Oral Answers to Questions

Pauline Latham Excerpts

Monday 5th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

The most recent unemployment figures indicated that 80% of people who work part time actually want to work part time. Many find that part-time work meets their needs in terms of flexible working and returning to the labour market. We need to find more full-time jobs, but we should recognise that 80% of people want to work part time and the labour market is able to accommodate them.

[Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

17. What progress his Department has made on its plans to support separated families.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

The Government have already announced a £20 million investment in the development of support for separated families in the current spending review period. This will include provision of an online distributable web application to be launched later in the autumn, and up to £14 million for the new innovation fund to support separated families.

[Pauline Latham]

I thank the Minister for that answer. Will he reassure the House that the £14 million innovation fund will be spent on projects that will ultimately benefit children, and will he explain how that will be achieved?

[Steve Webb]

Yes. We have had 100 expressions of interest from voluntary groups and charities, and we have whittled that down to about 30. All are trying to build on existing work that enables parents, when they are separating, to deal with each other in a mature way in the interests of the children. That is the central aspect of our new strategy.