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Lord Adonis: My Lords, the noble Lord makes a number of pertinent and important points. We are strongly encouraging fathers to take joint responsibility for the upbringing of their children, and we can point to significant success over recent years. In 1989, only 71 per cent of births outside marriage led to joint registration by mothers and fathers of parental responsibility. In 2004, that figure increased to 83 per cent—that was just one year after the change in the law in 2003 to enable unmarried parents to register births jointly and thereby both acquire parental responsibility. We have actively promoted that change in the law, and we hope that it will lead to a further increase in the proportion of unmarried parents who are jointly taking responsibility for the upbringing of their children.

Lord Renton: My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that fathers who are married have considerable responsibilities, which do not need to be enlarged, but that fathers who are unmarried, perhaps even fathers who are divorced, need to have their responsibilities considered carefully?

Lord Adonis: My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord. That is precisely why we published parenting plans, which are now widely available, setting out the responsibilities of separating parents for their children to ensure that they take their responsibilities seriously.

The Lord Bishop of Portsmouth: My Lords, do the Government agree that the matter before us is about more than the rights of individual parents but concerns the needs of children? Because it is not working, is not a further review needed over and above the laudable efforts being made in relation to parenting about which we know?

Lord Adonis: My Lords, the needs of children are immensely important. We are pushing further the obligations of parents so that the needs of children are effectively met.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the irresponsible fathers tend to
 
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be young, feckless, chaotic, in casual relationships and often in need of the help of their own parents to grow into their responsibilities? Has he had any contact with or made arrangements to work with the Grandparents' Association, so that those children may enjoy a three-generation family?

Lord Adonis: My Lords, my noble friend speaks with great authority on these issues. She is absolutely right about the importance of working with grandparents. We are doing so with their associations. The recent respect action plan, which particularly seeks to have an impact on fathers and parents who are not taking their responsibilities sufficiently seriously, allocates £70 million over two years to help parents to improve their parenting skills. All those interventions are particularly focused on the type of parents mentioned by my noble friend.

Baroness Walmsley: My Lords, does the Minister agree that in order to achieve the objectives of the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, we need to start early? Is he aware that many schools arrange for teenage girls to have supervised contact with real babies and toddlers so that they can prepare themselves for the responsibilities of motherhood later and at the same time learn about the reality, so as to discourage unwanted teenage pregnancies? Is there anything that the Government can do to encourage schools to do the same sort of thing for teenage boys, so that they understand the responsibilities, the difficulties and the joys of fatherhood?

Lord Adonis: My Lords, the issues that the noble Baroness has mentioned are central to the PSHE curriculum, which is intended to foster greater awareness in schools of the obligations of parents and carers and the value of family life, including the changing nature of and pressures on relationships with friends and family; the role and importance of marriage and family relationships; the role and feelings of parents and carers; and the value of family life. We are investing considerable sums in training PSHE teachers in schools and enriching the PSHE curriculum to meet precisely the points that the noble Baroness set out.

Baroness Howarth of Breckland: My Lords, will the Minister give a reassurance that, vital as fathers are, in whatever legislative review that might take place the needs of children will remain paramount and, in that respect, any preventive work to help fathers where it is appropriate to engage with their children—and indeed mothers—will be encouraged?

Lord Adonis: My Lords, the noble Baroness is absolutely right about the importance of maintaining the paramount interests of the child. We are not, I should stress, envisaging a further legislative review over and above the changes proposed in the Children
 
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and Adoption Bill, which, as the noble Baroness knows, because we debated it together, are intended to foster precisely the objectives that she set out.

Lord Swinfen: My Lords, are the Government planning any tax changes to encourage marriage?

Lord Adonis: My Lords, the changes that we have made to tax credit arrangements have significantly boosted the support that is available to parents, thanks to the investment that the Government have made over the past nine years.

Baroness Howe of Idlicote: My Lords, in supporting the aims of my noble friend Lord Northbourne, would the Minister not agree that giving fathers exactly the same rights as mothers to request flexible working in the Work and Families Bill will enable them to play a far more active and responsible role in their children's lives?

Lord Adonis: My Lords, my best answer to that is to say that, as the noble Baroness knows, that is the subject of ongoing debates on that Bill.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Expenditure

3.22 pm

Lord Sheldon asked Her Majesty's Government:

What proportion of the expenditure by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is allocated to sport; and how this is expected to rise over the next five years in comparison with that of culture.

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, the department expects to spend 11.3 per cent and 12.5 per cent of its £1.6 billion revenue budget on sport in 2006–07 and 2007–08 respectively. Revenue spend on culture will fall from 73.7 per cent to 73.5 per cent over that period. The department expects to spend approximately 1 per cent of its £127 million capital budget in both 2006–07 and 2007–08 on sport. Capital spend on culture will increase from 69.7 per cent to 70.8 per cent. Expenditure after 2007–08 falls within the next spending review. The department's budgets for that period have not yet been set.

Lord Sheldon: My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply, but is not the real danger that, when the Olympic bid finds itself short of money, state funding for the arts will suffer as a consequence? As the Arts Council's grants are frozen for the next three years, if the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is squeezed to provide for the Olympics, the arts will suffer even more. What assurance can my noble friend give that the arts will retain the proper consideration, which has been the situation up to now?

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, I certainly want to reassure the House that the arts will continue to
 
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receive appropriate expenditure. My noble friend will also recognise that the arts will play a significant role in relation to the Olympics as well, when we expect so many visitors to this country to enjoy not only the Olympics but our culture and heritage. We need to make provision for that.

I assure my noble friend that it is not the intention for the Olympics to be funded out of tax receipts. The Olympics are being funded out of the lottery and the London council tax. He will recognise, therefore, that he ought not to have anxieties about the arts being squeezed because of progress on the Olympics. In any case, we expect the Olympics to keep to budget.

Lord Addington: My Lords, does the Minister agree that to have culture and sport seen to be squabbling in the same department is supportive to neither? Have the Government given further thought to putting long-term support for sport into the Department of Health, which will ultimately be able to make savings if it manages to increase participation?

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, if the noble Lord will forgive me, I recall that a decade ago the pressure was exactly the other way round—that there should be such a department. The previous administration accepted the argument for having a specific department for those areas, and indeed sport has grown in salience. We recognise that participation in sport helps other aspects of national life—it improves the nation's health—and that the success in winning the Olympic Games bid undoubtedly gives sport a higher profile in the whole country. However, I see no loss in relative expenditure between culture, which covers a wide range anyway, and sport. The fact that they are contained in one department is, I should have thought, a strength rather than a weakness.

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