Baroness Prosser: My Lords, noble Lords should bear in mind that questions and answers should be about the principles being posed. Finger-pointing at individuals, from whichever side of the Chamber, is deeply unhelpful and does nothing to enhance the status of this House.
Baroness Prosser: I did not say that if we levelled up for everyone, it would still be unequal. I said that the Minister who responded to the debate seemed to think that levelling up for women, men and everyone was the answer. My point was that we start off unequally so we end up unequal at the end. My point is that we should level up for women and make it equal.
Baroness Prosser: My Lords, I too thank my noble friend Lady Gale for introducing this debate, which is important not just for women but for men and for all of us in the country at large. In May, we discussed aspects of the Queen’s Speech in this Chamber and I chose to speak on the subject of levelling up as it was taking place between men and women. At the end of the debate, when the Minister was making his...
Baroness Prosser: My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister for introducing this debate. When I first came into this House, in 2004, I, along with many other new noble Lords, was advised to have a conversation with the then Clerk of the Parliaments. I cannot remember his name—I am sure there are people here who would—but I recall that he was a very scary person, who was extremely serious about everything. He...
Baroness Prosser: The Minister will be aware that the vast majority of jobs that will be lost due to the collapse of Arcadia and Debenhams this week are held by women. That is mostly because jobs in retail can often be offered with part-time hours and a deal of flexibility. What plans does the Minister have to initiate programmes to get those women back into jobs—for example, working with employers to...
Baroness Prosser: My Lords, I, along with other Members of the House, was extremely pleased to receive the letter from the Prime Minister in September setting out the Government’s plans for increasing and improving FE provision. However, the letter did not say that that was to be funded in part by the loss of money currently given to the Union Learning Fund. A different taint would have been put on the...
Baroness Prosser: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, for placing this debate on today’s agenda. I look back to when I came in to the House some 15 or so years ago. At that time, the International Women’s Day debate was always placed on the agenda by Baroness Gould. There were just a tiddly few of us in the Chamber speaking on this subject, almost all on these Benches. I am glad that...
Baroness Prosser: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans, if any, they have to amend the equal pay legislation to include the right to know the pay of a potential comparator.
Baroness Prosser: I thank the noble Baroness for that reply. During yesterday’s Oral Question on the gender pay gap, a question was asked about a woman’s right to know. The Minister agreed that a woman entitled to equal pay should be entitled to know the pay of her prospective comparator. That was good to hear. The Minister said that work is being done in government and that we should have more information...
Baroness Prosser: My Lords, if we can stick for a moment with the gender pay gap, the Minister has said that she is concerned about the gap—concerned that things are not moving on—but does anybody in this House think that it is going to close by osmosis? We need action: we need the Government to determine what they are going to do. There are a whole range of things that they could do, and I will give just...
Baroness Prosser: My Lords, I, too, thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester for her splendid introduction to this debate. I did not disagree with a single thing she said. I also did not disagree with the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Mawson. Prior to working in the trade union movement, I worked in community development and I agree that the involvement of local people, with their...
Baroness Prosser: My Lords, we on these Benches of course welcome the commitment made in the Queen’s Speech for 12 years of education for girls. We know that malnutrition hits girls and women rather more than men, to the extent that girls are sometimes so malnourished that they are unable to attend education. What plans do the Government have to deal with that?
Baroness Prosser: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Jordan, for securing this debate and for his panoramic introduction, which really set the scene for the contributions to follow. Trade unions are not only good for their members and for workers in general; they are good for the country. There is very strong evidence of the positive link between union-organised workplaces and improved productivity, for...
Baroness Prosser: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria were used to determine the suitability of candidates for the position of chair of Wilton Park.
Baroness Prosser: I thank the Minister for that reply, much as I raised an eyebrow when listening to it. Wilton Park is a global forum for strategic discussion, bringing together leading representatives from the worlds of politics, business, academia, civil society and diplomacy. When appointing the chair of Wilton Park, with its duty to reach out to the rest of the world, did the Minister responsible consider...
Baroness Prosser: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to amend the Equality Act 2010 in relation to equal pay.
Baroness Prosser: I thank the Minister for that reply. It is disappointing, but not surprising. We were all pleased with the measures taken by the Government last year to require employers of more than 250 people to make public their gender pay gaps. We welcomed that information because it gave us a picture of where the problems lay, but will we simply receive it as though there is nothing more that can be...
Baroness Prosser: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to require organisations to produce action plans to respond to their gender pay gap reports.
