Contributions
965 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDTopical QuestionsAs my hon. Friend mentions, there are important opportunities in Slough that the young people growing up there need to be able to take advantage of. That is why we launched our…17 Mar 2025HANSARDUnemployment TrendsWe have a significant reform plan to make sure that we tailor jobcentre support towards the needs of employers, because there is still a significant number of vacancies out there…17 Mar 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill: Employment RatesMay I first say how great it is to hear the beautiful language of Irish spoken in this Chamber? With the increase in conditions that can be variable over time, the flexible…17 Mar 2025HANSARDEmployment IncentivesThe introduction of universal credit and the policy choices of the last Conservative Government seem to have had some effect on people’s propensity to be in work. In January, the…17 Mar 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill: Employment RatesI meet regularly with Business and Trade Ministers. We are committed to working with businesses to ensure that policy is pro-employer and pro-worker. Boosting wages will increase…17 Mar 2025HANSARDTwo-child Benefit CapThe two-child benefit cap was introduced by the Conservative party 10 years ago. Its period in office saw child poverty rise to over 4 million and one in three of our children…17 Mar 2025HANSARDTwo-child Benefit CapThe Health Secretary and I talked about child poverty many times as we sat on the Opposition Benches watching the situation for our kids get worse and worse every year. The Member…17 Mar 2025HANSARDTwo-child Benefit CapYes, I can. All children matter. We are taking account of a considerable range of different policy options, carefully working through the impact that they would have, but all the…17 Mar 2025HANSARDEmployment Rights Bill: Employment RatesI think the hon. Gentleman is referring to the ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts, but if somebody wants a flexible hours contract, then that is a good thing, and nothing in…17 Mar 2025HANSARDUnemployment TrendsYes, I do agree. We see potential in every single person in the country, and many of those who have been written off and left on the scrapheap deserve a much better pathway back…17 Mar 2025HANSARDUnemployment: Stoke-on-TrentIn the year to September 2024, 4.7% of working-age people were unemployed in Stoke-on-Trent, but as I said earlier, that often masks bigger problems relating to economic…17 Mar 2025HANSARDWork and Pensions… What was the result of a decade of Conservative welfare caps? Repeated breaches of the cap, with ever higher limits. The latest cap is now on course to be breached by an £8.6…12 Feb 2025HANSARDWork and Pensions… What was the result of a decade of Conservative welfare caps? Repeated breaches of the cap, with ever higher limits. The latest cap , with a margin included, is now on course to…12 Feb 2025HANSARD Community and Third Sector Organisations: EmploymentMy hon. Friend is right. When I was in Erdington, my Department for Work and Pensions colleagues and I met the college, Witton Lodge and other community partners. By bringing…10 Feb 2025HANSARD Community and Third Sector Organisations: EmploymentIt is testament to the importance of this issue, and to how strongly Members feel about tackling unemployment in their constituencies and working across and in partnership with…10 Feb 2025HANSARD Community and Third Sector Organisations: EmploymentI thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I think he has described the approach that the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has recommended to us all: testing and trialling…10 Feb 2025HANSARD Community and Third Sector Organisations: EmploymentI thank and pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton), who brought the debate to the House this evening. All hon. Members will agree…10 Feb 2025HANSARDJobcentres: Economic GrowthOn that one, I certainly will agree. Our work coaches are absolutely brilliant, and they are leading the way in changing jobcentres.03 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsI think it is fair to say that we have spent a great deal of time talking to people from all parts of the United Kingdom, and we will continue to do so, because only a strategy…03 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsI thank my hon. Friend for his question, and I am so pleased to hear about that work in Bracknell Forest. That is why the fourth part of our child poverty strategy is about local…03 Feb 2025