Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Dan Poulter

Thursday 23rd June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. That is precisely what our flexible parental leave proposals, on which we are consulting, will do. Crucially, they will not only allow the father and mother to share parental leave, but will enable them to take time off together in the early stages following the child’s birth, if that is what they want. It will be possible for fathers to be much more involved in the very early stage of their child’s life.

[Dr Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

2. What steps she is taking to reduce the incidence of homophobia in sport.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Women and Equalities (Mrs Theresa May)]

We are encouraging every club, team, player and fan to sign up to our new charter, “Tackling Homophobia and Transphobia in Sport”, and to work with us to put an end to homophobia and transphobia in sport. We are working with the top sports national bodies, Sport England and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to tackle this issue. I am pleased to say that yesterday the Prime Minister hosted a reception in No. 10 to celebrate the good work that is under way to drive homophobia and transphobia out of sport.

[Dr Poulter]

Given our wish to get a lot of young people involved in sport, and with the Olympics happening next year, does my right hon. Friend agree that we need to break down homophobic attitudes among young people in particular and to ensure that young people can fully participate in sport? What will the Government do to facilitate that?

[Mrs May]

I agree with my hon. Friend that that is important. We want sport to be welcoming for everyone. Spectators and participants should feel that there is no barrier for them, and should not feel concerned about the sort of comments they might hear. It is important that young people are taught and shown the way forward. I think that our charter will help to do that.

We need to work on homophobia particularly in relation to football. Over time, football has not done enough to deal with this issue. Sadly, the terraces of football clubs are too often places where homophobic and transphobic comments are made. I am pleased to say that the Football Association was represented at the reception at No. 10 yesterday. Too often in the past there has been a reluctance among the football authorities to deal with this issue and frankly it is time that football got its house in order.