Simon Burns
Main Page: Simon Burns (Conservative - Chelmsford)Department Debates - View all Simon Burns's debates with the Department for Education
(8 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Caroline Dinenage
I am delighted to tell my hon. Friend that the gender pay gap in the Department for Education is only 5.9%. Although that is 5.9 percentage points too high, it shows enormous progress in the Department for Education. Across Government, the figure is just below 13%, and we will keep working until it has been eliminated altogether.
Sir Simon Burns (Chelmsford) (Con)
Given that it is now 42 years since Barbara Castle’s Equal Pay Act, why is there any gender pay gap, not only for 30 and 40-year-olds but for people in their teens, twenties, fifties and sixties?
Mr Speaker
I thought it was 47 years this year, but maybe my maths is wrong. It was certainly a long time ago.
Mr Speaker
I thought it was 1970. [Interruption.] Anyway, we are agreed that it is a long-standing statute.