Economic Outlook and Furlough Scheme Changes Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Economic Outlook and Furlough Scheme Changes

Stella Creasy Excerpts
Tuesday 16th June 2020

(3 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Jesse Norman Portrait Jesse Norman
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I am very interested in my hon. Friend’s suggestion. It is not squarely a Treasury matter—it is more an industrial strategy and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy matter—but I would be delighted to meet her on the topic.

Stella Creasy Portrait Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op) [V]
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May I associate myself with my many colleagues in remembering our dear lost friend Jo Cox today? On 11 May, the Prime Minister told us:

“If people cannot…get the childcare that they need, plainly they are impeded from going to work, and they must be defended and protected on that basis.”—[Official Report, 11 May 2020; Vol. 676, c. 29.]

A survey by Pregnant Then Screwed shows that 71% of women trying to return to work in the next three months cannot do so because of childcare. So will the Minister set out exactly what he is going to do to protect and defend those women from redundancy and discrimination in the workplace?

Jesse Norman Portrait Jesse Norman
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I thank the hon. Lady for her question. I have not seen the survey that she describes. but I will look at it and discuss it with the Minister for Equalities, my colleague the Exchequer Secretary. Of course there can be no shying away from this issue and if it is as the hon. Lady describes, we will look closely at it. I thank her for that.