Pensions: Low-income and Self-employed Workers
Debate between Earl of Clancarty and Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent(3 days, 22 hours ago)
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Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for his support. I reassure all noble Lords that this Government and our party have zero plans to change anything about the triple lock in this Parliament, which cannot be said of all political parties, unfortunately. With the Pensions Commission, we have brought together national experts to make sure that we have a plan in place going forward, and of course we will not pre-empt the decisions it is going to make. We will have ongoing opportunities to discuss these issues when the Pension Schemes Bill is before noble Lords later in this Session.
The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
My Lords, there are many self-employed workers in the creative industries, so is this something the new creative industries freelance champion will be looking at?
Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)
The noble Earl raises a very interesting point and I am genuinely not sure of the answer. If he will forgive me, I will write to him. With regard to the self-employed, the DWP is currently working with Nest Insight and other partners to test potential solutions to encourage contributions from the self-employed into pensions, including nudges and utilising digital systems that many self-employed people already use. I think that will have an impact on the creative sector, but I will write to the noble Earl on the detail of his question.
Schools: Music and Drama Access
Debate between Earl of Clancarty and Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent
Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)
It is essential that our education system enables children and young people to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes required to thrive and be ready for life and work. The independent curriculum review will ensure children enjoy a richer, broader, cutting-edge curriculum that gives them strong foundations in core subjects and the opportunity to enjoy creative subjects. This will build on our commitment to high standards, ensuring that no child or young person is left behind. It is our goal that the arts are accessible to all and not the preserve of a privileged few.
The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
My Lords, does the Minister recognise that the single most significant thing that the Government can do to boost the arts is to scrap the EBacc?
Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)
I thank the noble Earl for his question; the civil servants will be delighted that this was raised. As we are undertaking a curriculum review and looking at everything in the round, I look forward to coming back with an update in due course after we publish the curriculum review next year.