Pregnancy: Discrimination at Work

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Monday 2nd February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Popat]

I agree with the noble Baroness, which is why we are carrying out in-depth research into the aspect of what more we can do. It is important that more women have the choice of family and work at the same time. I hope that the research will come up with a recommendation on what more the Government can do. But this is an area that we do take seriously. We have a larger number of women working at the moment than we had in 2010, and of course we want more of them to come back to work—hence the Government have come up with a number of different schemes, including the nursery allowance and all that, to encourage them to come back to work.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister made an observation about women having a choice between staying at home and looking after their children and going out to work. Would he not agree that, increasingly, it is a choice that few people have, because most families can no longer survive on one income? That is why it is extremely important that women are not discriminated against when they have children in getting back into work afterwards.

[Lord Popat]

That is correct—once again I agree with the noble Baroness. That is why the Government have introduced flexible working and are now encouraging, helping and supporting employers, through a number of different schemes, to make sure that they encourage ex-employees to come back to work.