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Government Legal Service
23. Valerie Davey (Bristol, West): What steps are being taken to ensure equal career opportunities for women in the Government legal service. [117754]
The Solicitor-General: The Government legal service takes very seriously the issue of equal career opportunities for women. The head of the GLS is personally leading work by a group of lawyers, drawn from across the service, who will examine its contribution to the modernising Government agenda. That, of course, includes diversity issues. The service supports and encourages different working patterns; another working group is looking specifically at such practices so as to increase the opportunities for lawyers to work part-time, to job-share or to work at home. The Treasury Solicitor's department has recently introduced a mentoring scheme for all its lawyers; under that scheme, women in senior posts are available to provide advice and encouragement to their more junior colleagues.
Valerie Davey: I welcome that response. May I press my hon. and learned Friend to tell us how many women have been appointed to the Government legal service and, more particularly, to senior posts?
The Solicitor-General: Just under 50 per cent. of the Government legal service is composed of women, and just over a quarter of staff in the senior civil service are women. The record in the Government legal service is therefore quite good, but we should not be complacent. Underachievement in recruiting women to higher posts can be explained historically, and in part by the attitude of the previous Government. We take gender and diversity seriously, and that is changing the impression of service in government. As Ministers, we have pressed the Government legal service to do as much as possible. Sixty per cent. of recruits to the service are women, and with time, that will have a profound effect on the numbers appointed to senior posts.
Business of the House
12.31 pm
Sir George Young (North-West Hampshire): May I ask the Leader of the House to give us the business for next week?
The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mrs. Margaret Beckett): The business for next week will be as follows:
Monday 17 April--Second Reading of the Finance Bill.
Tuesday 18 April--Remaining stages of the Postal Services Bill.
Wednesday 19 April--Remaining stages of the Utilities Bill.
The Chairman of Ways and Means has named opposed private business for consideration at 7 o'clock.
Thursday 20 April--Motion on the Easter recess Adjournment debate.
I remind the House that that sitting will follow a Friday pattern: I would hate to see hon. Members arriving for a different pattern of sitting.
The House may also be asked to consider any Lords messages which may be received.
The business for the week after the Easter break will be as follows:
Tuesday 2 May--Progress on consideration in Committee of the Finance Bill.
Wednesday 3 May--Conclusion of consideration in Committee of the Finance Bill.
Thursday 4 May--Debate on the Royal Commission report on the reform of the House of Lords on a motion for the Adjournment of the House.
Friday 5 May--Private Members' Bills.
I should like to inform the House of business to be taken in Westminster Hall for when the House is sitting during May.
Thursday 4 May--Debate on a sporting future for all.
Thursday 11 May--Debate on a Select Committee report--subject to be announced.
Thursday 18 May--Debate on the future of the construction industry.
Thursday 25 May--There will be no debates in Westminster Hall.
Sir George Young: The House is grateful for next week's business and an indication of business for the week after the Easter recess. Does the right hon. Lady envisage making a business statement next Thursday?
I am glad that at long last we are to debate the Wakeham report, although I note that the chosen date of 4 May is one when the country's attention may be focused on other events. The House is due to debate the Utilities Bill on Wednesday. Has the Leader of the House anything further to tell us about Government amendments to the Bill, as 359 have already been tabled? Do the Government plan to withdraw even more clauses?
In view of the growing interest in the way in which the House operates, may we debate the Liaison Committee's report promoted at Prime Minister's Question Time by the hon. Member for Thurrock (Mr. Mackinlay)--possibly the only promotion that he is likely to see?
There is continued concern in the House about events in Zimbabwe. Will the Foreign Secretary undertake to keep the House informed?
Will the Leader of the House tell us whether statements are expected next week on defence procurement or on the future of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency?
Could we have a statement from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport clarifying whether the Government have prejudged the bid to run the lottery? On Tuesday, the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Janet Anderson), declared in Westminster Hall:
- The Government always have been, and still are, committed to a not-for-profit lottery.--[Official Report, Westminster Hall, 11 April 2000; Vol. 348, c. 11WH.]
Finally, can we have a debate on the report on Rover by the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, in view of continuing concern about the future of motor manufacturing in this country?
Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover): It sounds as though we will be here all Easter.
Mrs. Beckett: My hon. Friend is right: that is an extensive programme.
I anticipate making a business statement next Thursday and hope, through discussion with the usual channels, to establish a time that is convenient for the House.
The right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir G. Young) was uncharacteristically ungracious about the timing of our debate on the reform of the House of Lords. He has been calling for the debate for some time and the day set is, after all, a sitting day. He argues that there will be passionate interest in local elections; I hope that he is right.
The Utilities Bill will be debated in the House in the near future. I do not anticipate dramatic changes, although it is right that the House should make that legislation effective.
I have taken note of the desire expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Mr. Mackinlay) that the Liaison Committee's report should be debated. The Government are giving the report's many profound recommendations careful consideration, and we will report to the House in due course.
We shall endeavour to keep the House informed about Zimbabwe.
I cannot say now whether or when a statement is likely on the defence issues raised by the right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire.
Furthermore, having already had several debates and statements on Rover, I do not anticipate that another is likely in the near future, although I shall certainly bear the right hon. Gentleman's remarks in mind.
The claims that either the Department for Culture, Media and Sport or the Government have prejudged the award of the lottery contract cannot possibly be true. As I am sure the right hon. Gentleman knows, the selection of the next operator of the national lottery is not a matter for the Government; it is a matter for the National Lottery Commission. I understand that my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport,
has written to him about the matter, and that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be answering a question in the near future to put the matter beyond doubt.
Mrs. Alice Mahon (Halifax): Has my right hon. Friend had time to read early-day motion 614, on free long-term care for the elderly?
[That this House warmly welcomes the support for free long-term nursing home care for the elderly expressed by the Secretary of State for Health following his speech to the Royal College of Nursing Congress in Bournemouth on 5th April; notes that this is in line with the recommendations of the Royal Commission Report on Long Term Care, With Respect to Old Age, published in March 1999; asks the Secretary of State to make a formal statement to the House at the earliest opportunity; and urges the Government to bring forward legislation as soon as possible, abolishing means-tested charges for elderly, nursing and residential home care and lifting the burden from all those elderly citizens who are in, or soon to enter, long-term care.]
My right hon. Friend will be aware of the awful current arrangements, under which the elderly and the sick are subjected to means-tested nursing charges--a concept quite at odds with the ideals of the national health service. Has our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health said whether he intends to make a statement in the near future?
Mrs. Beckett: I am well aware of the great interest taken by my hon. Friend and many other hon. Members in those issues, which are of considerable importance. The Government are considering all the recommendations of the royal commission on long-term care in the context of our overall spending review. My hon. Friend can be confident that, when we have announcements to make, they will be made to the House.
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