Oral Answers to Questions

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Tom Pursglove]

My hon. Friend has been a strong advocate for the severe disability group work that we have been taking forward. I am pleased to be able to say that Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine have agreed to work in partnership with the DWP to test the SDG. Reducing the assessment burden where it is inappropriate, and ensuring that people get the right support and help, is the right thing to do.

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

6. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the hospitality sector-based work academy programme in Cities of London and Westminster constituency.

[The Minister for Employment (Guy Opperman)]

We are working with UK Hospitality and local providers up and down the country—from Liverpool to Manchester to Coventry; in London, of course; and also, to come, in Wales—to ensure that we have a hospitality work programme that provides employment training, work experience and a guaranteed job interview. It is free for all DWP jobseekers. It is early days, but the signs are promising.

[Nickie Aiken]

May I first thank the Minister for Employment for joining me this morning at Ben Venuti, a brilliant café and deli in Pimlico, to celebrate hospitality in Cities of London and Westminster? I am delighted that the hospitality SWAP pilot has been launched in my constituency, where we have thousands and thousands of hospitality jobs. One of the businesses involved in the pilot is the Raffles London hotel, just up the road at the Old War Office, which I visited with UK Hospitality recently. What further steps is the Department taking to ensure that the scheme benefits minorities and those struggling the most with the cost of living crisis?

[Guy Opperman]

It was a tough ministerial visit to an award-winning coffee shop this morning—somehow, I missed the earlier hotel visit. I can assure my hon. Friend that we are driving forward that hospitality pilot to try to tackle the recruitment issues in that vital sector, which permeate all across the United Kingdom. She will be keen to know that every person who passes gets a hospitality skills passport, which we believe can genuinely make a difference across all age groups and all sections of the community.