Wednesday Volume 682 21 October 2020 No. 124 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Wednesday 21 October 2020 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2020 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 1043 21 OCTOBER 2020 1044 House of Commons Female Entrepreneurs: Government Support Kate Griffiths (Burton) (Con): What steps she is taking Wednesday 21 October 2020 to support female entrepreneurs. [907850] The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock Energy and Industrial Strategy (Paul Scully): All the Government’s business support schemes are open to eligible businesses from all regions and backgrounds, PRAYERS including female entrepreneurs. The start-up loans programme has provided more than 30,000 loans worth [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] over £239 million to female entrepreneurs as of June Virtual participation in proceedings commenced (Order, 2020. Additionally, we are working with the private 4 June). sector to deliver the eight initiatives of the Rose review. [NB: [V] denotes a Member participating virtually.] Great progress has been made over the past year, with the joint NatWest and Be the Business female entrepreneurs Speaker’s Statement mentoring programme to be launched soon. Mr Speaker: Order. I remind colleagues that deferred Kate Griffiths: I thank the Minister for the detailed Divisions will take place today on two statutory instruments measures he set out. More women work in sectors and in the Members’ Library between 11.30 am and 3.30 pm. industries that are hardest hit by the covid-19 crisis. Can Members will cast their votes by placing the completed he outline, with a particular view to childcare, the help Division slip in one of the ballot boxes provided. I that we can offer women with successful businesses and remind colleagues of the importance of social distancing careers to get them through the difficult months ahead? during the deferred Divisions and ask them to pick up a Division slip from the Vote Office and fill it in before Paul Scully: I thank my hon. Friend for her concern, they reach the Library if possible. The result will be especially about childcare. We have already introduced announced in the Chamber at a convenient moment 30 hours of free childcare for eligible working parents after the Divisions are over. of three and four-year-olds. We have ensured that wraparound childcare remains open, to support parents to continue to work under all three covid levels. As set Oral Answers to Questions out in our manifesto, the Department for Education will be investing £1 billion from 2021 to help create more high-quality wraparound and holiday childcare WOMEN AND EQUALITIES places, including before and after school and during the school holidays. The Minister for Women and Equalities was asked— Covid-19: Support for Older People Equal Access to Opportunity Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP): What steps her Department is taking to support older people during Dehenna Davison (Bishop Auckland) (Con): What the covid-19 outbreak. [907851] steps the Government are taking to ensure equal access to opportunity. [907849] The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies) [V]: This Government are The Minister for Women and Equalities (Elizabeth Truss): determined to support older people during the pandemic, We know that the average hourly wages are more than and my Department is working to support people of all 30% higher in London than in Northern Ireland and ages to remain in and return to work. We have published regions such as the east midlands and the north-east. guidance on working safely during the covid-19 pandemic That is why we are working to level up Britain. and continue to work with national employer organisations Dehenna Davison: We often see evidence that white on improving support for the over-50s. Our £30 billion working-class children have some of the worst educational plan for jobs provides back-to-work support for all outcomes—for example, in GCSE results and the numbers ages, including doubling the number of work coaches, going on to higher education. Does my right hon. increasing sector-based work academy places and a new Friend agree that working-class children in communities Department for Work and Pensions job finding support such as Bishop Auckland who face poor outcomes service. deserve the full backing of the Government Equalities Office? Peter Grant [V]: In my Glenrothes and Central Fife constituency, over 2,000 pensioner households are losing Elizabeth Truss: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. out on £5.4 million in pension credit payments every The attainment score at GCSE for white British children year because they do not know that they are entitled to who receive free school meals is lower than the equivalent them. Fife Council launched an uptake campaign in the for black and Asian children who receive free school Glenrothes area, but it was curtailed because of the meals. That is why I have asked the Equality Hub to covid pandemic; I have to declare an interest, as I am expand beyond protected characteristics and strengthen married to the chair of the council’s Glenrothes area its focus on geography and social background to identify committee. The Scottish Government have published barriers to opportunity and success. an uptake strategy for the benefits under their control. 1045 Oral Answers 21 OCTOBER 2020 Oral Answers 1046 Will the Minister agree to urge her Cabinet colleagues EllieReeves[V]:Workingmumshavebeendisproportionately to enshrine in law a duty for the UK Government to do impacted by the pandemic, with a recent report by the the same for pension credits and other benefits that are Institute for Fiscal Studies finding that they are more controlled at Westminster? likely to quit or lose their jobs and typically perform a larger share of childcare and household duties than Mims Davies: The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to men. One of my constituents spent lockdown home know that on 6 May, we launched the “Apply for Pension schooling her two children as well as caring for her Credit” service, which is an online claim service that elderly shielding mother. Excluded from most of the supplements the existing telephone and—[Inaudible.] financial support packages, she now faces winding up the company she set up. I have heard what the Minister Mr Speaker: We will go to the SNP spokesperson, had to say, but it does not go far enough. What additional Anne McLaughlin. urgent measures will he take to ensure that progress in female employment is not set back by decades? Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East) (SNP): I think somebody else might need to answer this question! Paul Scully: There are 1.8 million more women in It is estimated that there is more than £2 billion out work than in 2010, and it is important that we capture there every year that is the legal right of older people on that. As I have said, on childcare responsibilities, which those islands. Pension credit does not make anybody are so important, we have introduced 30 hours of free wealthy, but it can make the difference between the childcare, we have ensured that wraparound childcare loneliness and misery that poverty brings and the joy of remains available in each of the tiers and we will continue simply being able to engage in life again. Will the to invest to help create more high-quality, wraparound Minister responsible for fighting for those older people and holiday childcare places so that mothers are not agree to take this on as an equalities issue and put disadvantaged. resources into ensuring that people have the knowledge and support—including support in using the online Chris Elmore: The Women’s Budget Group last week service she mentioned—to access what is, after all, a highlighted that working-class women specifically face legal entitlement? the biggest cuts to working hours since the beginning of the pandemic, with 43% reporting having had their Mr Speaker: We are now, I hope, heading back to hours cut to zero since April. Could the Minister set out Minister Davies. what specific support he is putting in place to stop these women falling into poverty, because clearly it cannot be Mims Davies: Apologies. Thank you, Mr Speaker. right that working-class women are so adversely affected by the pandemic? In supporting our older people, pension credit is an absolute priority for this Government, as I mentioned earlier. In fact, about 1 million pensioners—close to Paul Scully: This is important, and we know that that number—who are pension credit customers will certain sectors are the worst affected. It is important receive a winter windfall of £140 off their fuel bills, that we actually do everything we can with “Hands, thanks to the Government working with energy firms to face, space” to make sure that our economy can start to cut costs. This Government are determined to do all we open again and create opportunities, but we have also can to support pensioners, and the DWP cross-match put in support with universal credit, the coronavirus job these pension credit customers with the data held by retention scheme, the self-employed income support pension suppliers. I am sure that we will continue to scheme and the wider winter economy to help everybody, support pensioners as widely as we can through this but especially the disadvantaged women that the hon. pandemic and ongoing.1 Gentleman describes. Covid-19: Women Leaving the Workforce Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con): Women make up a significant proportion of those employed in the fitness, leisure and wellbeing Ellie Reeves (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab): What industry.