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Work-life Balance

10. Tony Lloyd (Manchester, Central) (Lab): What plans she has to improve work-life balance for older people. [219471]

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms   Patricia Hewitt): Many employers offer flexible working to all their employees, including older workers, because they know that work-life balance policies are good for their business as well as for the employees. Earlier this week, I launched a consultation on our proposals to extend the scope of the existing flexible working law to carers of sick and disabled relatives.

Tony Lloyd: I welcome my right hon. Friend's initiative, certainly with respect to carers. As there is a disproportionately high number of carers among older workers, should we not consider extending to them the same kind of flexibilities that we have accepted are necessary for younger families to enable them to have a proper and functioning family life? I hope that my right hon. Friend will pursue that and not listen to those who seek to divert her, because this is a part of the working population that really does need such assistance.
 
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Ms Hewitt: I welcome my hon. Friend's comments. He is absolutely right. The law that we introduced nearly two years ago for parents of young children has already had a dramatic effect. Nearly 1 million parents changed their working hours in the first 12 months of that law coming into effect, and the vast majority of employers say that they have no difficulty in accommodating those requests for a change in working hours. My strong view is that carers of elderly and sick and disabled people, who are doing a wonderful job for the whole community and whose efforts deserve even greater recognition, should be a priority in any extension of that successful law.

Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con): Given the unique contribution that people of maturity can bring to the workplace, not least here in this very House of Commons, is the Secretary of State looking positively at what can be done to make it easier for older people to continue to work and make a contribution, given our undoubted skill shortages and the desire of older people to work on and to make that contribution? Will she consider this in a comprehensive way and satisfy herself that everything is being done that can be done to make it as easy as possible for older people who want to continue to work to do so?

Ms Hewitt: Speaking as a 56-year-old, perhaps I can declare a personal interest in the subject. I welcome the right hon. Gentleman's support for the steps that we are taking, such as the age discrimination law that will come into effect next year, and the accompanying measure that spells out that retirement enforced by an employer before someone reaches the age of 65 will no longer be lawful unless it can be justified on objective grounds, such as health and safety reasons. For people over the age of 65 who want to carry on working, we will be extending the right to request flexible working, which, as I said, has already been so successful in the context of parents and young children. I look forward to his support for those new regulations that will help business and older workers alike.

Mr. Brian Jenkins (Tamworth) (Lab): My right hon. Friend knows that now we consider older workers to be those aged over 65. When do we intend to extend employee rights to post-65s in employment?

Ms Hewitt: That is exactly the issue that we have been considering in the context of the age discrimination law that we will bring into effect next year. After much consultation, we reached the view that, as I have just said, it makes sense to keep a default retirement age, but only at 65, which we will review after five years, and we will introduce the flexible working laws for workers above the age of 65. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions recently said, we will also ensure that, if someone over the age of 65 is made redundant, their service beyond 65 will also count towards the calculation of their redundancy payment.

Software Patents

11. Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West) (Con): If she will make a statement on her policy with regard to European legislation on software patents. [219472]
 
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The Minister for Trade and Investment (Mr. Douglas Alexander): The Government believe that it is important to permit the patenting of certain types of software-related inventions that are vital to many high-tech industries, but at the same time we are also concerned to prevent a drift towards widening the scope of patentability. The current draft text of the computer implemented inventions directive achieves that balance.

Mr. Swayne: Does not the fact that those who are crying foul about the directive's text are among the small software developers in our constituencies, and those who are enthusiastic for it are the monopolists and oligopolists, give the Minister some unease and pause for thought?

Mr. Alexander: Of course patents can be of great assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises when taking on larger businesses, although I know that the matter is of concern to the hon. Gentleman and in particular to one of his constituents. That is why there have been discussions with the Patent Office and my noble Friend Lord Sainsbury, and why we have facilitated a series of workshops on the nature of the harmonisation. Invitations to participate in those workshops have been extended to approximately 540 individuals and organisations. If it would be of assistance to either the hon. Gentleman or his constituent to attend one of the workshops in the weeks and months to come, I can ensure that an invitation is forthcoming.

MINISTER FOR WOMEN

The Minister for Women was asked—

Apprenticeships

20. Mrs. Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby) (Lab): What opportunities are available for women to undertake apprenticeships in science, engineering and technology-related subjects. [219482]

The Deputy Minister for Women and Equality (Jacqui Smith): Apprenticeship opportunities are open to all candidates, regardless of gender or ethnicity. However, the Government recognise that women and girls have traditionally not taken up apprenticeships in those subjects in significant numbers. We are working across Government to tackle the barriers that hinder female participation in science, engineering and technology, including through apprenticeships. For example, through our work in the manufacturing forum, we have established a sub-group on the image of manufacturing to look at promoting the sector to key audiences, including women.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the publication of the Equality Bill yesterday, with the intention to establish an equality and human rights commission. That is a marvellous step and I am proud to be associated with it.
 
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My right hon. Friend will know that I am a fitter by trade and had a wonderful career in the engineering profession. Many people in this country could enjoy a career in that profession, but we have a perennial problem attracting women, so I am delighted with the initiatives that the Government are taking. How will we use the women's resource centre that is being established to get at the statistics that will allow us to determine whether we are being successful and to target our resources appropriately, supporting young and old women who wish to go into engineering, which will lead to a productive and rewarding career?

Jacqui Smith: My hon. Friend is a good role model and advocate for women in that respect. She points to the Government initiative to establish the UK resource centre for women in science, engineering and technology, which was formally launched on 16 September last year, and to which I think she will contribute in the near future. She is right that an important function of the centre is to maintain, collect and disseminate statistics on women's involvement in the sector. However, another function is to ensure that we promote good practice among employers and advise them about the sorts of things that they should do to encourage women into the sector and to keep them there.

That, along with a range of other activities, can make a practical difference to ensuring not only that women have opportunities in science, engineering and technology, but that those opportunities help employers to deal with the skills shortages that they undoubtedly face. Those employers would be helped in that if they recruited from the whole pool of talent in the country, as they would be doing if they focused on women and girls.

Sir Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield) (Con): In supporting what the hon. Member for Crosby (Mrs. Curtis-Thomas) said about the importance of attracting more young women, let alone young men, into engineering, technology and allied subjects, does the Minister accept that the way to do that would be to put greater emphasis not on higher education but on vocational education, both post-16 and even earlier, in secondary schools? That would enable young people—young men and women—to develop a skill that they could put to good use in their adult lives, to the betterment of the prospects of engineering and technology in this country.

Jacqui Smith: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, which is why I am sure he joins me in welcoming the announcements that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Skills made in response to the Tomlinson review. I refer in particular to the proposals for a new 14 to 19 diploma framework, to the greater emphasis on vocational education while also ensuring that young people have the basic literacy and numeracy skills that are so important, and to the work on developing new ways of offering apprenticeships, which may well include the opportunity of doing an apprenticeship and then studying for a foundation degree. Higher education and vocational education are therefore not in conflict with each other. Some people can take advantage of both routes and the reforms being introduced by the Government will ensure that they have equal value and the support that they deserve.
 
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