Clause 73
Equality Bill
4:30 pm
Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey and Wood Green, Liberal Democrat)
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I have figures supplied by all the normal organisations. My anxiety is not truly with the gender pay information clause per se, but the timing of its introduction through regulation. I feel—I believe that there are Labour Members who feel this too—that women have waited a very long time. Organisations have been able to reduce the pay gap voluntarily for some time, although the statistics that I read from the EHRC on the number of employers that voluntarily complete equal pay audits make it clear that the rate of progress is pretty slow. I am not convinced that another four years of volunteering, even with the work that the Minister says will go on regarding metrics, will produce the step change that women need and deserve—and they deserve it now.
I was quite shocked by the CBI’s presentation at the evidence session because, like Conservative Members, it was pushing the idea that there is very little discrimination—I am still not convinced by that—or rather that that is not the reason for the pay gap.