Water Sector: Public Ownership
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Showing every spoken contribution, including 12,832 under 12 words. Hide short remarks
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Water Sector: Public Ownership
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
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Speciality Steel UK
I welcome this statement, which shows a Labour Government once again stepping in to protect jobs and protect our specialist steel industry. What steps will the Government take to get this steelmaking business back up and running, and what intervention will they be making with those in the downstream sector to support them to buy British wherever possible?
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Water Sector: Public Ownership
On the hon. Member’s point about the failure to invest, in Basingstoke South East Water’s failure to invest in the Surrey hills pipeline has resulted in over-abstraction of the Greywell fen, which is destroying our chalk streams, holding up the local plan, which means that homes cannot be built, and risking water scarcity for existing residents. Does the hon. Member agree that investment is at the heart of the failure and that whatever model we choose must deliver investment to deliver change in all those aspects?
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Student Loans
May I join in what you said, Mr Speaker? I am sure that the whole House will want to send our deepest condolences to the Prime Minister and to his wonderful mum Eileen, his brothers Nick and John, all the grandchildren and the whole family on this saddest of days. The student loans system we inherited is broken and unfair, and some graduates feel the weight of it more strongly. Going to university remains a fantastic opportunity, but I have been very clear that this issue is at the top of my in-tray, and I have been very clear in my views about it.
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Student Loans
The hon. Lady has put that really well. I reassure her that we absolutely keep these things under review. I have said that this issue is at the top of my in-tray, and that remains the case. I am acutely aware of the cost of living pressures that many graduates in their 20s and early 30s are under, particularly those on plan 2, and that is affecting their decisions about work and life. That is why I will continue to push at this issue, and I hope to have more to say soon.
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Student Loans
I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for all his campaigning on this issue, which I have followed closely. He is absolutely right, and in response to the excellent report of the Treasury Committee, we have committed to much clearer guidance for students before they make decisions about going to university, so that they can be much clearer about how the student loan system will work and possibly affect them in future. That is a really important piece of work. We have also capped the maximum interest rates this year, and we are reintroducing maintenance grants.
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Student Loans
As I have said, I am determined that we get these things right. Two things can be true at the same time: I feel the system is unfair and in need of reform, but we also have to put that in the context of the wider public finances and all the pressures and priorities that fall on them. However, it is slightly audacious of the Conservatives to raise this issue, given that they introduced the plan 2 system and froze the threshold four times when they were in government—they are not independent campaigners on this issue today. It now falls in my lap to deal with this issue, and I will do so, unlike the Conservative party.
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Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
I thank Alan Milburn for his commitment to our young people. This is one of our country’s biggest challenges, and I agree with him that education is “the faltering foundation”. Our current system is leaving too many behind. Countries that combine high academic standards with quality technical education boast low NEET rates, which is why I am determined to make this country a technical education superpower.
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Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
I thank the hon. Lady for her question. I think she is one of the most frequent contributors to Education questions, as she was to business questions when I was Leader of the House, and I look forward to continuing to debate these issues with her. She is right that attendance, inclusion and—critically—engagement are pivotal to this issue, which is why we need to look not just at the curriculum and the new qualifications that young people can gain, but at ensuring they have the passport they need for life, and are engaged and want to go to school or college every day.
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Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
Absolutely. Last week’s PISA—programme for international student assessment—results show the importance of those foundations in English, maths and science, which we have really motored on in England over the course of a 25 or 30-year consensus. Scotland, however, is not doing so well. My hon. Friend will know that Scotland’s education system used to be the envy of the world; that is not the case today, and I think it is about time that the Scottish Government took a leaf out of England’s book.
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Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
I am delighted to join the right hon. Gentleman in thanking Allerton Steel for all the work it does supporting young people in and around his constituency with apprenticeships. He is absolutely right. I held a summit last week at No. 10 North—I am sure he will want to visit at some point soon—with school, college and business leaders. There is a real sense of galvanising the whole business community, who are determined to play their part in tackling this issue.
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Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
I thank my hon. Friend for all the work he does in his constituency on these issues. He is absolutely right that we have to get opportunities to young people near where they live, working in partnership in the way that he describes. I am happy to meet him to discuss how we can get such opportunities into his constituency.
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Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
I say gently to the hon. Lady that we do not just have more than a million young people not in education, employment or training—most of whom were educated under the Conservatives—but 1.5 million students persistently absent from school; a stubborn disadvantage gap, which did not close on their watch; widening regional attainment gaps; and a special educational needs and disabilities crisis that we are having to deal with, which they did not. Perhaps more importantly, the Conservatives put our young people on a treadmill of resits, with failure after failure. Just this summer, less than 14% of our young people passed their resits in maths. That is the legacy that they left, and I will rectify it.
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Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
I think we need to do all these things. Alan Milburn was clear that education was “the faltering foundation”. We are seeing too many young people leave school without the qualifications that they need to get either an apprenticeship or into work. That is why there are so many NEETs. We are seeing too many young people disengage from school much earlier on. This is all part of the NEETs crisis. Young people are not subject to national insurance contributions in the same way as older people, and neither are apprentices. We have put in place a number of things, such as support for those wanting to take up an apprenticeship, including a £4,000 bursary. We are doing a huge amount at the other end, but we need to deal with the supply issue, too.
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SEND: Cross-Government Work
It is me again, Mr Speaker. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] As a former Leader of the House, I feel under pressure to know exactly where I am on the Order Paper. I thank my hon. Friend for all her work on special educational needs and disabilities. I listened closely to her speeches in the recent Health Bill debate. I assure her that these reforms are essential and that no one Department can do them alone. That is why we are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care.
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SEND: Cross-Government Work
I thank my hon. Friend for her doughty campaigning on these issues. She is right: as part of the SEND reforms, we must ensure that there is accountability throughout the system, in health as much as in education and other sectors. I assure my hon. Friend that we are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care. I have spoken to the new Health Secretary about this issue a number of times, and I look forward to shaping the reforms with her in the coming weeks.
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SEND: Cross-Government Work
I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising these issues so frequently. He is right: the current system is not working for parents, and it is not working for children. It is far too adversarial, there are too many delays, and parents often find that they cannot obtain the support that they want at the end of it. It is important to ensure that we have enough places, and we have already provided an extra £3.7 billion to support those extra places, but we also need to ensure that there are strong levers of accountability with local authorities and others. The hon. Gentleman can rest assured that we are looking at all those issues right now.
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SEND: Cross-Government Work
I am very sorry to hear that the Reform-led council in Derbyshire is not following through quickly enough on its commitment to SEND families in the council area. We will, of course, pick that up. We are working closely with all local authorities on their SEND reform plans, and ensuring that they put them into action quickly.
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SEND: Cross-Government Work
The hon. Gentleman has rightly identified an issue. We are introducing new individual support plans, which will be national and digital so that they can move around with children. We obviously want to minimise the number of occasions on which students move to new schools and, in some instances, have their support reassessed when they get there. I do not believe that there has been a particular issue for children in armed forces families in relation to the VAT on private schools, but I am happy to look into that for the hon. Gentleman.
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
I thank the hon. Lady for all the work she does on the Education Committee. Reforms to curriculum and assessment go hand in hand with our vision to ensure that education is a passport for work, life and success. Becky Francis did a fantastic job for us on the review, and we will soon publish proposals to go out to consultation that build on it. The proposals will ensure a broader and more inclusive education system, with fewer barriers to progression, stronger technical and vocational options, more emphasis on oracy and more stepping-stone qualifications.
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
Again, I thank the hon. Lady for all the campaigning she has done on this and for bringing to this House a really important Bill so that we can debate these issues. I think those issues go wider than the school system. This is a bigger piece about what childhood means in the 21st century, and how we can all support children to be independent, to have success and good wellbeing, and to be happy. Playing and being outdoors are of course a critical part of that.
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and we have expressed an interest in taking part in the PISA financial literacy assessment in 2029. We recognise the importance of financial education for children and young people, which we will strengthen in the upcoming maths and citizenship curricula. I would be happy to meet with him to discuss how we can take that further.
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
I am absolutely with the hon. Member on the importance of residential activities, and for every young person to have access to them. I am not sure if Ghyll Head is in his constituency—
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
The hon. Member is nodding. I went to Ghyll Head as a child—it is owned by Manchester city council—and my children have been there. It is a fantastic facility, and my ambition is that every child has the opportunity to go somewhere as fantastic as that. I am happy to work with him on these issues.
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
My hon. Friend has already spoken to me a number of times about these issues, because he is a very good chair of the APPG on classics. I thank him for his question, and he is absolutely right. We have to recognise that the current offer in our education system has got narrower and narrower, and even bringing in measures such as the EBacc has not helped to preserve important subjects such as classics and computer science. In fact, they have fallen significantly since its introduction. I want to ensure that all our young people have access to these great academic subjects as well as to technical ones.
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
Oh dear, Mr Speaker—honestly! They had a go at it last week and it did not go very well, so they are having another go this week. If the hon. Gentleman can find where I said that I wanted to bring back coursework then he can bring it to me, because I did not say that. [Interruption.] No, I did not at all.
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Curriculum and Assessment Review
I gave a 10-minute statement to the House last week and I answered questions for 90 minutes. I think that gave a very clear account of what I want to do. The Opposition want to defend their narrowing and narrowing of the curriculum without accepting responsibility for the effects of that. I do want to ensure that great subjects such as computing involve using a computer, because they took that out of the curriculum entirely. I want to ensure that PE involves some PE. Call me a radical, Mr Speaker, but I think that goes in hand in hand. I make no apology either for wanting to see oracy very much at the heart of our curriculum in school. They send their kids to private school, where they all come out really confident in speaking. I want that for every child.
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Topical Questions
Today we are introducing a once-in-a-generation change to school food, making it tastier and healthier and giving over half a million more children free school meals. We have worked with schools, pupils, parents and many more to ensure that these meals are of good quality, attractive to children and deliverable for schools. With free breakfast clubs and a huge expansion of free school meals under this Government, children will be better able to concentrate and learn. I want to put on record my thanks to the Minister for the early years, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochdale (Paul Waugh)—this also happens to be his Dispatch Box debut.
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Topical Questions
We are giving families more breathing space by helping them with school uniform costs and by expanding Government-funded childcare, free school meals and free breakfast clubs. In East Worthing and Shoreham, 4,100 children will now be eligible for free school meals.
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Topical Questions
No.
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Topical Questions
As the right hon. Lady would expect, we have been in close touch with the school. Obviously, it is a decision for the local authority, now that the school has become voluntary aided. As I understand it, the school has now clarified that hijabs are not compulsory.
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Topical Questions
I am really proud of our commitment to free breakfast clubs, which are great not only for children, but for parents. We hear these testimonies all the time. They are incredibly popular and we will continue to roll them out.
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Topical Questions
I am very clear that this is about not just the letter of the law but the spirit of the law, and I want to see schools following the spirit of the new legislation. I have further powers, should I need to use them, to pull in a school’s uniform policy. I do not want to see jumpers and other things that children actually have to wear being branded as optional.
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Topical Questions
I am really happy to meet the hon. Lady to discuss this, because our creative arts universities, such as the one in her constituency, provide fantastic qualifications for young people to get the jobs they need.
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Topical Questions
Absolutely; where schools and local caterers can, we absolutely want them to buy local. This is an important part of sustainability. We have tried to get the balance right with these food standards so that they are deliverable by schools and affordable, they are not putting up the costs of school meals, but they are providing tasty, healthier meals that ideally are locally sourced.
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Topical Questions
I think I originally branded my hon. Friend Mr Doncaster airport, and I am pleased that he is still living up to that name today. He is absolutely right: this is why we are working very closely with mayors, local employers and others, so that local areas like his in Doncaster can ensure that young people have access to the qualifications and work experience they need for the local economy.
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Topical Questions
I am happy to write to the hon. Member about that, but rest assured that we are working with all local authorities on their SEND plans at the moment to ensure that they are robust, deliverable and affordable.
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Topical Questions
The Minister for school estates, my hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister), would be really happy to meet my hon. Friend, because I know how important this issue is to her constituents.
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Topical Questions
My hon. Friend raises a really important issue. Music qualifications have fallen off a cliff, which is why we are taking those steps. The procurement process has begun, so I can outline for him soon what further steps we are taking. I also want to work with musicians such as Ed Sheeran, Fatboy Slim and others who have been campaigning for a music curriculum that actually attracts young people to take it up.