BBC: Equal Pay

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts
Thursday 20th July 2017

(7 years, 3 months ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Ashton of Hyde Portrait Lord Ashton of Hyde
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

It is a very large amount—but why draw the line at £2 million as opposed to any other amount?

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Portrait Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)
- Hansard - -

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on serving so many women masters with such good grace and fortitude. Further, I congratulate the Government on introducing Ofcom as the first external regulator and for advising it to introduce an operating framework for the BBC. Should equal pay not be one of the first models that the operating framework should cover?

Lord Ashton of Hyde Portrait Lord Ashton of Hyde
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

My Lords, I do not agree with my noble friend. Diversity and equal pay are management issues for the BBC. The board of the BBC should be obeying the law and should be paying people on an equal basis, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or anything else. The BBC knows full well what our view is, and the director general of the BBC is committed to doing something about it by 2020.