International Women’s Day

Lord Jones of Penybont Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jones of Penybont (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, as I rise to make my maiden speech, it is my misfortune to follow four excellent maiden speeches. I just hope that I can maintain the high standard that has been established.

Before moving to the subject matter of this debate, I thank all those who have made my first month here so easy to navigate. I thank the doorkeepers, who have been patient in guiding me around the building and through the numerous corridors that can bewilder the new Member. I thank the parliamentary staff, who have supported me through my induction, and my party colleagues and the Front-Bench team, who have been so willing to explain the rules and regulations of this noble House. I have been particularly struck by the kindness of so many who work here and the welcome that has been extended to me. At my introduction on 27 January, I was supported by my noble friends Lord Murphy and Lady Wilcox of Newport, people I have known and respected for many years. It was an honour to have them by my side.

I am grateful for the support I have received from my family. Most of them were here at my introduction, but my father was unable to attend because of illness. I know he would have been delighted to be here, as would my mother, had we not lost her some 15 years ago. I thank my children, Seren and Ruairí, who have had to put up with their father being away so much during their childhood. Now that they have grown into adults, they have been hugely supportive of everything that I have done.

Of course, I thank my wife, Lisa. During 30 years of marriage, she has been a great source of support to me, even when I was away so much when the children were younger. She has enabled me to develop a political career, and I do not think I would have done that had it not been for her steadfast love and support.

I count myself as a member of a fortunate generation compared to those who went before. My family before me consisted mainly of four generations of Welsh-speaking mining families, a legacy of which I am proud. It was the miners’ strike that brought me into politics, and I think of my family today as I stand here, having enjoyed many opportunities that were simply not available to them.

I still live in the town of Bridgend—or Penybont in Welsh, hence my title—where I was brought up. When I was 18, I went to study law at Aberystwyth University, where I am now a professor of law: a development that would have stunned my student self and those who taught me at the time.

I practised at the Bar in Swansea for 10 years. Then, in 1999, I had the honour to be elected to represent my home area in what was then called the National Assembly for Wales. In 2000, I began a term of 18 consecutive years in government in various ministerial roles, as well as serving as First Minister for nine years.

It was a privilege to be part of the 2011 referendum campaign, when the people of Wales voted overwhelmingly in favour of primary powers for their Assembly—powers we used to create legislation that I would argue is ground-breaking. Your Lordships will be relieved to know that I will not list all the Acts passed during my time as First Minister, but I will draw your attention to one: the Human Transplantation (Wales) Act, which changed the law on deemed consent, introducing a soft opt-out scheme. That has led to more organs being available not just in Wales but across the UK for transplant patients. There are literally people walking around alive today because of that legislation. It is the one piece of legislation of which I am particularly proud.

I am, as far as I am aware, the first Head of Government in the UK to have come from a comprehensive school. That is a matter of pride for me, but it must also be one of concern, because we know that the schools attended by the vast majority of pupils have not contributed as they should have to government in the UK.

Turning to the subject matter of the debate, I mentioned earlier the opportunities I had that were not available to my grandparents. This afternoon, I think of my grandmother, who died 12 years ago at the age of 98. This is a cautionary tale for those who claim that grammar schools are the pathways to opportunity by themselves. She lived at a time when opportunity for women and girls was strictly limited. She passed what was then called the scholarship, in 1925, and went to a grammar school. But the reality was that, as the daughter of a haulier in a pit, she had no option other than to leave school and get married. She lived a long and happy life, but I cannot help but think what she might have done, had she had the opportunities I was afforded. Which STEM subjects might she have studied?

It is my grandmother’s example that drives me to ensure that as much opportunity as possible is afforded to as many people as possible. Her story is one of many, and I aware that, while some progress has been made in encouraging women to take up STEM subjects, there is still work to do. Progress has been made in the natural sciences, but there is a glaring gap between men and women in maths, engineering and computer science. The difference is stark: according to the Office for National statistics, five times more men than women are employed in IT. That gap increases to a ratio of 10:1 in engineering.

I know there are schemes to encourage more young women to study these subjects. I draw your Lordships’ attention to the work of the Engineering Education Scheme Wales, originally set up to encourage young people between the ages of 16 and 18 to take up engineering-related subjects. It pairs young people with businesses that work with them on projects, giving them a taste of engineering as a career. Its work is also focused on encouraging more young women to study engineering, in order to bridge that huge imbalance in the sector.

It is clear there is more to be done. More needs to be done to remove those barriers to women entering and staying in STEM-related employment and I welcome my noble friend the Minister’s words in this debate. She outlined the steps the Government are taking to address this issue, but it still seems to me that there is a cultural bias in our society that sees engineering and IT as male jobs. The steps the Government have outlined will help to overcome this problem.

In conclusion, progress has been made, but any country that wishes to maximise its talent pool must provide help to overcome barriers that hinder that objective. If I could use an idiom from the Welsh language, which I will translate into English so as not to cause panic among those recording my words today, the situation is “da, ond nid da lle gellir gwell”, which translates into English as “good, but not so good that it cannot be improved on”, especially compared with the recent past. We have heard stories within this debate about the disadvantages and barriers that so many women experienced in past decades. We must overcome those barriers. That is the challenge for the UK and it is one that all of us in society must play a role in meeting.