PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

1577 Easter Adjournment
26 MARCH 2013 Easter Adjournment
1578
are deported at the end of their sentences. Thirdly, as
the law allows for deportation but the process does not
highlight it, my constituents and everyone else’s are
unlikely to have confidence in the system.
That gap in the process could, I believe, be fixed
relatively simply through an amendment to the UK
Borders Act 2007 and a memorandum of conviction
that would require judges to say when the sentence for
any EU national is of a length or severity that obliges
NOMS to consider recommending deportation to the
Home Secretary well ahead of the completion of the
sentence. That would spell out to everyone, including
EU nationals, an important likely consequence of serious
crime in our country. It would remind everyone that we
decide who is deported and who is not, wherever they
come from, and give us all more confidence in the
process of law.
Let me be clear: this is not about bashing the EU or
stoking xenophobic paranoia. Immigrants to Gloucester,
from Roman legionaries to Norman monks, Jamaican
nurses, Asian engineers, Polish makers of shirts and
many others besides, including some great European
rugby players, have contributed hugely to our city. We
have thrived on immigration but not on foreign criminals.
This is about the safety of my constituents and justice
for all our constituents and it is a plea for more certainty
and rigour in the process of justice. I am sure that
Ministers in both the Ministry of Justice and the Home
Department share my concerns and I hope that they
will act to ensure that justice is done and is seen to be
done and that all foreign criminals will be deported
when they deserve to be.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you, Mr Deputy
Speaker, and everyone in this House a happy Easter.
Several hon. Members rose—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle): On her
birthday, I call Barbara Keeley.
6.33 pm
Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab):
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.
I want to take this opportunity to talk about sport
and fitness for women and girls. I spoke about it during
the debate on international women’s day last year and
from that debate we managed to get cross-party agreement
to support the development of a new all-party group on
women’s sport and fitness. We launched it, it is supported
by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation and we
have had some great meetings. Our first meeting was
with the presenter and sports commentator Clare Balding
and the Olympic rowing gold medallist Kath Grainger,
and most recently we have had a meeting with
the Paralympian Martine Wright, who survived the
7/7 bombings and went on to compete in the Paralympics,
and Claire Lomas, who was the first paraplegic to
complete the London marathon, doing so in 17 days
walking in a robotic suit.
It was great to listen to those inspirational women
from those different sports. It is needed, because women’s
sport faces a crisis in media coverage and lack of
sponsorship. Outside Olympic years, women’s sport receives
less than 5% of the total sport print coverage, and even
then, unsurprisingly, women’s sport receives only 0.5%
of the total sponsorship income. There was the recent
case of the England women’s football team being offered
a salary increase from £16,000 to £18,000 a year. They
eventually settled on a contract of £20,000 a year. In the
same week, the Arsenal football player Theo Walcott
signed for £100,000 a week. I know that we have some
talented girls and young women playing football now,
and the difference in reward levels for women’s football
must be offputting for those talented enough to seek a
professional career.
Appropriately enough for a debate at this time of
year, it is a case of the chicken and the egg. More media
coverage is needed to provide girls and young women
with positive role models in sport, and that would
encourage participation and future achievement, but
media coverage is elusive and without it we do not get
the sponsorship and salaries remain low.
Let me turn quickly to school sport, because we
currently have a crisis of activity levels among children,
especially girls, with just 16% of girls and young women
reaching the recommended levels of activity by the time
they leave primary school, compared with 29% of boys,
and only 12% of 14-year-olds are active enough to
benefit their health. In fact, girls leave school only half
as likely to meet the recommended activity levels of
boys, and nearly a third of 16-year-olds do no physical
activity at all.
In that context, the Government’s announcement of
£150 million for primary school sport is welcome, but I
have some questions about the funding. How will Ministers
ensure that the investment helps to close the gender gap
in activity levels in primary schools? Do they have any
plans to provide similar, much needed support in secondary
schools, where sport among girls really drops away?
How do Ministers plan to measure the success of the
investment, given that there is no comprehensive annual
measurement of children’s activity levels in sport? The
status quo is that 51% of girls say that school sport and
physical education actually puts them off being active,
and they are only half as likely as boys to meet the
recommended activity levels.
I commend the Rugby Football Union for its All
Schools programme. At a recent event in the House, I
met three young women who had taken up playing
rugby at school and at a local club. The RFU has done
a great job in enthusing teachers and coaches, who in
turn enthuse and inspire young women, such as the
three I met. I also congratulate FC United of Manchester
on commemorating international women’s day by
holding events to celebrate women in football, including
an event called “A woman’s place is at the match”. Its
women’s team was awarded Manchester Football
Association’s “Team of the Month” award. They also
won a recent semi-final to win through to the league cup
final against Manchester City’s women’s team. I commend
them and all women and girls working to break down
barriers in women’s sport.
Finally, I would like to give the customary thanks to
all staff of the House. I particularly want to thank
Noeleen and the staff of the Tea Room, who I think do
a wonderful job, the Hansard reporters, to whom I
think we should all be very grateful, and you, Mr Deputy
Speaker. I wish all a happy Easter. I will end by
wishing a happy birthday to my hon. Friends the Members
for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) and for Nottingham
South (Lilian Greenwood) and my right hon. Friend the