State Pension Age

Debate between Baroness Stedman-Scott and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

Tuesday 18th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

Many noble Lords have made this point, including the noble Baroness, Lady Drake, and my noble friend Lady Altmann. The truth is that I do not know when they will do it, but I will go back and find out, and will write to the noble Baroness.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, women are disproportionately affected by pensioner poverty. What are the Government doing to support and help them?

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

Since 1994-95, rates of female pensioners in poverty, by all measures, have fallen by a larger amount than rates of male pensioners in poverty over the same period. The proportion of pensioners in absolute poverty, after housing costs, has halved since 2002-03. Pension credit is the safety net—I know that will open the floodgates for a raft of other questions—and we must make sure that as many people as possible apply for that benefit.

Gender Pay Gap

Debate between Baroness Stedman-Scott and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

Tuesday 23rd November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

As ever, the noble Lord is very incisive and focused on the things he wants to change. I note the two points that he makes. While I cannot commit to doing them, I will go back to the ranch, tell them that the noble Lord, Lord Sikka, is on the prowl again, and see what they say.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I take this opportunity to wish the Minister a very happy birthday.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

Guidance from the Government Equalities Office states that employers reporting on the gender pay gap should record their employees’ gender identity, not their biological sex. Some argue that for the vast majority of people, gender identity matches birth sex and that recording employees’ gender identity would therefore have no significant impact on an organisation’s gender pay gap. However, in male-dominated professions such as telecommunications, where fewer than 5% of the workers are female, even a small number of misclassifications can have a significant distorting effect on the data. Does my noble friend agree that this is the case? Will she now review the GEO guidance so that it makes it clear that employers must record employees’ birth sex, not their gender identity?

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

Let me be very honest and straight with my noble friend: the Government have no plans to change the guidance. Gender pay is not supposed to be a data-collecting exercise, and to make it so would increase the burden on employers.