I welcome the statement today and I particularly welcome the holistic approach that the Minister is adopting, and that issues about transport, healthcare and support for individuals when they gain work are seen as just as important as the skills that are needed.

One of the big issues, of course, is childcare and women’s employability. Does the Minister think that women’s employability is affected by the fact that the leave for childcare still tends to be taken by women? What can we do about that? What does the Minister think we can do about the fact that we want women to access jobs that will be well paid? We all know the figures that 80 per cent of care workers are women and 90 per cent of the workforce in the STEM subjects are men, so how are we going to move ahead and give the support to try and break that down?

The other issue, of course, is prejudice amongst employers and other people in the community. What can we do to remove those prejudices? The Equality and Human Rights Commission has looked at pregnancy related discrimination, which has already been mentioned here in this Chamber today, and shows that there is a considerable amount of discrimination about women who are pregnant or who are likely to be pregnant. So, I really welcome everything that the Minister has said today, but if we’re going to look at it holistically, we’ve somehow got to build all that in, as well.