§ BARONESS EMMET OF AMBERLEYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government—
- (1) whether there was no suitable woman to appoint to the Passport Reviewing Committee;
- (2) in view of the fact that humanitarian factors are going to be taken into consideration, whether it would not be eminently suitable to add a woman member to the panel.]
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (LORD CHALFONT)My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her suggestion. But the members of the Advisory Committee, who were chosen on account of their judicial and administrative experience, have already been appointed and I understand that they are about to start their work.
§ BARONESS EMMET OF AMBERLEYMy Lords, may I ask the Minister whether, to avoid this happening in future, a direction can be given to the Department that when these appointments are made women's names are sent up as well as men's? It is very boring to have to bring this matter up over and over again.
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, I think that the noble Baroness may be under some slight misapprenhension. Of course, the names of men and women are considered equally on these occasions. I should regard it as being just 1248 as offensive to a woman to appoint her to a Committee like this because she was a woman as to reject her because she was a woman. Of course, men and women are regarded, and their names are considered, as equals in these cases. It just so happens that in this case—
§ SEVERAL NOBLE LORDS: Oh!
§ BARONESS EMMET OF AMBERLEYMy Lords, am I to understand from the Minister that women's names were considered? Also, is he telling me that there are no women with judicial qualifications who would have been suitable?
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, I am sure that if a woman could be found with suitable qualifications she would make a most valuable contribution to the work of this Committee. I assure the noble Baroness that my right honourable friend will bear her suggestion in mind if there should be any need to reconstitute this Committee in the future.
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLMy Lords, could my noble friend tell me why the examining of passports calls for such brilliant intellectual qualifications not possessed by any women in the country?
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, nobody knows better than I do that women have the most brilliant intellectual qualifications, and I assure my noble friend that women were considered equally with men in setting up this Committee. There has been no discrimination of any kind, particularly of a sexual kind.