Speeches by Leadbeater.

“Charlotte, anything to add to finish off?”

“I have the long-anticipated questions on women’s health hubs—ta-da! Thank you to the panel for coming in; this is really interesting. It would be good to get thoughts from all four of you on women’s health hubs if we can, but I will go to you first, Ruth. The RCN seems to have been more sceptical than most organisation…”

“Do you agree with that, Victoria?”

“The final point, which Sarah alluded to, is that from a business perspective there is presumably a cost involved with reporting.”

“Did you get any pushback about doing that piece of work and reporting?”

“Sarah, would you support the Government including socioeconomic pay gap reporting alongside proposals for ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting?”

“Please write to me with that information. Paul, both your companies report on your socioeconomic pay gap. What trends have you found in relation to socioeconomic background and pay?”

“That is brilliant, thank you. Victoria, is it similar for you? You are in a very different business, of course, but are there similar or different patterns?”

“Oh, Paul, come on!”

“Why did you start doing it in the first place? Have you found it valuable?”

“Most importantly, Paul, what was the winning Pot Noodle flavour?”

“Good afternoon, Alun and Summer. Thank you for joining us today. We will start with the big picture, if we can, and then narrow down into a little more detail. Could you just give us your thoughts on the current state of social mobility in the UK? What are the key trends that we are seeing? Alun, shall we start with yo…”

“That is brilliant—thank you very much. That is very comprehensive. Summer, do you want to add anything to that, maybe with particular reference to any specific sectors where socioeconomic mobility is reversing, like creative industries or sport? Are there any specific concerns that you have, as well as the bigger pictu…”

“That is really helpful. As someone who has worked in a further education college, I think that is absolutely right, and I am pleased to see that the Government are placing more of an emphasis on that. As for the key drivers and the barriers, are there any specific things that you want to list?”

“It seems there is consensus that the NHS resources probably need a bit of a revamp.”

“Are there any countries that do it better?”

“Goodness me; thank you so much. This has already been amazing. What a fantastic panel of brilliant, wonderful experts. I will confess, I am part of the problem because I am generally a very open person, but I am not very good when it comes to these issues. I am guilty of talking about my bits. I am embarrassed that tha…”

“Tori, do you want to finish off with my final bit about whether we have a particularly British problem with talking about these things or not?”

“Fantastic, thank you. I have a couple of final points. I have a background in sport and physical education, so I would be interested to know if you have any observations about the relationships that can be made between girls and physical activity and sport as a result of issues that we know can cause problems for them …”

“Brilliant, thank you. Katharine, This Committee’s December 2024 report on women’s reproductive health received a lot of media attention, and coverage of issues around women’s reproductive health has continued, thanks to the efforts of some very high-profile women, such as Naga Munchetty and Vicky Pattison, who sadly wa…”