Carla Lockhart: ...consultation that is currently open in Northern Ireland asks about balancing parent and child rights, but, with respect, that is not how it works. Parents have rights to empower them to do their job of caring for their child. It is parents who are the first and best guardians of their children’s rights, and their role must therefore be safeguarded. At present in Northern Ireland, it is...
Carla Lockhart: .... I have sleepless nights worrying about the cost of childcare. It is soul destroying.” Another respondent said: “Childcare needs to be more affordable. I’m in a reasonably paid part-time job but I couldn’t afford to go full-time as 90% of my wage would go on child-care costs which is pointless. One parent (usually the mother) of most families has to work part-time as they can’t...
Carla Lockhart: ...the forthcoming ministerial conference. The first is Nigeria. My hon. Friend the Member for Strangford eloquently outlined some of the points already. Open Doors, which we all know does an amazing job as a voice for the persecuted church, reports that in the first three months of 2022, 896 Nigerian civilians were killed in violent attacks, including hundreds of Christians who were...
Carla Lockhart: ...Northern Ireland and hear from my constituents and businesses who are feeling the squeeze. In conclusion, the long-term objectives identified by the Government—higher wages, more highly skilled jobs and a move towards our own supply of cheaper and cleaner energy—are very welcome, but families cannot wait for those objectives to become reality. For many, the pressure is being felt...
Carla Lockhart: ...see those companies absorb the costs, remain profitable and contribute to our national economic recovery. In the past 18 to 24 months, the Government rightly put great resource into supporting jobs and businesses. I commend them for that. Now is not the time to jeopardise the tens of thousands of jobs sustained by our construction industry with a policy that is right, but whose timing is...
Carla Lockhart: ...their operation even more challenging. Will the Chancellor and the Minister agree to meet industry representatives to hear about the real-life impact, and to explore how it can be addressed and how jobs and profitability in Northern Ireland can be protected?
Carla Lockhart: ...seen to this day: longer waiting lists, a health service that is stretched beyond its limits, a social housing crisis, a roads infrastructure that is crumbling, missed investment opportunities for job creation, and other public services held back. Of course, for those three years the Government did nothing to face down the petulant, self-serving actions of Sinn Féin, which is deeply...
Carla Lockhart: .... Together, they work day and night to bring world-leading produce from farm to fork, safe and traceable, with the very best welfare and environmental standards. They also sustain thousands of jobs providing household incomes that, in many cases, have been established through generations of farming families. It is this tradition and this economic lifeblood in our rural communities that...
Carla Lockhart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the travel and aviation industry to explore the potential merits of extending the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for those sectors.
Carla Lockhart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme on employment levels in the travel and aviation sectors.
Carla Lockhart: ...what representation he has made to the Chancellor on the part of the travel industry for the extension of furlough and a much-needed specific tailored grant support scheme to be provided to sustain jobs and protect the future of this industry?
Carla Lockhart: ...of action to highlight to the devolved institution at Stormont the need for support for the sector and to demand a restart to international travel. It has now been over a year of devastation for jobs, family incomes and the future of the sector. Many have already lost their jobs. In my constituency, just three weeks ago, Thompson Aero announced 180 job losses, one quarter of the workforce,...
Carla Lockhart: It is right that we in the UK seek to bolster our trade relationships across the world to boost our economy, create jobs, promote growth and benefit from exit from the European Union and the freedom that offers. That said, we should ensure the standards that we enjoy and value are not lessened because of such arrangements. In my constituency, I have many small family farms that spend each and...
Carla Lockhart: ...We see APD as a regressive tax that disproportionately impacts on the outer regions of the United Kingdom. We urge the Government to seize the opportunities that scrapping APD would bring, such as job creation and boosting GDP. Importantly, it would also assist in better connectivity with more routes developed within the United Kingdom. Connectivity to the rest of the United Kingdom is...
Carla Lockhart: ..., paramedics, firefighters, police and others have been very much on the frontline. The least we can do is to protect them when they are attacked by mindless individuals when they are doing their job. I concur with the remarks of the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) in yesterday’s debate: similar protective provisions for retail workers and others would be very welcome. There are...
Carla Lockhart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much and what proportion of funds paid through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme have been voluntarily paid back to his Department by companies that were entitled to the payment; how many companies in Northern Ireland have made such payments; and what the amount was of each such payment.
Carla Lockhart: I genuinely thank the Minister for his efforts in Northern Ireland; he did a sterling job when he was Secretary of State. The crux of this, in my mind, is the victims of South Down, where I believe this House has a responsibility, while councils sit within the Northern Ireland remit. This House needs to take action against a Member of this House who has an office named after two convicted IRA...
Carla Lockhart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the potential loss of revenue to the Exchequer from income tax as a result of job losses in the 2020-21 financial year.
Carla Lockhart: Does my hon. Friend agree that for business in Northern Ireland, free and unfettered access to Great Britain is absolutely vital for jobs, growth and prosperity, and that any obstacle would be critical for jobs and businesses in both his constituency and mine?
Carla Lockhart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many companies have been investigated for (a) employees continuing to work while placed on furlough and (b) other instances of misuse of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.