Oral Answers to Questions

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Greg Hands]

The hon. Gentleman raises an interesting point. Many of the agreements have actually, for the first time, included environmental provisions. If I recall correctly, he did not like the Australia trade deal, but it is the first time Australia has committed in a trade agreement to the Paris agreement and so on. When it comes to the impact of our trading policy over the last 14 years, he will also find, for example, that 86% of UK imports of palm oil—a key interest for environmentalists—are certified as sustainable, up from 16% in 2010. Again, we are seeing real results of UK trade policy moving in a much more environmentally friendly direction.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

11. If she will make an assessment with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential merits of introducing a right to paid employment leave for kinship carers.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Kevin Hollinrake)]

Some 130,000 children are in the care of close family members in England alone. We recognise the vital role that kinship carers play in looking after children who cannot live with their parents. Last year, the Government published the national kinship care strategy and announced a £20 million package of support for kinship carers in 2024-25.

[Munira Wilson]

The Minister just referenced the Government’s kinship strategy, which was published in December. Their own strategy has recognised that kinship carers in employment often report the need to give up work or reduce their hours to be able to care for the children they support; it cites a survey revealing that 45% of kinship carers give up work and a similar number have to reduce their hours permanently. Given the Minister’s desire to drive up employment and the fact that kinship carers stepping up overnight to look after children saves the taxpayer a huge amount of money in comparison with when children go into local authority care, why are the Government not making paid employment leave a statutory right and only publishing guidance?

[Kevin Hollinrake]

The hon. Lady raises a very important point. We call on local authorities to be considerate to people who are in employment when they take on a child to look after in a kinship care situation. We think that employers are the right people to make sure that any provision we provide is a floor, not a ceiling. Companies such as John Lewis take a very considerate approach to people in that situation. We urge them to do so, but we also encourage local authorities, which have budgets allocated to this particular issue, to provide support where they can.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kemi Badenoch]

My hon. Friend is right. Israel’s current relationship with the UK is worth about £6.4 billion, but our FTA is a roll-over of the one that Israel signed in 1995 with the EU. It does not take into account services, digital, artificial intelligence or genome sequencing. There is a lot that we can do. That is why we are working on this FTA. It is a priority for us. As I said earlier, we face many challenges in carrying on negotiations with a country that is at war, but we are working to overcome them.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

T8. Quarter 4 of 2023 was the 10th quarter in a row in which more British businesses closed their doors than opened up. Just yesterday, a small business owner in Twickenham contacted me to tell me that his business was on the brink. If the Secretary of State will not consider business rate reform, as my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) suggested, what is she doing to help our small and medium-sized businesses, and to stem the tide of insolvencies?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Kevin Hollinrake)]

The hon. Lady raises an important point. We do not shy away from the fact that things have been difficult for businesses, with the covid crisis, of course, followed by the cost of doing business crisis. That is why we stepped in to support businesses, with a £4.3 billion package for rates last autumn, which has helped many businesses to get through a difficult time. Unfortunately, that support has not been passed on in Scotland and Wales, but it certainly has in England. I am very happy to meet with her to discuss her particular business problem.