Oral Answers to Questions

Luciana Berger Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Norman Baker]

I certainly agree that it is important to act on violence against any individual. Of course, it is predominantly against women and girls and vulnerable adults, and they must come first in our consideration, but it is also true that the £40 million recently allocated to deal with these matters includes a strand to deal with violence against men and boys.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

5. What steps she is taking to support senior women in business.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (Jo Swinson)]

Under this Government, more women are in work than ever before, and we are determined to do more. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Women and Equalities has already mentioned the excellent work to increase the number of women on boards. We have also set up the Think, Act, Report initiative promoting gender equality in the workplace, and 131 companies have signed up, covering almost 2 million employees.

[Luciana Berger]

I understand what the Minister says, but we have some of the highest levels of female unemployment in a generation. Does she agree that mothers of school-age children need a guarantee of stable, wraparound care if they are to be able to pursue careers in business or elsewhere? If she does, will she back Labour’s primary child care guarantee and explain why her Government scrapped the previous Labour Government’s Extended Schools programme, which provided urgent and necessary breakfast clubs and after-school clubs to help parents, particularly mothers?

[Jo Swinson]

I certainly agree that child care is an absolutely key element for many women making their way in business and, indeed, in other careers, but I do not agree that making an uncosted proposal that all schools should suddenly provide such wraparound child care without providing the means to do it is a sensible way forward. Instead, the Government are making it easier for childminders to set up in business, breaking down the barriers, and introducing £1,200 per child per year of tax reliefs on the money that parents spend on child care.