Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Jessica Morden

Wednesday 13th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that girls and women are moving through the STEM pipeline. There has been a 31% increase in girls studying STEM subjects since 2010, and more employers are opening up opportunities around the country. We have the STEM boot camps to help people mid-career with STEM training. As my hon. Friend says, that is the way in which we will unleash talent in our country and make sure we are leading in the industries of the future.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

4. What assessment she has made of the impact of recent rises in the cost of living on people with protected characteristics.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Jessica Morden

Tuesday 8th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

My right hon. Friend is right about the reckless actions of President Putin and about the destabilisation and attempted destabilisation of nuclear facilities, which the United Kingdom called out at the UN Security Council. President Putin is trying to distract from his appalling invasion of Ukraine and the fact that it is not going according to plan by resorting to increased rhetoric. We simply should not respond to those threats.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

T5. The Financial Times reported today that UK taxpayers may be forced to foot a £43-million bill for loans taken out by Russia’s biggest coal company and underwritten by the Government’s export agency. I ask the Foreign Secretary whether she knows who the Secretary of State for International Trade was at the time that the deal was agreed with one of Russia’s richest oligarchs and whether the Minister in question personally authorised the agreement?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I know from my time at the Department for International Trade that those agreements tend to be signed off by officials.