This question came from two MPs on Wednesday this week at the beginning of a session entitled Women in STEM Jobs. The responses from the Government Minister is the Lewes MP Maria Caulfield who I have met in the past when she was a Brighton Councillor. The initial questions came from David Duguid who is the Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan which is North of Scotland and Maggie Throup who is the Conservative MP for Erewash in Derbyshire. Their question is

What steps the Government are taking to help support women in STEM roles.

The response to this question came from Maria below

We have made great progress in increasing the number of girls studying STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—subjects. Our challenge now is to do more to get them into STEM jobs. To support that, we launched a scheme called STEM returners, as one of our programmes to grow the skills of people who have taken a career break. We have so far had 42 women in our first cohort and 54 have signed up for our second cohort, getting women with experience and skills back into STEM jobs.

There was then additional questions from both of these Conservative MPs and then there is also additional questions from two other MPs, one of which is a SNP MP from Scotland and the other is the DUP MP leader from North Ireland. All of the comments can be seen here. The final question is from Jim Shannon from the DUP

I thank the Minister for that answer. In Northern Ireland, women are under-represented in STEM industries. Only 15% of women in Northern Ireland study core STEM subjects, compared to 36% of men. That is a clear anomaly that needs to be addressed. May I encourage the Minister to use her office to engage with the Department for the Economy to encourage more uptake in university STEM subjects? Women can do the job every bit as well as a man given that opportunity.

The answer is

I thank the hon. Member for that question. That goes to the point raised by my hon. Friend David Duguid. We need a UK approach. Across the Government, whether in the Department for Work and Pensions or the Department for Education, we focus on trying to improve all avenues for those, particularly women, who want to go into STEM areas.