Women: Economic Freedom

Lord Lexden Excerpts
Tuesday 6th February 2018

(6 years, 3 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait Baroness Williams of Trafford
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My Lords, I think the thing here is to get women into work and undo their reliance on credit, and some of the initiatives that the Government have put into play help women in that regard. We have more people and therefore more women than ever in employment.

Lord Lexden Portrait Lord Lexden (Con)
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Have the Government had recent communication with the BBC about its differential pay rates for men and women?

Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait Baroness Williams of Trafford
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Well, we have not had conversations with the BBC, but the EHRC is certainly interested in talking to it. I suspect that the BBC issue is an equal pay issue rather than a gender pay gap issue, but I am sure that that will all come out in the conversation that the EHRC has. Of course, the penalties for not complying with this are that the company or organisation involved has to do an equal pay audit, which is quite onerous.