Oral Answers to Questions

Nick de Bois Excerpts

Monday 31st March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mary Macleod (Brentford and Isleworth) (Con)]

3. What assessment he has made of recent trends in employment figures.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

8. What assessment he has made of recent trends in employment figures.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

16. What assessment he has made of recent trends in employment figures.

--- Later in debate ---

[Esther McVey]

I would indeed invite as many people as possible to go along to my hon. Friend’s job fair—her third one. She does so much to help her young people to get into work, and she works to support women into work, which must be acknowledged, particularly as we are now seeing record rates of women in work.

[Nick de Bois]

In my constituency, there have been 60 new enterprise allowance take-ups, and there have been 200 across the borough of Enfield. Will the Minister update me on her plans for continuing that scheme? Will she also update the House on the scheme’s progress across the country?

[Esther McVey]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. The new enterprise allowance has been a huge success. The latest figures, which came out last week, show that 40,000 people have set up businesses in that way. It is now running at 2,000 new businesses a month. That is because we support those businesses financially, but it is also because we support them with strong mentoring. Equally, at the very beginning, they must have a good business plan. New enterprise allowances are here, and they are staying.