Results 1-20 of 2,883 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Vera Baird

Women and Equality: Parental Leave (22 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: This Government have transformed support for working parents since 1997—doubling maternity pay, introducing paternity pay and leave, more than doubling good-quality affordable child care places and extending statutory maternity leave from 14 to 52 weeks. Most recently, the Prime Minister has announced new flexibility for working parents, whereby from April 2011, if a mother wants to...

Women and Equality: Parental Leave (22 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: It is clearly very important to split child care leave between mothers and fathers, not least because if a potential employer is confronted with a man he wants to employ and a woman he wants to employ, he will be unable to discriminate against them if one is capable of having six months leave and the other is equally capable of having that leave if his partner becomes pregnant. The difficulty...

Women and Equality: Parental Leave (22 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: Well, it is almost totally unpaid. That is very clear. The right hon. Lady would be better off if she explained to those thinking of having their children now that they had better be careful, because those benefits are going to be slashed under the Tory pay cuts ahead.

Women and Equality: Parental Leave (22 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: This issue relates to the point that I have just made. The level of these benefits is such as to provide very good support to working and middle-class people who want to be able to have families and to have optimal choice between flexibility at work and home care. If, as a result of the unhappy occurrence of a Tory majority at the next election, which according to the polls is looking less...

Women and Equality: Women in Power: Milestones (22 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: The "Women in Power: Milestones" fact sheet was produced in January 2008 by the Government Equalities Office to mark the 80th anniversary of women's gaining the franchise in 1918 and the 90th anniversary of the Equal Franchise Act 1928. The fact sheet was cleared through internal channels and officials only, not by Ministers. [Hon. Members: "Ah!"] It is true, though. We shall be publishing an...

Women and Equality: Women in Power: Milestones (22 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: It is a pity that she was missed out. I am prepared to go that far but not much further, since she did not do a great deal to advance the cause of women. I really do not think that the hon. Gentleman has a political point. [Interruption.] I have made it very clear that the fact sheet did not come to Ministers. If Members would listen instead of just shouting, they would realise that there is...

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Serious Fraud Office (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: The Serious Fraud Office is doing a significant amount of work to educate the public to reduce the incidence of fraud. In addition to its frequent engagement with the public face to face, the SFO's new website offers advice on how to protect oneself from being a target for fraud and gives an up-to-date list of current scams so that they can be recognised and guarded against.

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Serious Fraud Office (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: There is obviously a huge amount of fraud around, but yes, we have done a significant amount of work over the past few years. There is now a strategic authority for fraud, a fraud reporting centre is about to come online and there is a fraud intelligence centre. The City of London police are now the national fraud lead agency for investigations, and they have been beefed up. A good deal is...

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Serious Fraud Office (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I shall certainly take that message back to Richard Alderman, the director of the SFO, with whom we meet frequently. He seems to have got the Serious Fraud Office into a good and positive place.

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Serious Fraud Office (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: Once again, I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's praise of the SFO. It is indeed to be congratulated on the Mabey and Johnson case, which involved a series of offences of overseas corruption and the breaching of UN sanctions in connection with the oil-for-food programme. That company has now been ordered to pay almost £7 million. The SFO is clearly determined to continue its...

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Serious Fraud Office (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: I am not sure what broad range the hon. Gentleman means. Obviously, there are departmental prosecutors—the Department of Work and Pensions and so on prosecute their own cases. However, there is a body called the Whitehall prosecutors' group, who get together under the general superintendence of the Attorney-General and myself and exchange best practice. We hope that we have brought in a...

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Fraudulent Financial Schemes (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: Through the national fraud strategy, the Government are implementing an integrated programme to make the UK a more hostile place for fraudsters. We are making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to report fraud, with the national fraud reporting centre going live, by phone and on the web, on 26 October. Importantly, we also have some guidance specifically tailored to help...

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Fraudulent Financial Schemes (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: I am sure that that is a real possibility. The Serious Fraud Office has an online list of the current scams that it is aware of, and the intention is to alert people to falsities such as the hon. Gentleman has described. However, it is not only small businesses that are offered large amounts of money in return for their bank details: I get quite a lot of those offers myself, and I presume...

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Human Trafficking (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: The Attorney-General and I have regular meetings with the DPP, at which we discuss a range of issues. We are due to see him later today. If there were particular concerns about the prosecution of human trafficking offences we would of course raise them with him, within the terms of the protocol between the Attorney-General and prosecuting Departments.

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Human Trafficking (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: When I put something on the agenda for a meeting with the DPP I usually have evidence to support it. All I have at the moment is the hon. Gentleman's assertion—

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Human Trafficking (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: Fine; I will take his word for that. However, if there is more evidence, please will he make sure that we have it?

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Human Trafficking (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: The right hon. Gentleman knows that the situation for such people has improved very strongly, with our ratification and implementation of the convention. Such people have a far longer reflection period than is required by international law. Serious support is given to them—we will be funding the POPPY project, which is the leading agency to look after them, to the tune of about...

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Human Trafficking (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: I am afraid that I do not know, but my instincts are that that probably does not make any difference. However, if a piece of work should be done on that, the all-party group on the trafficking of women and children will ensure that it is done.

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Bribery (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: We published a draft Bribery Bill, based on the recommendations of the Law Commission, on 25 March. Pre-legislative scrutiny preceded that, and the recommendations of the Joint Committee on the draft Bribery Bill were published on 28 July. We said in the draft legislative programme that we intended to introduce a Bill in the next Session.

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Bribery (15 Oct 2009) has video

Vera Baird: I am not aware of any risk to the quality of the legislation from over-haste. The Joint Committee was very much in favour of the Bill in its report. After all, the process of modernising our bribery and corruption law has not been speedy. I served on a Committee that considered the last such Bill in 2003, so I cannot imagine that anyone feels that they have been pushed into anything.