Education Recovery
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(3 years, 5 months ago)
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The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)
The noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, has withdrawn, so I call the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox of Newport.
Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)
My Lords, I speak as a former teacher with over 30 years’ front-line classroom experience. Kevan Collins’ resignation is a damning indictment of the Conservatives’ education catch-up plan. He is an expert who was brought in by the Prime Minister because of his experience and expertise, but the Government threw out his ideas as soon as they needed to stump up the money to deliver them.
Labour has a comprehensively detailed recovery plan for our children and young people. Our teachers have had one of the toughest years of their careers, and it is only by supporting them with training to stay on top of the latest knowledge and techniques that we can give children and young people a brilliant classroom experience in these most difficult times. So what more does the Minister plan to do to help teachers and their pupils?
Baroness Berridge (Con)
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her support for the fact that the training of teachers is important. We have outlined in this package considerable support for them, and that will be over the next two to three years. Obviously we are aware of the situation. That is why the review of the school day needs to listen to the views not just of teachers but of the workforce generally. We should not underestimate the strain that has been felt by school business professionals running the money and often overseeing the building with additional demands, and all the administrative and teaching assistant staff who there are in our schools. We will be looking carefully at the extension of the school day.
Unfortunately there have been difficult decisions to make in relation to funding. As I have mentioned to noble Lords, the one-year spending review did not bring any money to the department for any new free schools, including SEND free schools, which is a big indication of where we are. We are hoping for a spending review that will be a multiyear settlement.
Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(3 years, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab) [V]
President Joe Biden said today that the conviction of a former police office in the killing of George Floyd can be a giant step forward in the march towards justice in America, but he warned, “We can’t stop here”. I would add that neither can the United Kingdom.
Following the Black Lives Matter movement, the commission that produced this report had an opportunity meaningfully to engage with structural inequality and racism in the UK. Disappointingly, and incredulously, they have produced a divisive and downright offensive piece of material. It seems to glorify slavery and within the underplay of institutional racism appears to blame ethnic minorities for their own disadvantage. This report must be rigorously challenged to prevent the decades of progress that we have made in our efforts to develop race equality in the UK. Since its publication, the report has garnered widespread criticism from groups and individuals such as the BMA, Professor Michael Marmot, all of our major trade unions, which represent over five million workers, and human rights experts at the UN who state that the report has misrepresented data, shoe-horned conclusions and misquoted academics. My noble friend Lady Lawrence said it gave
“a green light to racists.”
The data is misleading and incoherent, and its conclusions are ideologically motivated and divisive. I have many questions to ask the Minister in my speech, and I will be content to receive written responses from her, as it may be difficult to answer every one I pose in the Chamber today. These questions need resolution and reflection on this highly contentious government report.
Despite the overwhelming body of evidence, why does this report seek to downplay the role of institutional and structural racism in the UK? Does the Government share its view? It was reported that a number of commissioners say that No. 10 intervened in the writing of the report and failed to give them sight of the final copy. These are serious accusations that call into question the credibility and independence of the report. Can the Minister whether her Government intervened in the work of the independent commission and rewrote any part of the final report?
Does the Minister agree with the foreword by the chair of the report? There he remarks:
“There is a new story about the Caribbean experience which speaks to the slave period not only being about profit and suffering but how culturally African people transformed themselves into a re-modelled African/Britain.”
Will her Government reject these abhorrent remarks? The report attempts to construct a false binary between socio-economic inequality and racial inequality, suggesting that racism has less of a role than class to play in producing inequalities. Does the Minister agree this is disingenuous and divisive given that so many ethnic minority people are part of the working class struggling after more than a decade of Tory austerity?
The report appears to soften the role of structural racism in the labour market, but the latest ONS unemployment figures show that the unemployment rate for ethnic minorities is more than 9.5%—more than double the rate for white people at 4.5%. What steps, therefore, will the Government take to address structural racism in the labour market? Will the Minister commit to publishing equality impact assessments of job creation schemes?
Many of the recommendations in this report lack teeth. They are repetitions or rely too much on individual discretion. Some simply ask the Government to undo the damage they have done since 2010. Proposals to fund the EHRC and to establish an office for health disparities are particularly ironic, given that the Conservatives have slashed EHRC funding by £43 million since 2010 and abolished Public Health England. Does the Minister regret these cuts, and does she have any plans to restore this funding?
The report appeared to downplay the role of structural racism in health inequalities despite the hugely disproportionate number of deaths of black and Asian people from Covid-19 over the past year and is out of step with the analysis of the ONS. Does the Minister agree that this section is an insult to black, Asian and ethnic minority people who have suffered the worst fatal and financial consequences of the pandemic?
The report also downplays the role of structural inequalities in our education system, despite very recent data that shows that black Caribbean children are more than five times more likely to be excluded from school in parts of the UK. There have been 60,000 racist incidents in schools in the past five years. What steps will the Minister take to address the deep-rooted, structural racial inequalities within the education system?
The report contained minimal information and recommendations on social security, despite this being a key mechanism to end socio-economic and racial inequalities. What steps is the Minister taking to address structural inequalities of race and ethnicity in the social security system?
Finally, the language in the report appears to regress to blame black, Asian and ethnic minority people for their own disadvantage. Mentions of family structure and culture misrepresent the reality of structural racism and turn back the clock on how we talk about race and structural inequality. Will the Minister reject this report before us today in this Chamber?
The Deputy Speaker (Lord Duncan of Springbank) (Con)
I am afraid the next speaker, the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, is not present in the Chamber or in the ether, so we will not be able to hear from her and we will go straight to the Minister.
International Women’s Day
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab) [V]
My Lords, I begin by expressing my sincere condolences to Ms Everard’s family and friends, who will be experiencing appalling grief today. No woman should walk home with fear or threat. There must be a recognition of the intimidation and misogyny that women and girls suffer on a daily basis, and until we confront it—unless we speak it out loud—we cannot begin to deal with it.
My noble friend Lady Goudie reminded us that the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is “Choose to challenge”, and I take up that theme determinedly through my contribution to what has been an excellent debate today from across the Committee. Yesterday, I asked the Minister what steps the Government are taking
“to ensure that … women, and … groups which represent women, are included in the development of their policies responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
In her response, the Minister said that the Government
“continue to listen to the experiences of women as we respond to the Covid-19 crisis … and … carefully consider evidence on how different people have been affected by the pandemic”.—[Official Report, 10/3/21; cols. 1606-07.]
I am sure that listening has taken place in this important debate today, and I recommend to the Minister that action upon that listening is translated into workable policies. Clearly, some people working on equalities issues within this Government do not feel listened to, as the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, has just noted. Three equality advisers quit their roles on the Government’s advisory panel yesterday, accusing Boris Johnson’s Administration of creating a hostile environment for LGBT+ people. Jayne Ozanne said that she resigned over concerns that the Government are backing out of a promise to ban conversion therapy, a range of harmful practices that attempt to reverse someone’s sexual orientation and/or their gender identity. She said that she has been increasingly concerned about what is seen to be a hostile environment for LGBT+ people among this Administration and has seen an increasing lack of engagement. The actions of Ministers have been against their advice, and it felt as if she was dealing with Ministers for inequality, not equality. It does not sound as if a great deal of listening has been going on. The Conservative MP and chair of the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, Caroline Nokes, commented today that after listening to Jayne Ozanne on television this morning talking about her experience of so-called conversion therapy, she was disappointed that the Government were rowing back from legislating to ban it, as last July, they gave the impression that it would be done.
I further informed the Minister that a report published just yesterday morning by the ONS, on the differential impact of the coronavirus pandemic on men and women, said that while more men died from Covid-19, women’s well-being was more negatively affected than men’s during the first year of the pandemic. Women were more likely to be furloughed and to spend significantly less time working from home and more time on unpaid household work and childcare.
In January, the Commons Women and Equalities Committee published its report on the gendered impact of the pandemic and, in doing so, raised concerns that the Government’s priorities for the post-Covid recovery are heavily gendered in nature. It was concerned to hear the Minister for Equalities repeatedly refer to considering the effects of policies “in the round” in response to questions about the gendered impact of the Government’s policies. It went on to say that that it was also concerning that a GEO Minister should appear dismissive of the imperative to consider the effects of policies on those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act. Such consideration is a legal requirement clearly set out in the Act’s public sector equality duty. It acknowledged the Government’s intention to take a
“new approach to tackling inequality”,
but the Government have a continuing legal duty to ensure that their policies and decisions do not adversely affect groups of people with protected characteristics.
The report further noted that investment plans are skewed towards male-dominated sectors, with the potential to create unequal outcomes for men and women, all on top of the fact that the pandemic has intensified existing inequalities in almost all areas of life, negating the hard-won achievements of past decades here in the UK and beyond. The authoritative contributions of the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, and my noble friend Lady Armstrong of Hill Top, for the continuation of the VSO programme, were admirable. Surely the Government will not let such a successful organisation, and Britain’s wider reputation in the world, simply fold because they have not listened and cannot make a decision. That is one of my choices to challenge.
This week in the Lords, we have started Report on the landmark Domestic Abuse Bill. During the debates, speaker after speaker has commented on the significant increase in domestic violence during the pandemic, referring to multiple reports from charities and campaigners of a surge in calls to helplines and online services since the first lockdown, a sobering insight into the levels of abuse that some people live with daily. The pandemic and its related restrictions have clearly closed off access to support or escape. It may also have curtailed measures that some abusers take to keep their violence under control.
When it comes to the workplace, much of the UK’s front-line response to tackling Covid has fallen upon women, including 76% of those employed in health and social care and 86% of those delivering personal care. These sectors have, of course, seen an unprecedented rise in workload, health risks and challenges for work-life balance.
The Women’s Budget Group provided an excellent report prior to the recent Budget highlighting that 46% of mothers who have been made redundant during the pandemic cite lack of adequate childcare provision as the cause, while 70% of women with caring responsibilities who requested furlough following school closures had their request denied. This has led to almost half being worried about negative treatment from an employer because of childcare responsibilities. During the first national lockdown, those in low-paid work were twice as likely to be on furlough, or to have their hours reduced, than those in higher-income jobs, hitting women in particular, as there are twice as many women as men in the bottom 10% of earners.
The TUC research found that job losses have been most acute in three industries—accommodation and food, wholesale and retail, and manufacturing—accounting for 70% of job losses overall. Women are the majority of employees in accommodation and food, as well as in retail. Employment for disabled people has fallen more rapidly during the crisis than for non-disabled people, and disabled people are currently two and a half times more likely to be out of work than non-disabled people.
Gender inequalities are exacerbated by race. Black, Asian and minority ethnic women began the pandemic from a place of disadvantage, with one of the lowest rates of employment. In 2020 that was still the case, with BAME employment at just 62.5%, and the highest rate of unemployment, at 8.8%, compared with 4.5% for white people.
It is well documented that women earn less and are more likely to work in insecure jobs, often in the informal sector, with less access to social protections. They run most single-parent households, which further limits their capacity to absorb economic shocks. Prolonged lockdowns and school closures have seen women’s access to paid work diminish but an increase in unpaid labour. Domestic duties, including preparing food for home-schooled children and looking after ill family members, have all fallen disproportionately on women. It is therefore crucial that women’s voices are at the core of policy development and decision-making on how the UK and the wider world move beyond Covid. The participation of women and girls is necessary and vital at every level and in every arena. Without equal participation, pandemic responses will be less effective at meeting their needs and will lead to negative consequences.
As my noble friend Lady Massey so powerfully said, the empowerment of women is key at whatever level of society. During the pandemic, populations have become more aware of rights in general. I am pleased that the Governments in Wales and Scotland have supported the incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into legal frameworks as well as into the school curriculum. I urge the UK Government to do the same.
Similarly, my noble friend Lady Gale, when talking about the important contribution that older women make to society as taxpayers, care workers, child carers and volunteers, mentioned that since 2008 we have had the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, who is indeed a strong voice and independent of government. I agree with her that there should be a similar provision in England.
Research published last summer noted that around the world women leaders have been more successful than their male counterparts at reducing Covid transmission in their countries. My noble friend Lord Rooker has already noted the inspirational leader, Jacinda Ardern. When she outlined her approach to dealing with the pandemic, she said:
“The worst-case scenario is simply intolerable. It would represent the greatest loss of New Zealanders’ lives in our country’s history. I will not take that chance … the government will do all it can to protect you. None of us can do this alone.”
So what can and should we be doing together in the UK? Statutory sick pay must be increased to the real living wage, and those who have symptoms of Covid or are awaiting test results should not be forced to go to work. The majority of public sector workers are women, so the public sector pay freeze announced in the one-year 2020 spending review should be lifted in order to support public sector workers through the Covid-19 recovery. During the pandemic, society would not have coped without our nurses and healthcare workers, who have been central to dealing with it. We should pay them appropriately for their dedication and skill, and I choose to challenge the Prime Minister to increase the current offer of a 1% pay rise.
The Government should immediately reinstate gender pay gap reporting and must use the upcoming employment Bill to reduce insecurity for low-paid workers by extending employment rights and investing in strong and effective enforcement. Women, and the views of women, must be included as a matter of course in current and future policy development. I choose to challenge this Government to move from appointing Ministers of inequality to appointing Ministers of equality.
Covid-19: Women
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Wilcox of Newport
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that (1) women, and (2) groups which represent women, are included in the development of their policies responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade (Baroness Berridge) (Con)
My Lords, we continue to listen to the experiences of women as we respond to the Covid-19 crisis. Ministers and their officials carefully consider evidence on how different people have been affected by the pandemic. That includes meeting many women and the groups representing them. I recently met with women from Leicester and Leeds at virtual round tables to discuss home-schooling, childcare, flexible working and parents’ and children’s mental health.
Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab) [V]
The Commons report, Unequal Impact? Coronavirus and the Gendered Economic Impact, found that
“the Government’s priorities for recovery are heavily gendered in nature.”
A report published just this morning by the ONS on the differential impact of the coronavirus pandemic on men and women said:
“While more men died from Covid-19, women’s well-being was more negatively affected than men’s during the first year of the pandemic.”
Does the Minister agree that the Government must work harder at addressing this imbalance and that women, and the views of women, must be included in current policy development?
Baroness Berridge (Con)
My Lords, the effects of the pandemic are indeed differential across a number of factors. We have invested half a billion pounds in mental health services and recognise that women have taken on more responsibility in the home in terms of childcare and home-schooling, but, thankfully, schools are back as of Monday. We are looking closely at the data, to then analyse it. That will inform our policy development, as will, as I have outlined, meeting with women’s groups.
Women in Elected Office
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Berridge (Con)
My Lords, it has been excellent to see the development of school councils over recent years. It is not something that the Government would mandate but they do want to see it encouraged. Many schools and colleges run mock general elections, and it has been encouraging, in normal times, to see the number of schoolchildren who come to visit Parliament and are subsidised to do so.
Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab) [V]
Last Friday, the WLGA council recognised the outcomes of the cross-party working group on diversity in democracy that I set up as leader, in 2018. The council agreed to encourage all political parties to commit to proactive and co-ordinated activities to improve diversity in local government democracy. It further agreed a declaration by July 2021 from councils in Wales to become diverse councils, providing a public commitment to improve diversity and agree an action plan ahead of the 2022 local elections. This work by local government in Wales is an excellent example of proactively engaging women to hold elected office. Would the Minister recommend that the LGA take a similar approach in England? I have the full report, which I can send to the Minister.
Baroness Berridge (Con)
My Lords, it is pleasing to note that nearly half of the members of the Senedd are women, and we support and encourage the LGA, which is leading a Be a Councillor campaign. During the pandemic, I think that even the parish council in Handforth in Cheshire has inadvertently done its role in encouraging many people to get involved in very local politics.
Covid-19: Ethnic Minority Disparities
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab) [V]
ONS statistics last week showed that the unemployment rate for ethnic minorities is 9.5%, compared with 4.5% for white people. A key example of a risk factor is socioeconomic deprivation. Research shows that black, Asian and ethnic minority people are more likely to be on zero-hours contracts. One in five people on such contracts is not eligible for statutory sick pay. What plans do the Government have to address precarious work for ethnic minorities specifically? Do the Government acknowledge that this is evidence that structural racism in the labour market and socioeconomic risk factors interact?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade (Baroness Berridge) (Con)
My Lords, we recognise that certain occupations have had an increased exposure to the virus. That is one of the risk factors for ethnic minority populations. That is why with transportation, for instance, we have issued two different sets of guidance, for private hire and for public service vehicles, and included those within the mass testing. In relation to the economic disadvantage, we are investing £30 billion in a plan for jobs to enable people who have been put out of work by the pandemic to get work.
Covid-19: Disparate Impact
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(4 years ago)
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Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab) [V]
My Lords, at last I can ask you to note my entry in the register of interests: I am proud to announce that I have been asked to join several noble Lords by becoming a vice-president of the LGA, and I have gladly accepted.
This side of the House welcomes the work being done on equality issues as noted in the quarterly report, but we are deep into the second wave of this virus, and what is before us in this Statement falls far short of what is needed. We are in great want as a country of a concrete, forward-looking strategy and action plan to improve outcomes for those most at risk in this pandemic. The first Covid disparities report has several recommendations that the Prime Minister has apparently accepted in full, but few of these are quantifiable or, more importantly, accompanied by timetables for delivery. Recommendation 3 in the report is for a rapid, light-touch review of actions taken by local authorities to see what works.
I pay tribute to my colleagues in local government, who have had an unrelenting work schedule since the onset of the pandemic. I simply do not know how they have kept up after a decade of chronic underinvestment in public services. In Wales, local councils have worked with the Welsh Government in taking ownership of the test and trace system with much success, proving far more successful than the contracting-out model given to private companies in England. The Government should have listened to the expertise in local government, although I believe that some moves are being made by English councils, taking matters into their own hands and setting up their own systems.
I therefore ask the Minister for more information on this review of local authorities. When will it be started and completed? Who will run it, and how will the Government share its best-practice findings? Furthermore, and most importantly, how much additional financial support have the Government allocated to the already overstretched and underfunded local authorities where the most at-risk communities have been identified?
We welcome, in recommendation 9 of the report, the intention to make ethnicity reporting mandatory in the death certification process. How will that data be used and shared to effectively impact on policy? We know that there are several different policy areas that interlink to increase Covid risks. What we are clearly missing is a government strategy to tackle deep structural inequalities, including in housing and in employment opportunities—which have such an impact here. Where is the action on these areas? Poverty and inequality have been remorselessly highlighted across the UK by this disease. There is a higher prevalence and mortality in areas of high deprivation. In addition to people from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups being at risk of Covid, disabled people accounted for nearly 60% of all deaths between March and July. They are more likely to live in poverty than non-disabled people and accounted for one-third of the 300,000 people who were not eligible for social security support. What are the Government doing to protect disabled people’s lives as we enter the second wave of this deadly pandemic?
I further note an issue that surrounds the lack of data around health outcomes for LGBT people, not least in respect of the intersectionality with BAME people in respect of the pandemic. This deficit was identified in the LGBT action plan. Will the Minister therefore ask her department to collect this important information by ensuring that future public health surveys record data on all protected characteristics?
I must commend the Minister for Health in Wales, Vaughan Gething, on the work he has been doing on these disparate issues. Through his early identification of these problems he set up a task force, putting in place measures to address the “adverse and disproportionate impact” on people from BAME communities.
I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Lawrence for chairing the report—originated by the leader of the Labour Party—into Covid-19. It is published today with the title An Avoidable Crisis. We proudly welcome this report and the concrete steps it takes to address the issues that have arisen for the BAME community during the pandemic. We urge the Government to implement the actions contained in the report.
The report provides a snapshot of the impact of Covid-19 to date and the structural inequalities faced by black, Asian and minority ethnic people. There are immediate recommendations to protect those most at risk as the pandemic progresses. The report also demonstrates the next steps to begin to tackle the underlying causes of inequality in our society. As noted in the report, this virus is having an unequal and devastating impact on ethnic minority communities. Sadly, people are dying at a disproportionate rate. They are also overexposed to the virus and are therefore more likely to suffer the economic consequences of the pandemic.
The Government have failed to take notice and have not implemented any counteraction that could help halt this devastation. Coronavirus has undoubtedly highlighted the inequalities throughout British society. Black, Asian and minority ethnic people are more likely to work in front-line sectors and thus are overexposed to Covid-19. They are also more likely to have comorbidities that increase the risk of serious illness and more likely to face barriers to accessing healthcare.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic people have also been subject to disgraceful racism as some have sought to blame different communities for the spread of the virus. Barriers include a lack of cultural and language-appropriate communication, not being taken seriously when presenting with symptoms, a lack of clinical training on the presentation of different illnesses across communities and the “no recourse to public funds” rule that prevents many migrants from accessing state assistance. Labour fully supports an immediate review of this rule and its impact on public health and health inequalities.
We neither want, nor expect, the report to sit on a shelf gathering dust. The recommendations are both immediate, with measures that can be taken by the Government within weeks, such as ensuring that employer risk assessments are published and, in the longer term, ending the hostile environment that has surrounded us this past decade. Keir Starmer said today that Covid lays bare the racial inequalities that have long existed in our society and announced that the next Labour Government will introduce a new race equality Act to tackle the structural inequalities that led to the disproportionate impact of this crisis. It will begin to transform what has become a bitter landscape for our BAME communities across the country.
I ask the Minister to request, with immediate effect, a suspension of the “no recourse to public funds” rule during the pandemic and to initiate the review that we are calling for into its impact on public health and health inequalities. We have been calling for this review since April and yet again a major issue has fallen on deaf ears, despite massive public engagement in a campaign led by Marcus Rashford, a wonderful example of a young man speaking out against the injustice of a nation not feeding its poorest children.
This implacable Government continue to turn their face against the wall in the hope that it will all go away, while repeating the same tired mantras of money already being allocated. Sadly, it is too little, too late. These problems—these inequalities—will not just go away. We know it, the Government know it and, more importantly, the people of the United Kingdom know it.
The whole response to this pandemic has fallen far short in so many areas and the disproportionate effect on the BAME community is carefully documented in the excellent report from the noble Baroness, Lady Lawrence, published today. I urge all noble Lords to read it and I urge the Government to adopt its immediate and longer-term recommendations without delay. To do nothing less would be simply incomprehensible to the decent vast majority of the British people who have shown over the past week that once again they understand the importance of supporting our children and trying to rid our society of the scourge of poverty and inequality. I ask the Minister to please read the report, and to implement it.
Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD) [V]
My Lords, the Covid pandemic has disproportionately impacted women. The Women’s Budget Group found that women are twice as likely to be key workers. It said that 77% of high-risk workers are women. They are being paid poverty wages. These inequalities are pronounced and exacerbated across the country, especially for those marginalised by other factors, including race, ethnicity and disability. We know that people with disabilities have been hardest hit, with an unacceptably high mortality rate. What support will the Government commit to providing women facing particular hardships due to the Covid pandemic and to address these glaring inequalities?
In addition, many thousands signed a petition urging the Government to establish a Covid race equality strategy. Back in June, I asked the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, whether the Government would consider establishing this strategy. This was urgent in June; it is now the end of October, and the evidence in the Statement clearly shows that these groups are still suffering hardship, are still in the front line and are still disproportionately affected. The pandemic has shone a light on inequalities that, sadly, already exist in our society. We need urgent action, not further reviews.
Recent statements on Covid in the past few months have said little about how people from BAME communities can be better protected. Will the Government now establish and develop a proper Covid strategy to address the inequalities that have already been mentioned? We do not need further reviews. The evidence is overwhelming. When can we expect action and implementation of the numerous reviews to address the inequalities that this terrible virus has unfortunately visited on sections of society that are not best placed to protect themselves, due to the nature of their lives, where they live, their households, their jobs and their health problems? I ask the Minister to answer that and what resources are being put in place to address this.
Gender Recognition Act 2004
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Baroness Berridge (Con)
My Lords, the Equality Act made a specific exemption, as I am sure the noble Baroness is aware, so national sporting bodies could set their own criteria for participation in sport. We are not currently aware of any disparity between national and international guidance and governing bodies, but if the noble Baroness knows of specific examples, can she please write to me? I will then endeavour to see whether the UK Government have a role in that.
Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab) [V]
My Lords, the consultation strongly favoured legislative reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, yet the Government have failed to take steps towards a process of gender recognition for trans people that is straightforward, accessible and de-medicalised. What assurance can the Minister give that, in digitising the gender recognition application process, the Government can ensure that the medical component of the process is streamlined and focuses on the legal requirements of the Act, removing the need for intrusive, degrading and unnecessarily detailed medical reports that are so distressing to the trans community?
Baroness Berridge (Con)
My Lords, the Government are keen to streamline this process and make it as kind and fair as possible. I hear the comments made by the noble Baroness regarding medical evidence; that is a matter for clinicians. But she is correct that we do not want an overly complex paper system to become an overly complex digital system, so part of this is ensuring that the process is simplified before it is digitised.
International Women’s Day
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(4 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)
My Lords, I am delighted to be able to contribute to this important debate to mark International Women’s Day. In this debate I—another girl from the Rhondda—am able to pay tribute to my noble friend Lady Gale of Blaen- rhondda, who has personally moved the equality agenda forward against great opposition in our party in Wales. Her plans for all-women shortlists for parliamentary selections and for the Welsh Assembly twinning arrangements were nothing less than revolutionary.
My noble friend Lady Gale clearly saw and experienced that our elected politicians did not reflect the make-up of our communities. A woman was elected to Parliament in a by-election in the Cynon Valley in 1984, and no other woman was elected in Wales until the introduction of all-women shortlists in 1997. Diolch yn fawr—I thank my noble friend Lady Gale for the incredible changes she pushed through to ensure that women like me were able to take part in politics in our country. Our party politics has been changed ineradicably. We are grateful for her persistence and her belief that women were equally capable of becoming MPs and AMs in Wales.
In my own area, local government, in Wales only 28% of local government elected members are women—a far lower figure than in England and Scotland. Things are changing, but not quickly enough. In 2016, I was immensely proud to become the first woman leader of Newport City Council in its 180-year history, and the following year I broke another mould, becoming the first woman leader of the Welsh Local Government Association. During my leadership, I have continued to play an active role in mentoring and diversity programmes designed to promote women’s active participation in politics at both local and national level.
We need greater diversity in local government but also in our national Governments. We need more women and younger women sitting in our Chambers and around our Cabinet tables. Diversity—of backgrounds and life experience—helps to balance opinions and make better decisions, which lead to better outcomes.
Many women are passionate volunteers, community activists and powerful community leaders, helping to inspire and sustain our communities through one of the most challenging periods of public service in decades. But achieving balance is not just a women’s issue, as many noble Lords have already espoused. It is everyone’s issue, and I am confident that many political colleagues across local and national government share that same ambition and commitment.
In my area of south-east Wales we are working towards developing a workforce for a digital economy, with a focus on doubling the digitally skilled workforce in the Cardiff capital region, and future-proofing our workforce by focusing on high-level digital specialist-specific skills, such as artificial intelligence, building information modelling, fintech and voice recognition security. However, within the region, only 13% of employers utilise apprenticeships, and just 1.5% of year 11 schoolchildren went directly into apprenticeships last year. So we need to extend the range of higher-level apprenticeships and introduce degree-level apprenticeships as an alternative, and cost-effective, route to higher education. We also need a particular emphasis on attracting young women into higher-level apprenticeships.
Research shows that across the UK, women currently make up 47% of employees in the STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—with a quarter of the jobs in mathematical sciences and 13% in engineering positions. However, the lack of female role models in STEM is a key reason why girls do not pursue a career in the sector. Just 42% of girls said that they would consider a STEM-related career, but this rose to 60% if they had confidence that men and women were equally employed in those professions. This is something we can and must address. Governments have the responsibility for education, but we also have an interest as major employers too. Through our councils we should recruit diverse, ambitious and talented people into STEM fields, including accountancy, architecture, civil engineering and ICT, as teachers and lab technicians, and in waste management and our various regulatory and enforcement roles, such as environmental health and food safety.
Female representation is not a “nice to have” option; it is an economic imperative. Evidence shows that equity and productivity in business can be increased by around 10% by having females in leadership positions, as they are better able to understand and empathise with consumption patterns. If girls and women are not involved in and leading STEM, their ideas and experiences cannot influence the innovations that help to shape and transform our society. The rapid pace of change is constantly challenging and disrupting the status quo; we have no excuse and no better opportunity to reset the gender divide and ensure greater balance. Innovation means that there is no such thing as “business as usual”, and traditional structural barriers are being swept away.
Role models and mentors can play a major part in this by encouraging young people to see beyond the binary of “jobs for girls and jobs for boys”. We need to have more initiatives to promote careers, and they need to include a stronger focus on girls. Our innovators and leaders of tomorrow are sitting in the classrooms, colleges and universities of today. This is our chance to make sure that no woman or girl is left behind. As former First Lady Michelle Obama so aptly said,
“no country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.”
Education: Gender Equality
Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts(4 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Wilcox of Newport
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to make gender equality education a statutory part of the curriculum.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade (Baroness Berridge) (Con)
My Lords, we want a society where choices and success are not limited by expectations and perceptions about gender. There is already scope within the school curriculum to teach gender equality through literature, history and citizenship. Schools can also organise activities outside the curriculum, such as inviting guest speakers. It was an honour to be invited to Eden Girls’ School in London last week to talk about my own experience as a woman in Parliament.
Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)
My Lords, for the past year, five primary schools in the London Borough of Camden have been participating in a pilot programme created by a non-profit organisation called Lifting Limits. It encouraged school staff to analyse everything they did in the classroom through a gender-equality lens. It took a whole-school approach, with training for staff, sessions with parents and an overhaul of the curriculum, to shift away from almost exclusively looking at white men in areas such as art history and science, as well as making changes to the learning environment. Will the Minister please look at the outcomes of this pilot project and see how these findings can be integrated into the curriculum across England?
Baroness Berridge
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for the outline of the pilot project. She is indeed right that there has to be a focus on women being promoted, particularly in the science field, and the national curriculum subject content now includes people like Rosalind Franklin. So, yes, I would be happy to look at the project and give the noble Baroness a response.