Alcohol

Debate between Baroness Jenkin of Kennington and Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

Tuesday 6th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Conservative Benches.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware of any plans to improve calorie labelling on alcoholic drinks? Experiments I have seen show that if people are aware of the amount of calories they are drinking, they will drink up to 50% less than they had planned to otherwise.

Women: Representation

Debate between Baroness Jenkin of Kennington and Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

Tuesday 8th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

The noble Baroness has hit the nail on the head. We are trying to encourage a more flexible labour market, which is why we are extending flexible working and are looking to extend how families can choose to use maternity and paternity leave. It is for families to decide how they best want to structure how they look after their children. But we need to try to make it as easy as possible for parents to make those decisions so that they can both enjoy looking after and bringing up their children.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware of research released by the Fawcett Society today showing that men are twice as likely as women to say that they are confident enough to stand for public office? For standing as a councillor the figures are 23% as against 10% and for standing for Parliament they are 18% as against 6%. I appreciate that this is mostly a matter for the political parties to address but does my noble friend agree that government has to play a role in encouraging that 6% to come forward?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

Yes, I agree with that. We certainly want to encourage young women to build those confidence skills. We are, for instance, working with Debate Mate in schools to encourage girls to participate in debates at an early age to make sure that they realise their ambitions and, if they want to get involved in public life, that they have the confidence to do so.

Female Genital Mutilation: Education in Schools

Debate between Baroness Jenkin of Kennington and Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

Thursday 4th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I entirely agree with the noble Baroness, which is why we shall be shortly publishing for the first time statutory multiagency guidance for front-line professionals on FGM specifically, which will apply to schools and children services as well as police and healthcare professionals. It is essential that everybody works together to support any young women who may be in this position and make sure that, as a community, all agencies are working together to help tackle this crime.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

Would my noble friend please update the House on the current state of protection orders?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As noble Lords will be aware, protection orders were fast-tracked last summer to come into place before the summer holidays, so that any girls at risk could benefit from these new orders. Eighteen FGM protection orders were issued between July and September. That is the first set of data that we have.