Schools: Music and Dance Scheme

Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Lord Bishop of Manchester

Wednesday 28th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

This year, as has been the case since 2010, we have maintained the value of the funding for the music and dance scheme, and we have provided an additional £4 million to support parents having to pay for the impacts of VAT on private schools. We have done what was necessary to maintain it this year and, as I said previously, we recognise the significance of this scheme and we will do all we can to support it in the future.

[The Lord Bishop of Manchester]

My Lords, I declare my interest: I might myself have the voice of a frog but I have Chetham’s School of Music, which provides wonderful choristers for my cathedral. Does the Minister agree with me that there seems to be an anomaly? Last week the Government were able to announce significant money over four or five years for the built heritage of this country. However, when it comes to an equally important part of our heritage, our music and drama heritage, we are told that the most we can expect is another year and then, perhaps, later on, something longer. Why can we not have a similar length of settlement for the music and dance schools now as we had for the built heritage last week?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

It is not right to say that the only support provided to music and the arts is through the music and dance scheme. That deals with a particular issue about how we ensure that, whatever your income, if you are highly talented, you can learn at the very best private schools, including Chetham’s. Alongside that, this Government have taken action on the national curriculum to support the place of arts and music. We are investing in a national centre for arts and music as well. So there is a long-term commitment from this Government to arts and music—somewhat in contrast to the last Government, I have to say.

Equality and Human Rights Commission: Draft Updated Code of Practice

Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Lord Bishop of Manchester

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I think the noble and learned Lord knows that the full draft updated code was received by the Government from the EHRC on 4 September. Officials started work immediately after that. Having made clear to the EHRC that information about the impacts on businesses and public functions would be important, both in the previous iteration of the code and the one delivered on 4 September, the formal ask for that was made on 9 October.

I have already outlined in my previous answer why it is important and necessary for the conditions around impact assessments laid by, and presumably followed by, the previous Government to be carried out appropriately. Given the significance of this code, it is right that the Government take the time to get it right, rather than satisfy those who are calling for it to be laid in an untimely fashion.

[The Lord Bishop of Manchester]

Like many, I am grateful that the interim advice that was issued and caused such widespread alarm was withdrawn, albeit belatedly. As the Minister has just said, we need to get this right rather than done quick. With that in mind, can the Minister assure us that the forthcoming appointment of the new chair of the EHRC will be taken as an opportunity to reset an organisation that has, of late, lost the confidence of many?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The EHRC continues to do important work, but I take the point that the right reverend Prelate makes. The new chair of the EHRC, who will start in her role at the end of this month, has an important opportunity to build on that work and to ensure, as I know she will, that she builds trust among a wide range of stakeholders and supports the Government—and, in fact, all of us—in ensuring that the provisions of the Equality Act, in the breadth of their application, are implemented as effectively as possible, because we all benefit from that.

Higher Education Regulatory Approach

Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Lord Bishop of Manchester

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I hope that is the approach that I have tried to take. With that pragmatic approach, I reiterate that I expect student unions to behave in a way that safeguards and promotes speech and events with which they perhaps as a majority do not agree—that is an important part of the experience of being a student—but to impose on them the same level of burden imposed on the institution itself was unreasonable. That is why we took the decision that we did.

[The Lord Bishop of Manchester]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to ask questions on this Statement, particularly as the noble Lord, Lord Mann, who is sitting behind me, raised issues of anti-Semitism. In Manchester, where I live among a very large Jewish community, it is an ongoing issue that we are always very sensitive to.

We have heard a lot about free speech, which, unsurprisingly, I am in favour of, and of difficult conversations from the noble Lord, which, again, I am in favour of. But sometimes the language shades over into what can only be called mob intimidation. It is about how we make that distinction between a difficult conversation and people being intimidated by loud, vociferous, angry behaviour that seeks deliberately to make them uncomfortable.

We had a really good session in this House a couple of years ago, looking at an amendment about the rights of protesters near abortion clinics and the rights of women to access those services. I worked with Peers from all sides of the House and we came up with something that commanded massive support in the House and that I hope is proving workable. Can we just get that balance between people’s right to protest—and to speak sometimes a little loudly and emotionally—and not moving over to the point where people intimidate others and prevent them from feeling that can pursue their educational studies?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The right reverend Prelate exactly outlines the balance that we need to strike. It is wholly reasonable that students engage in protest. In fact, I engaged in a fair amount of protest with my noble friend Lord Mann during my time as a student. However, it is wholly inappropriate, as the right reverend Prelate says, if that then prevents those with whom you disagree from operating. Where serious thought has been given to this, higher education institutions have managed to find that balance between the right to protest and the requirement that views with which you disagree should not, essentially, be cancelled from campuses.

If we can work on that, and if we can also ensure that we develop that culture that we were talking about earlier, and that ability to recognise that disagreement is an important part of the experience of being in higher education, then we will have made important progress.