---

Socio-economic Equality Duty

After 13 years of a Labour Government who left behind them a more unequal society with a widening gap between rich and poor, the idea that an exceptionally weak clause in an Act that has not been enacted or implemented was major legislation, when it contained only a duty to consider, is everything that is bad about politics. [Interruption.] It has not been implemented. The public sector equality duty that will be introduced in the spring is the strongest measure possible. It will allow for transparency, and it will allow people to hold the authority to account in their locality. What the Government are doing is far more important than the duty the hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) mentions. We are taking 880,000 lower-paid people out of tax, and spending £7 billion on the fairness premium and £2.5 billion on the pupil premium, which is additional money and the single most important measure for changing children's life chances. What is more, let me read to the hon. Lady what the last Government's social mobility tsar Alan Milburn said:"““The challenges of the future call for a different relationship between the state and the citizen…It will mean…not just passing laws.””" But that was all the Labour party did—pass laws. What we are doing is about outcomes, not ticking boxes.