Queen’s Speech

Baroness Prosser Excerpts

Wednesday 11th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Prosser (Lab)]

My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister for introducing this debate. When I first came into this House, in 2004, I, along with many other new noble Lords, was advised to have a conversation with the then Clerk of the Parliaments. I cannot remember his name—I am sure there are people here who would—but I recall that he was a very scary person, who was extremely serious about everything. He said to me, “I would suggest you make your maiden speech when it is time to address the Queen’s Speech, in the humble Address, because on that occasion, you can talk about what is in the Speech and what is not in the Speech.” I thought that was pretty good advice and I am thinking about it today.

I shall speak about what is in the Speech but also what is not, all on the same subject: levelling up. Why is there no mention of levelling up opportunities between women and men? I would go for years and years without ever having heard those on the Government Benches talk about ways in which we can improve life for women. There has never been an idea, and certainly not a major programme, put forward. I suggest that that is foolish for everybody, not least, of course, the women themselves, because the country loses a vast amount of income from not making the best of women’s talents.

The Equal Pay Act came in as law in 1970 and was implemented in 1975, not far off 50 years or half a century ago, but we still have a pay gap that is an embarrassment. We do not necessarily need more legislation to deal with that, although upgrading the current equal pay legislation would be good and helpful, but we need determination by leaders in government to introduce policies and programmes that will help.

We have experience of such policies and programmes, which were successful in their time but which were closed down immediately the previous Labour Government lost the election and in came the coalition. For example, at that time we had a programme working with employers—who were really gung ho for the idea —to encourage them to introduce greater opportunities for better quality part-time jobs. We all know that many women go into employment, make a decent fist of it, work their way along and earn reasonable wages, but as soon as they have children they cannot afford to pay for childcare on the salaries they are receiving, and so they go into part-time work—at that time, of course, it was almost entirely in the retail trade, and even that opportunity is not there at the moment. Better quality part-time jobs provided by employers would be one big help.

Secondly, how about some positive action programmes to train those women who have slid into the kind of employment which does not allow them to earn a great deal of money and is far below their potential? Again, we have experience of those programmes, and, again, they were extremely successful. Employers were really keen and engaged very positively to ensure that women in their employment could take advantage of these programmes and move forward.

There are many reasons why it is important for women to be able to earn more. One of the major setbacks, of course, is the question of the cost of childcare. I smiled to myself—it is a bitter irony, I thought, with all the conversation that has been going on in recent times about levelling up—when I saw that the Government’s answer to expensive childcare is to level down. It is a complete and utter insult to the whole population that those people who have insufficient funds to pay a high price must therefore put up with a second-rate service, never mind the effect that this would have on the children in the care of those institutions, such as nurseries, et cetera.

Let us not think about levelling down. Let us think a bit more imaginatively about ways in which childcare could be paid for. Many years ago, in some European countries, the cost was shared between employers, parents and the Government. It was a three-way split, meaning that childcare was affordable to each of those bodies. Why can we not think imaginatively about ways of spreading this expense?

Finally, on the need to ensure that women have a better shout, as well as better opportunities to earn more money so that they can support themselves, all of us in this House—and everyone far and wide, I am sure—abhor the notion of domestic violence. Many women living in coercive, if not violent, relationships have no opportunity to move on, say that they have had enough and go out and find their own way, because they have no money in their pockets. Just a few social policy programmes would help to alleviate this. It is time to move on.