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Equal Pay and Flexible Working Bill [HL]

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, for giving us the opportunity to discuss the issues addressed in this Bill, and for her passion for and the contribution she makes to this area. From the Government’s perspective, we believe that the House ought to consider some of the points in the Bill. It proposes two changes to the Equal Pay Act 1970, but as other noble Lords have remarked, these proposals come before us just as the Government are preparing their own equality Bill to bring together all existing equality legislation, including equal pay. That Bill was promised in our manifesto and included in the Queen’s Speech as a sign of our commitment to these issues. We will be bringing it forward as soon as practicable. We are of course grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Lester, for his work on our Bill and I can assure the noble Lord of our enthusiasm for equal pay not just as an issue of social justice, but in terms of economic productivity.