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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 17 March 2025
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Displaying 2045 contributions

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COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

Okay—it might be worth coming back to that.

I come back to Anna Ritchie Allan. We were talking about skills, training for women and the opportunity to progress. The CIPD submission mentions something that I raised with the previous panel. It notes that it is people aged 50 and beyond who

“agree with the statement: ‘My job offers good opportunities for career progression’”.

That does not quite chime with what we are hearing just now: that there are not opportunities for women to progress in the workplace. Does the CIPD need to break down that survey data at a more gendered level? Can you expand on that at all?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

I will move on. I go back to the point of our session today, which is to work out why people are leaving the workforce. I want to bring in the issue of long Covid. Is it right that Anna Ritchie Allan has some specific views on what we need to do with long Covid?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

It clearly was not directed at you.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

My next question is for David Fairs. In response to John Mason, you touched on the UK pension system, but I want to consider the specific area of general practitioners’ pensions. I do not quite understand what is going on, but I am told, and we are hearing, that younger GPs are retiring because of a pensions issue—that some of them could stay on for longer but that it is not worth their while to stay in the profession. Counter to that, we have heard that some younger doctors are just tired—they are done in—and that that is why they are retiring. Can you shed some light on that?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

Good morning, Liz; it is nice to meet you. I have a question for you about young people and their attitude to work and getting into the workplace. I am looking at the CIPD figures and the answers to the statement:

“My job offers good opportunities for career progression”.

People were asked to agree or disagree. I find it astonishing that, in the 16 to 17, 18 to 19 and 20 to 24 age groups, there are very few who see career opportunities developing, yet as we go up to the older ages, people in their 40s, 50s and 60s, and even those beyond 65, see much greater progression. Why do our young people feel as though there is no opportunity for them to progress?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

Do you have anything to add, Jack, or were you going to make the same point?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

Jack Jones and Anjum Klair both want to come in on that point, but I will come back to Anna Ritchie Allan later.

Either Jack or Anjum can answer—you can choose.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

Okay; right. You took me a wee bit by surprise there, convener.

I will stay on that topic. Anna Ritchie Allan, in your submission, you mention that—this ties into something that Jack Jones said earlier—the number of men and women who are coming out of the labour market at an older age is relatively stable and similar but that men are more likely to be able to come out of the labour market because they can afford to. That indicates to me that women are coming out of the labour market because they are being forced to. What is forcing them out? You mentioned that that could be because of caring responsibilities. Are we putting women in a position in which they are relying on their male partner to enable them not to work? Is that your understanding of the issue?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

We seem to have strayed a bit off topic in the course of the conversation, but it has been really interesting. However, I am going to bring the conversation back to economic inactivity in the older age group. I might be coming completely out of left field, but no one has touched on consideration of menopausal women. Has any consideration been given to whether menopausal women drop out of work because there is not enough support for them in the workplace? That is an open question to anybody who wants to stick their hand up. If there is no answer, that is fine and I will move on.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Road to Recovery Inquiry

Meeting date: 17 November 2022

Jim Fairlie

If we have a greater proportion of older workers leaving the labour market, will that put much more pressure on the younger age group to be able to manage the pension fund?