Private Sector Pensions

Debate between Esther McVey and Pauline Latham

Monday 22nd January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Ms McVey]

We are not currently considering changing the rules on defined contribution schemes. In that instance a contribution has been made which will be protected and moved to another pension, whereas a pension in a defined benefit scheme is what someone was expecting to receive at the end, and will therefore be protected. They are very different schemes, and different protections and rules apply to them.

[Mrs Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

Can my right hon. Friend confirm that constituents with existing Carillion pensions will receive 100% recovery through the Pension Protection Fund?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Esther McVey and Pauline Latham

Monday 8th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

T8. Belper in my constituency won the Great British high street of year award recently. Like many of my colleagues, I spent Saturday visiting small businesses in my constituency to celebrate small business Saturday. Will my right hon. Friend outline the help that the Government are giving to small businesses to encourage them to employ more staff?

[The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey)]

Many of us were on the high street celebrating small business Saturday and helping our local businesses, but of course this Government are doing even more to help them to take on more people. Whether through implementing a £2,000 cut in their national insurance bills, extending the business rate relief or putting £10 billion of financing into the British business bank, we have done a great deal to help our small businesses, which are the backbone of this country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Esther McVey and Pauline Latham

Monday 1st July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

13. What recent estimate he has made of the number of women in work.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Esther McVey)]

Women’s participation in the labour force has never been higher. There are 13.8 million women in work—the highest number on record, and 250,000 more than before the recession.

[Pauline Latham]

I thank the Minister for that answer. Does she agree that although much progress has been made on the issue, it is important that the Government continue to focus on and monitor the number of women in work?

[Esther McVey]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and we will do just that. I hope she agrees that the step that the Chancellor took—adding another £200 million to child care support—will be essential in helping mums and dads back into the workplace.

Girls (Educational Development)

Debate between Esther McVey and Pauline Latham

Tuesday 29th November 2011 Westminster Hall

[Esther McVey]

My hon. Friend has an excellent point. As female MPs, we are role models. To become an MP, someone has to be one in 100,000 people, and there are so few of us here, which relates to the cycle of learning that she has discussed. Knowledge from one generation can be passed to the next.

I was impressed by how openly and honestly the 100 successful women that I have mentioned talked about confidence, the need to develop it and how important it was for them in achieving in life. They compared confidence to a muscle that needed to be worked out through repetition of small, ever-increasing achievements. From those accomplishments, they developed a mental power—a power based on ability, achievement and a track record, further enabling them to strive for success.

Confidence can be difficult to describe. Helen Fraser, chief executive of the Girls’ Day School Trust groups of schools, past managing director of Penguin Books and two-time winner of “Publisher of the Year”, explained it as follows:

“There are many interrelated aspects to confidence, but there are two I would highlight as particularly important for girls, and which schools can help girls develop. The first is having the confidence to take risks, to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’. Schools can nurture this by encouraging girls to take small risks—to stand up in front of a crowd and make a speech”—

like I am doing today—

to direct and produce plays, to take part in debates, to take on challenges like the Duke of Edinburgh’s award. These kinds of experiences make girls much more confident about risk, and risk is absolutely essential in working life.”

[Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

rose—

[Mrs Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald) (Con)]

rose—

[Esther McVey]

I will give way first to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline Latham) and then to my hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Mrs Grant).

[Pauline Latham]

My hon. Friend says that confidence can be difficult to describe, but we know exactly what it is when we see it. Does she agree that girls often do much better in a single-sex environment in schools, even if it is only in a single-sex class in a co-educational comprehensive? They are not having to live up to a stereotype in front of their colleagues and friends, the boys—

[Pauline Latham]

Thank you, Mrs Main. Does my hon. Friend agree that girls do much better if they are not threatened by apparently more confident boys?

[Esther McVey]

My hon. Friend raises a point about girls being taught in a single-sex environment. Obviously, parents know best whether they want their children to be taught in single-sex environments. Whether there is stereotyping, whether girls are living up to stereotypes and whether they have the ability to speak freely within their peer groups can affect their confidence.