Equality Act 2010: Diversity of Political Candidates

Question

15:12:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to implement section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 to require information to be published on the diversity of political candidates.

My Lords, the Government are committed to commencing the Equality Act 2010’s provision requiring registered political parties to publish anonymised data relating to the diversity of their candidate selections. We are currently exploring when and how to commence that provision under Section 106. Implementing this policy would, through increased transparency, demonstrate tangible progress towards better representation among candidates of the population they seek to serve, and thereby increase the involvement of all groups across the democratic process.

I thank my noble friend for her reply. I am quite encouraged by what she had to say, but does she agree that having a diversity of candidates means that the elected representatives will look like the people they represent, which will give more authority to our elected institutions, because people will be able to relate to them much better? Can she say when this provision will be implemented? We have been waiting 15 years for it now; that is quite some time. Those who are now shadow Ministers in the party opposite will know that I asked them this question numerous times. I am hoping that I will not have to do the same now to my noble friend.

My Lords, I have enormous respect for my noble friend and the leadership role that she has played in political parties—and, of course, in ensuring diversity. I too hope that she will not need to ask this Government as many times as she had to ask the previous Government, because we have made clear our commitment to implementing Section 106. We need to work through how we are going to do that and who will be included. I think it is right that something as important as this is done properly. I look forward to her challenge and her support as we take that forward.

My Lords, we need to understand the picture fully, and while I am sure we are all gratified by the number of women Members of Parliament we have now, the story on other protected characteristics, including disability, race, and sexual orientation, is not so rosy. In answer to a very similar question in January, Anneliese Dodds responded by saying that the Government were looking at when they might be able to introduce this data, much as the Minister has done today. If the Minister cannot tell us today when this will be, can she reassure the House on what approximate date we will be able to introduce this legislation by?

The noble Baroness has found an interesting way to ask the same question again. I will try to find an interesting way to give the same answer. I recognise her point that Section 106 requires us, in commencing it, to think carefully—actually, exactly—about which protected characteristics will be included in the regulations. It is important that we give that sufficient thought, alongside political parties, of course, about how we will implement that. There is nothing to stop political parties at this point, for transparency, publishing information about their own candidates. But, of course, the reasoning behind this piece of legislation is to ensure we get consistency; in doing that, we challenge ourselves as politicians, we challenge our parties, and we show to the country that those people who represent them reflect those whom they are speaking on behalf of.

My Lords, before International Women’s Day this weekend, it is important that we reflect on this issue. I ask the Minister whether there is a need to engage with political parties right across the United Kingdom to enable them to empower women to look at politics as an honourable profession. We know that there are many perceived barriers—and actual barriers, let us be honest about that—that they see when they look at political life. Is there some work that the Government can do with political parties across the UK, whether that is through the Electoral Commission or directly, to try to assist with that?

The noble Baroness makes a very important point. Some of that, of course, is the responsibility of political parties themselves, but particularly in areas where she and I have previously shared views and work—such as the abuse and intimidation that impact all elected politicians but disproportionately impact women—there is work that the Government can do, building on work done outside this place on this issue; for example, by the Jo Cox commission. The Government are working with the Electoral Commission to take this forward in terms of practical actions that will help overcome some of these barriers, which, as the noble Baroness says, might put people off coming into democratically elected life, and, in doing that, make us all poorer.

How long does my noble friend the Minister think it will take before we achieve 50:50 representation of men and women in the House of Lords?

My noble friend the Leader assures me that the Front Bench on this side is pretty good. I am afraid it is not within my power, but I see in the other place that considerable progress has been made since 1997, when I was elected, which was equally a big jump in women’s representation. Then, however, it was just over 18% women—it now stands at 40%, which is the sort of progress that we would all like to see.

Does the Minister agree that the Conservative Party has led the way on diversity when it comes to our party leaders? I know we have had a few. We have had our first Asian leader, when Labour has had none, and our first black leader, when Labour has had none—all, I add, chosen on merit.

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.

My Lords, given the Government’s enthusiasm for gender equality in these matters, why will they not legislate for female succession to hereditary peerages?

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.

Ahead of the Senedd elections next year, my party Plaid Cymru has decided to reserve the first position on the internal selection process for half of the constituencies for women. Will the Minister share some more ideas for what other parties could do to ensure that we have a gender-equal Parliament in Wales and here in Westminster?

Our colleague Jane Hutt has written to the Secretary of State to talk about the action being taken in advance of the Senedd elections next year. I am sure that Labour and other parties will want to ensure a representative Senedd. I suspect that the ability to take the action the noble Baroness outlined was dependent on the previous Labour Government putting into law the ability to take that sort of positive action. It is because of that that we have seen the progress we have up to this point. Better representation in our politics does not happen by accident; it happens by people being willing to take action and be transparent. That is what parties which are serious about it support.