Employment Gap: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, and White, Workforce

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, very much for those comments. It is absolutely right that the expected deficit of underutilisation of all groups in this economy is between £20 billion and £30 billion. I draw attention to the fact that 32 of the 74 measures in Inclusive Britain that we put into place have been achieved or are in motion. A huge amount of work is being done to encourage right entry into workplaces following graduation, entrepreneurship, changes in bank lending policies, fundamental mentoring policies and money being put into scholarship programmes. I completely agree with the noble Baroness’s points. This is very much a focus for the Government, and my Secretary of State, Kemi Badenoch, sees it as one of her core priorities.

[Lord Shinkwin (Con)]

My Lords, the introduction of mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting is the number one recommendation from the Institute of Directors’ commission, which I chair, in The Future of Business: Harnessing Diverse Talent For Success. The director-general and I wrote to the Prime Minister last November, and we are still waiting for a response. I ask my noble friend to encourage No. 10 to reply to our recommendations and avoid giving the impression that this is not an important issue.

Baby-changing Facilities

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Tuesday 6th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Minto (Con)]

My Lords, that is again a very good point. There is a requirement at the moment to separate disabled toilet facilities from baby-changing facilities, and I think that is probably the right thing to do. This morning, I met the chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, and she said that her members take every opportunity to put in baby-changing facilities for precisely the reasons that the noble Lord mentioned earlier: from a marketing point of view, it is absolutely the right thing to do, because you win more customers and more money.

[Lord Shinkwin (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister helpfully makes a point about the separation between baby-changing facilities and accessible toilets. Does he accept that that depends on whether the building itself is accessible to someone like myself, a wheelchair user? Could he write to me to tell me how long he thinks I should have to wait, as a wheelchair user, before I can by law access licensed premises, given that the Government are refusing to use the Licensing Act, as recommended by a committee of this House, to enforce access on licensed premises?

[The Earl of Minto (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend makes a very good point. One of the challenges is that a lot of pubs are in historic buildings and are listed. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to get through the planning laws so that doorways and steps can be taken out to give free access. I say again that every opportunity is taken to provide disabled access.