. Through its role in the international aid transparency initiative, DfID is ensuring that UK taxpayers, and citizens in developing countries, will be able to track funds right through the aid chain to the point of delivery, ensuring that countries can better manage the aid that they receive, plan effectively, co-ordinate better and, most importantly, make sure that the money gets to where it is supposed to go.

Three of the other seven G8 countries—the US, Canada and Germany—are now also publishing their aid transactions, through the initiative. We hope that the remaining G8 countries will also prioritise the information needs of developing countries, and fulfil these transparency commitments.

Accompanying progress in aid, the UK and French Governments have made a joint agreement in the run-up to the G8 which will mean that both Governments will apply for formal candidacy of the extractives industry transparency initiative, which was set up to help tackle corruption, to improve the way revenues from oil, gas and minerals, are managed, and to make sure that people across the world share in the economic benefits of the natural resources in their country. I am proud that our Government are playing a key role in ensuring that people benefit fairly from the natural resources of the country in which they live. As the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, pointed out, mineral wealth in developing countries should be a blessing, and not, as so often in the past, a curse.

Finally, on transparency, last week the UK Government took a further step in enhancing transparency through the launch of the Lough Erne G8 Accountability Report. The G8 has never before produced such a comprehensive accountability report, showing it being open about where it has delivered against its commitments, and where it needs to do more. The results rate progress as good in six sectors: economic development; health; water and sanitation; food security; governance; and peace and security. It is satisfactory in three others: aid and aid effectiveness; education; and environment and energy. This report demonstrates that the G8 has made progress on its commitments but that there is more to do. It is well worth a read.

Greater transparency and a fairer tax system will go a long way to creating a fair and open global economy, but nothing can match the power of freer trade in improving people’s lives. The EU and the US together make up about a third of all global trade. As the noble Lord, Lord Trimble, said in his opening speech, a deal between these two regions could add—and we could discuss the figures—a huge amount to the EU economy alone. Trade between developing countries and within Africa is growing, and we should encourage that work further. This means continuing to support the multilateral system, and working through the WTO to agree a deal to sweep away trade bureaucracy. That alone could be worth huge amounts of money—$70 billion—to the global economy, and help trade to flow freely across the world.

I, too, highlight the work and achievements that have already happened as part of this year’s G8 agenda. On Saturday, as the noble Lord, Lord Bates, remarked, the Prime Minister held a high level meeting entitled, Nutrition for Growth: Beating Hunger through Business and Science. Undernutrition is a chronic lack of nutrients that can result in death, stunted physical development, and a lower resistance to illnesses in later life. It is the biggest underlying cause of death in those aged under five in the world and is responsible for 8,000 child deaths each day. It stunts the growth of children, reducing their potential, undermining their adult earnings by up to 10%, and in some countries reducing the size of the economy by 11% as a result.

The Global Nutrition for Growth Compact was endorsed by a total of 90 stakeholders, including 24 Governments and 28 business and science organizations. It secured new funding of up to £2.7 billion to tackle undernutrition up to 2020. This money will lead ultimately to enhancing the lives of those most in need: improving the nutrition of 500 million pregnant women and young children; reducing the number of children under five who are stunted, by an additional 20 million; and saving lives of at least 1.7 million children by preventing stunting, increasing breastfeeding, and better treatment of severe and acute malnutrition. As the noble Lord, Lord Bates, said, if nothing else comes out of this summit, that is a huge achievement.

This year’s G8 agenda is ambitious, but it is an agenda that has the potential to shape the rules leading to a genuinely fair and open global economy. Healthy, educated populations in poor countries will lead to poverty reduction and ultimately to trade with us here in the UK. We must ensure that all G8 countries work together over the next few days for the benefit of both developed and developing countries around the world.