International Women’s Day

Baroness Smith of Malvern Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Office for Equality and Opportunity (Baroness Smith of Malvern) (Lab)]

What a splendid debate we have had today.

I recognise the excellent maiden speeches we have heard. My noble friend Lady Nargund vividly described her and her family’s journey from south-west India and her family’s history of struggle, which I have no doubt will inform her contributions to our House. Given the story she told, perhaps we should hand out sweets to everybody in the House of Lords to celebrate her arrival here. I know that her NHS experience will also be brought to bear on our discussions.

I turn to my noble friend Lady Linforth. All of us who have been Labour Party members over recent years will wholly understand the comments of those who have said how much relief you feel when you see Carol Linforth, as she then was, in charge of some very tricky events. She has made a phenomenal contribution to our party. As others have noted, stopping errant nonsense from men in the Labour Party is a major contribution to political life. I welcome, as others have, her conversion from having “backroom” influence to being a strong voice in this House.

My noble friend Lady MacLeod drew on her Scottish heritage, identifying the learning and its impact on her political views, and on her role—as it was at a time when I knew her better—as a journalist. As others have said, her contribution, as poacher turned gamekeeper, to our considerations in this House of freedom of speech and the role of free journalism will be important. I was particularly proud to work with her during the last years of the previous Labour Government. She is, as others have described her, stalwart and knowledgeable, and will be a major asset to our House.

I turn to my noble friend Lady Martin. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, that it was just like my noble friend to focus, as she did, not on herself but on the issues and challenges that will motivate her. From her time at the Youth Justice Board through to her time supporting government, her work alongside our first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, and her ongoing work with women in business, she will make a reality of the objectives that she set, ensuring that we do all we can in this country so that background does not determine destination. She will have a major role to play in that.

My noble friend Lady Paul told us about her family with great warmth. I have no doubt, even if she doubted it, that she will do them extremely proud. She has enormous energy. Having had the opportunity to work within the political sphere and to campaign and lobby on whether or not to have a national citizenship service and, as we have heard, on issues around boys and radicalisation, she will make a major contribution to this House.

The other amazing thing about this debate, of course, is that it identifies for us the diversity and range of women and the issues that they take up and that challenge them. We heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Bloomfield, about the Welsh women she celebrated, and the noble Baroness, Lady Gohir, made a strong argument about the representation of Muslim women, about the range and breadth of their voice and their agency. My noble friends Lady Hunter and Lord Stansgate and the noble Lord, Lord Patel, focused on the contribution of women in science and engineering and what we need to do to ensure that it continues. The noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, did as she always does and ably represented disabled women and challenged us on their role: I do believe that my decision to make her chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence was one of the better decisions I made as a Minister.

My noble friend Lady Carberry talked about women in the military, both to ensure that we provide our thanks and recognition and to raise the injustices in some of the treatment that they experience. The noble Baroness, Lady Verma, and the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, identified the intersectionality between race and sex that sometimes causes specific issues and challenges for black and minority ethnic women, and my noble friend Lady Gill talked about the contribution of Sikh women.

I will try, in the time left, to pick up some of the key themes and respond to points raised. First, there was the issue of representation and voice. Many noble Lords noted the progress made in political representation in both Houses, certainly since I was elected in 1997, when still only 18% of the House of Commons were women. Due to action across parties—although I have to say I am particularly proud of Labour’s commitment to all-women shortlists, which was the basis for my selection and election—we have seen considerable growth, and now over 40% of the House of Commons are women. My noble friend Lady Caine also identified the growing number of women here in the Lords, as we have seen in the quality of the debate today. Given that the noble Baroness, Lady Burt, will be leaving us, let me just thank her for her role here.

As she always does, and demonstrating her commitment to women’s representation throughout her distinguished career, my noble friend Lady Gale challenged me once again to say when we will introduce Section 106. We have a commitment to do so, and I hope to be able to return to her with positive news about progress. My noble friend Lady Royall identified, as did others, the challenge for women in public life now of abuse and intimidation. Having been part of it, I recognise the work of the Jo Cox Foundation, which is enormously important in tackling that, but it is all our responsibility to make sure that our politics is carried out in a way that is respectful and recognises difference, but also recognises the strong motivations that bring people into politics and does not dissuade other women from coming into a life of politics.

We are, of course, despite the progress that has been made, still in the era of firsts. I particularly welcome the reference by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby to our first female Archbishop. I know that we all send her our very best wishes. The noble Baroness, Lady Morrissey, raised the challenge of the representation of women in business leadership, which, despite her leadership, still has much further to go. The Government’s Women’s Business Council, newly refreshed, is working on this area.

There was a strong theme of international concern and work in the debate, particularly from the noble Baronesses, Lady Sugg, Lady Bennett and Lady Hodgson, the noble Lords, Lord Ahmad and Lord Bates, and my noble friends Lady Royall, Lady Brown, Lady Thornton and Lord Young. Just to be clear on this, the UK will support women and girls internationally to lead and participate in economies and societies. We champion the work of women’s rights movements, which are critical to achieving progress. We are committed to eradicating gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, technology-facilitated violence, female genital mutilation and child marriage, and to delivering on the women, peace and security agenda.

On some of the specific points raised by noble Lords, on sexual and reproductive health rights, we are taking action to advance that, as a major donor, through our diplomatic network and in collaboration with partners. In 2024, we supported UNFPA partnerships, which averted nearly 10 million unintended pregnancies, more than 200,000 maternal deaths and 3 million unsafe abortions. My noble friend Lady Chapman is a SheDecides champion, and in November 2025 she announced new UK commitments for family planning, aiming to make health and rights a reality for all.

On preventing sexual violence in conflict, in 2025, the UK PSVI programmes supported nearly 60,000 survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. We are working to refresh our approach to PSVI from 2026 onwards.

I recognise the issues raised by noble Lords about the reductions in overseas development aid, but we are committed to embedding equality meaningfully. We are retaining our agenda equality target for FCDO bilateral ODA programmes, and we will share details on strengthened measures for women and girls in due course.

On the issue of violence against women and girls—another important theme—I, as others have, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, for her centring of the victims of violence against women in the debate today, and the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, for sharing his personal story. We must acknowledge that there is still work to do in the area of violence against women and girls. It is a sad reality that women and girls do not always feel safe in the communities they have helped to build. That is why it is a top priority for the Government. In December 2025, we published our VAWG strategy, which set out our mission to halve the level of these crimes within a decade. We will go further than before to deliver a cross-government, transformative approach. The strategy is backed by at least £1 billion of funding across government over the spending review period. We will, of course, report back to this House on progress on it.

I particularly thank my noble friend Lady Nye for raising and celebrating the role that Gisèle Pelicot has played with her bravery, manifesting this important requirement to ensure that the blame for violence against women, and the shame, rests where it should— with male perpetrators. I also thank my noble friend Lady Hyde for celebrating the campaigners and survivors, who make such a difference in this area. My noble friend Lady Chakrabarti rightly gave voice to Virginia Giuffre in the debate today. The noble Baroness, Lady Morrissey, rightly raised issues around the influence of powerful and rich men. Frankly, I have been shaken by their ability and propensity to get away with heinous crime and the fact that this has gone unchallenged—including by other men alongside them—for years on end. This means that we need to redouble our efforts, both to tackle violence against women and girls where we find it, and to strengthen the voices of women and male allies to identify and tackle wholly unacceptable behaviour, wherever it is found.

One of those places is, of course, online, as my noble friends Lady Goudie and Lady Shah and the noble Baronesses, Lady Smith of Llanfaes and Lady Fall, identified. That is why the Government’s VAWG strategy reaffirms our Government’s commitment to tackling violence online, including intimate image abuse, which disproportionately affects women and girls. The strategy includes a clear commitment on device-level safety measures for children. To support that mission, we want to make it impossible for children to take, share or view a nude image; we are working constructively with companies to make that a reality. In the VAWG strategy, we also announced that we would legislate to ban nudification apps. The Government are meeting this commitment and will legislate in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise making, supplying or offering to supply tools that are designed to create non-consensual intimate images.

My noble friend Lady Paul was right to identify the need to support boys in how they respond to the many misogynistic influences that they face. That is why the Government, in our refreshed guidance on relationships, sex and health education, we put a particular focus on how we can challenge that and support teachers to challenge it in our schools. The UK co-leads, along with Chile, the 18-member Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse and has expanded support for StopNCII, an international tool that helps victims block or remove intimate images, along with other support internationally in this area.

The noble Baroness, Lady Jenkins, raised in particular the issue of pornography. The Government are committed to ensuring that online pornography is properly regulated. We thank the noble Baroness, Lady Bertin, for her continued commitment to driving forward that important work. We will, as part of the VAWG strategy, create a joint team to address the issues in the noble Baroness’s review, and I know that discussions will continue in this House on what more we need to do in relation to legislation to challenge this issue.

My noble friends Lady O’Grady and Lady Shah, the noble Baroness, Lady Brady, and the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, raised the issue of the gender pay gap in the workplace. Women’s equality and economic growth go hand in hand, but we need to ensure that every organisation is harnessing the talent, creativity and brilliance of women in their workforce. That is why, although we have seen some progress on the gender pay gap, we are committed to going further. The Chancellor has vowed to close the gender pay gap once and for all and we are all getting on with the work of making that a reality. This week, we highlighted the requirement in the Employment Rights Act for businesses to develop action plans on the gender pay gap and on menopause support in the workplace; in fact, this landmark Act is a major step forward for women in terms of the gender pay gap and other areas, such as flexible working and tackling the sexual harassment that too many women have to put up with in the workplace.

My noble friend Lady Nargund and the noble Baroness, Lady Sugg, mentioned health. This Government have already made significant progress on improving healthcare. We are renewing the women’s health strategy to assess the progress that has been made so far and to continue progressing delivery. We will identify and remove enduring barriers to high-quality care. We have established women’s health hubs in nine out of 10 integrated care systems. These are playing a role in shifting care out of hospital and reducing gynaecology waiting lists. We have taken urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the elective reform plan, which supports innovative models offering patients care closer to home and piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostics.

I enjoyed the contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Davies, on women and girls in sport, and thought she was very right about the ongoing challenge that we have.

Today, we have celebrated progress and identified where challenges remain. We could not make any of that progress without the support of many other women—business leaders, those in civil society, educators, academics, campaigners and others—both at home and abroad. As we finish this debate, I will take a moment to thank them for their tireless efforts in supporting women, both up and down the country and internationally, to thrive.

Motion agreed.