Oral Answers to Questions

Greg Smith Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

The hon. Lady raises a significant issue around ensuring that disabled people are able to access employment and are paid properly. We have no plans to introduce mandatory disability pay gap reporting—no plans to introduce disability pay gap reporting at all. Unlike gender pay gap reporting, which is very simple, binary and easy to execute, disability pay gap reporting, like ethnicity pay gap reporting, is very complex. There are a range of disabilities that could not be easily monitored, so I would like to work with her on other areas where we can help to improve the lives of disabled people at work. We do not believe that disability pay gap reporting is the answer.

[Greg Smith (Buckingham) (Con)]

T6. [R] Israel is one of the United Kingdom’s most dynamic trading partners, so does my right hon. Friend agree that prioritising a free trade deal with Israel will complement the good work that the Government are doing to defeat the haters as part of the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill, and send an unmistakeable message that the UK stands ready to strengthen our unbreakable friendship with Israel?

[Kemi Badenoch]

My hon. Friend is right. Israel’s current relationship with the UK is worth about £6.4 billion, but our FTA is a roll-over of the one that Israel signed in 1995 with the EU. It does not take into account services, digital, artificial intelligence or genome sequencing. There is a lot that we can do. That is why we are working on this FTA. It is a priority for us. As I said earlier, we face many challenges in carrying on negotiations with a country that is at war, but we are working to overcome them.