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Women, Justice and Gender Equality

The Minister knows that we supported the Work and Families Act 2006 and the Equality Act 2006. I appreciate the political point that the Minister is making, but we, the Conservative party now—as I said before, it is the Conservative party that I am concerned with, the one I am speaking for today—are very much in favour of increasing the right to request flexibility in the workplace. It leads to better working relationships and allows women and families more flexibility. Given the proper guidance, I am sure that business will accept that flexible working is a benefit, not a detriment. Women cannot be expected to carry out their duties in paid work properly unless their children are properly cared for. A courageous group of women who are campaigning for better special needs education will begin an all-night vigil this evening in Parliament square. If it is difficult for a woman with children to balance her work and family life, how very much more difficult is it for a parent with a disabled child to do so? The special needs education system needs to be totally and utterly reformed, and I give every support to the vigil taking place this evening. The equal pay issue was highlighted this week, in that many local authorities throughout the country have still not got their finances in order to enable them to implement guidance that the Government rightly laid down many years ago. I hope that situation will soon be remedied. For too long, employers, including local authority employers, have said, ““Well, it doesn’t matter because women will put up with it.”” I have spoken for much longer than I originally anticipated because I wanted to give way as many times as possible to enable a lively debate. I am glad that we have had such a debate. It is important that these issues are discussed not only when we introduce legislation, because legislation does not solve everything. Attitudes need to change, and I believe that they are changing. An enormous amount of progress has been made, but there is still much to do. We have supported much that the Government are doing on the equality agenda. The next Conservative Government, whom we shall see in the not too distant future, along with a massively increased number of women Conservative MPs, will take—