Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Thursday 2nd February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Richard Arkless (Dumfries and Galloway) (SNP)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

On the subject of the cost to the public purse, I hope, rather than a rerun of all the arguments, which would be very tedious.

[Richard Arkless]

I think the whole House would like to know that we got value for money in that judgment, and of course there are lots of rights and obligations in many Acts of Parliament and it is the courts’ job to interpret them. Can the Attorney General explain why the Supreme Court held that the Sewel provisions in an Act of Parliament were not a matter for the courts?

[The Attorney General]

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will read the judgment carefully: it says that whereas the Sewel convention might be important politically, it is not a matter for the courts to enforce. That was perfectly properly for the Supreme Court to say. What respect the Sewel convention is given in political terms is of course not a matter for the court. The judgment made that clear.

[Mr Speaker]

The operative words are “public purse” and “fees”. Can we stick to that? It would be helpful.

[Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)]

If the Government were genuinely motivated to spend this money by wanting a definitive answer from the courts on a constitutional question, why did they not thank the judges in the divisional court in November for such a clear answer, instead of being in a position where the Justice Secretary had to be pressured into giving a lukewarm defence of them?

--- Later in debate ---

[Justine Greening]

I did not realise that my hon. Friend was quite that young. He sets out the serious point that the world has changed immeasurably since 2000. Children now learn about relationships in different ways, but the challenge is that they are learning about them in ways that give them a skewed, inaccurate view of what relationships are about. It is important to look at how we can ensure that the guidance genuinely works and reflects the world as it is today, therefore giving ourselves and our children a better chance to get the education that they need.

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman’s beard is deceptive.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend have a word with our excellent Secretary of State for Education and identify the best schools in the country that tackle homophobic bullying and sexual harassment together with the parents of their pupils, and roll out that best practice across the country?

[Mr Speaker]

The Minister is being invited to talk to herself.

[Justine Greening]

I will not comment on that, but my hon. Friend is absolutely right that many schools are doing that—I visited a school in Birmingham that is doing great work in this area. Excellent work is under way, but it is now time to look at how we can learn from what works and see that percolate through our school system so that all schools can do a better job for all children on teaching SRE.

--- Later in debate ---

[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.

[Sir Simon Burns]

Wasn’t it 1975?

[Mr Speaker]

I thought it was 1970. [Interruption.] Anyway, we are agreed that it is a long-standing statute.

[Caroline Dinenage]

Yes, I think we can all agree that it has been a long old time. My right hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Sir Simon Burns) is right to point this out. We have legislation that stops people being paid differently for doing the same job, but what drives the gender pay gap is the fact that girls tend to go into lower paid sectors compared with men and, of course, the pay gap really kicks in at around 30 and 40 when women leave work to have children and may not be supported back into the workplace as well as we would want. That is why gender pay gap reporting is so vital.

[Mr Speaker]

We are all now better informed.

[Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)]

3. What steps she has taken in response to trends in the level of racially motivated incidents since the EU referendum.

--- Later in debate ---

[Justine Greening]

I totally agree that such behaviour is unacceptable, and we should not tolerate it in any form. I regularly go running, and I have been stopped for selfies, but never subjected to any catcalling. We can do more. Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign and other initiatives have really helped to narrow the gender gap in sports participation. The new Active Lives survey demonstrates that 59% of women are now doing at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, which is the amount recommended by the Chief Medical Officer, but we can do much more to ensure that there are no barriers to women participating in sport.

[Mr Speaker]

I do not know whether the Minister has been stopped for selfies because of the quality of her running, her celebrity status or, more likely, both.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Ellis]

Again, I recommend that the hon. Gentleman read the report. It is decades—in fact, many decades—of patching and mending that has led to patching and mending no longer being practicable in the opinion of the authors of the report, so clearly a number of major issues need to be addressed.

[Mr Speaker]

We are out of time, but I really want to hear the last question, not least because the hon. Gentleman is a newly elected and extremely keen member of the Committee about whose name he is concerned. I call Mr Philip Davies.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

7. If he will bring forward proposals to change the name of the Women and Equalities Committee to the Equalities Committee.