Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Smith and Harriett Baldwin

Monday 7th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the important role played by Sentinel aircraft based in his constituency. The contract is good news for the UK defence industry and it will sustain about 120 jobs at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, and about 40 jobs at Hawarden airfield in Broughton in north Wales.

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

The pound has dropped nearly 20% in value and the price of vital military kit that we buy abroad is set to sky-rocket, so will the Minister confirm that we have enough contingency to pay for the F-35 fighters planned for the new aircraft carriers?

[Harriett Baldwin]

The hon. Gentleman will know that there is a double lock in terms of the budget and that it is based not just on 2% of our economy, which I am pleased to say grew again in the third quarter. There is also a lock in terms of a rise of 0.5% above inflation every year to 2020.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Smith and Harriett Baldwin

Thursday 25th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

As my right hon. Friend will be aware, given her interest in this matter, not only are we taking steps to publish this information for companies with more than 250 people on the payroll, but for financial services—the sector I, as Economic Secretary, engage with most—which has the highest pay and the biggest pay gap, we have appointed Jayne-Anne Gadhia to review pay in the sector and see what further steps we can take. As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said last July:

“Transparency, skills, representation, affordable childcare—these things can end the gender pay gap in a generation.”

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

The WASPI—Women Against State Pension Inequality—campaigners are not going away, so will the Minister raise the issue of better transitional state pension arrangements with her Department for Work and Pensions counterpart? These women deserve fair play.

[Harriett Baldwin]

As a woman whose state pension age has gone up by six years during her working lifetime, I welcome the changes that will equalise the state pension age for men and women. That will end the discrimination of women in their late 50s, which has prevented far too many of them from reaching higher-paid roles in our society.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Smith and Harriett Baldwin

Tuesday 19th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

14. What his plans are for future funding of illegal money lending teams.

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Harriett Baldwin)]

The Government are exploring options to ensure that the England and Wales illegal money lending teams have the funding they need to ensure that consumers continue to be protected from illegal loan sharks, and are confident of transitional arrangements being agreed.

[Nick Smith]

Too many of my constituents are victims of loan sharks. The illegal money lending team has helped nearly 24,000 victims across the country, yet the Government have treated the service with disdain. Will the cuts to this vital team and to local employment standards not make the poorest more vulnerable?

[Harriett Baldwin]

Far from agreeing with the hon. Gentleman, I must say that the Government are finding ways to put the team on a sustainable basis to continue the valuable work it does to protect people from illegal money lending.