Young People: Sporting Activities
Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Earl of Devon(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
Given that we are about to go on to day eight in Committee on the Bill, I look forward to that discussion and debate. The noble Earl is, of course, right to identify the benefits of sport and activity to ensure young people remain healthy, both physically and mentally. That is why, without waiting for the Bill and the amendments he outlined, we are already making progress to support sports activity in schools. More broadly, through the work of my colleagues in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, we are ensuring that grass-roots sports facilities are provided as well. I look forward to the debate that the noble Earl mentioned.
The Earl of Devon (CB)
My Lords, I was fortunate enough to sit on the National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee with the noble Lords, Lord Moynihan and Lord Addington, and a number of other noble Lords. We learned of the remarkable lack of access to secondary school playing fields after school hours, particularly for local school clubs. It seemed to us that that was merely a lack of support for man hours and staffing. What are the Government doing to increase access to the few remaining secondary school playing fields?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
Let us be clear: it is not true that there are only a few remaining secondary school playing fields. However, the noble Earl makes a really important point that, where a facility is provided for a school to use during the school day, we should work harder to ensure it is available for communities to use. This is alongside the additional investment the Government are putting in anyway to ensure that there are grass-roots and community sports facilities.
Equality Act 2010: Diversity of Political Candidates
Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Earl of Devon(4 months ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness is right that there has been an enormous diversity of leaders of the Conservative Party—some of it good, some of it less good. Given the noble Baroness’s understandable wish to talk about the diversity of leaders, I find it slightly more difficult to understand why the party opposite, during its 14 years in government, was not as keen to enable that, through Section 106 of the Equality Act, to be something that all political parties should do and why it is not willing therefore to say more about its candidates and their diversity. What we know is that, when it comes to real progress in broader representation, the fact that there are now more Labour women in the House of Commons than Conservative MPs in total tells us something about which party has made the most progress on gender.
The Earl of Devon (CB)
My Lords, given the Government’s enthusiasm for gender equality in these matters, why will they not legislate for female succession to hereditary peerages?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
I think my noble friend the Leader of the House has considerable sympathy but also a lot of experience in the complexities of this type of legislation. I think, on the basis of her wisdom, I will leave it to her to respond to that particular issue.