25/05/2016

:00:00. > :00:00.rent are getting proper consumer protection including from landlords

:00:00. > :00:19.who unreasonably withhold deposits. Order, order. Yes, points of order,

:00:20. > :00:26.at least a three course meal in my experience. Point of order. Thank

:00:27. > :00:31.you. I just heard the Chancellor say let's debate the substance and not

:00:32. > :00:37.the process in our debates over the EU referendum. I've tried to do

:00:38. > :00:41.exactly that. I've written numerous questions, I'm getting answers that

:00:42. > :00:45.say, talk to the hand. I approach the procedure committee who admitted

:00:46. > :00:49.I've not had substantial answers or any answers to some of my questions.

:00:50. > :00:59.What more can be done? They are trying to muscle -- muscle asked to

:01:00. > :01:03.make sure we don't get answers. I'm ashamed that the government's

:01:04. > :01:07.behaviour. I'm very grateful to the honourable lady for her point of

:01:08. > :01:15.order and for her courtesy in giving me advanced notice of its thrust. I

:01:16. > :01:22.also note she's expressed herself in very forceful terms, expressing her

:01:23. > :01:25.disappointment in the government. She is most assiduous in pursuing

:01:26. > :01:31.this matter and what I'd say to her is this - it is, to put it mildly

:01:32. > :01:38.regrettable that the Department for Business innovation and skills is

:01:39. > :01:44.late in responding to a request from the procedure committee. That should

:01:45. > :01:49.not happen, and if there is a whip on the Treasury bench, he or she

:01:50. > :01:54.should note it is unacceptable, and if there that message should be

:01:55. > :01:59.relayed to the relevant whip come sooner rather than later. I'm sure

:02:00. > :02:04.that this lapse, which would be very unsatisfactory, not least to the

:02:05. > :02:10.chair of the procedure committee and his colleagues on the committee will

:02:11. > :02:13.have been noted on the Treasury bench, and I hope it will be duly

:02:14. > :02:19.communicated to the Secretary of State. The honourable lady has

:02:20. > :02:23.tabled questions that are orderly, and they wouldn't be on the order

:02:24. > :02:28.paper unless they were orderly, so they should receive replies. And

:02:29. > :02:33.they should receive replies quickly. My advice to the honourable lady is

:02:34. > :02:38.to look for those replies each day from now on, and if she doesn't get

:02:39. > :02:43.them, I rather imagine she will return to the subject. That in the

:02:44. > :02:49.interest of propriety, the department should now provide those

:02:50. > :02:54.answers. Its performance is unsatisfactory. And it is - I don't

:02:55. > :03:02.want to use the word shameful - it is unsatisfactory.

:03:03. > :03:07.Yesterday the house had a comprehensive debate on the

:03:08. > :03:13.Government's foreign policy and in particular its raw in arms deals

:03:14. > :03:16.with Saudi Arabia. I put it to the Government an urgent investigation

:03:17. > :03:22.it should take place showing UK bombs have been used in Yemen.

:03:23. > :03:26.Yesterday the Foreign Secretary stated the Ministry of Defence is

:03:27. > :03:29.urgently investigating the allegations and I believe there will

:03:30. > :03:35.be an urgent question on this shortly. This morning the Ministry

:03:36. > :03:42.of Defence gave a statement to the BBC World Service which contradicts

:03:43. > :03:45.the Foreign Secretary's comments. The Ministry of Defence statement

:03:46. > :03:50.says, we are not launching an investigation. We are seeking urgent

:03:51. > :03:55.clarification from Saudi Arabia as to whether or not these weapons were

:03:56. > :04:00.used in the recent conflict and that is our usual policy. Have either the

:04:01. > :04:06.Foreign Secretary or head office asked you if they can come to the

:04:07. > :04:14.house and clarify the position? Law, not request to issue a clarification

:04:15. > :04:17.has been to me. If memory serves me correctly, the line of the

:04:18. > :04:26.governments that law investigation is underway -- law investigation is

:04:27. > :04:32.underway was put by the Defence Secretary in response to the urgent

:04:33. > :04:38.question yesterday. That is a different stance from that's

:04:39. > :04:47.proffered by the Foreign Secretary at oral questions. It is not

:04:48. > :04:53.entirely novel for there to be different statements on the same

:04:54. > :04:57.subject emanating from representatives of different

:04:58. > :05:03.Government departments. If a minister thinks, in the light of the

:05:04. > :05:06.facts, he needs to correct the record of what he said, and I think

:05:07. > :05:13.the honourable lady has the Foreign Secretary in mind in this context,

:05:14. > :05:18.doubtless he will do so. If he does not, it is presumably because he

:05:19. > :05:23.judges there to be no need. In a bad situation at the honourable lady

:05:24. > :05:28.must table questions -- and that situation the honourable lady must

:05:29. > :05:37.table questions if she wanted elucidation. On the 19th of May the

:05:38. > :05:41.Shadow Minister for Europe, the member for North West Durham,

:05:42. > :05:45.visited solely in my constituency where she gave a radio interview in

:05:46. > :05:51.which she despaired what my constituents... I must ask the

:05:52. > :05:58.honourable lady what on earth what was said outside the chamber could

:05:59. > :06:02.tap to do with me in the chair? I think it reflects badly on every

:06:03. > :06:07.Member of Parliament. All sorts of things reflect badly but it has

:06:08. > :06:11.nothing to do with the chair. If the church took responsibility for what

:06:12. > :06:25.was said outside the chamber I would have a very large responsibility. .

:06:26. > :06:29.-- if the cheer. -- if the chair. I am grateful, Mr Speaker. When my

:06:30. > :06:36.right honourable friend von Gordon raised the issue of the family and

:06:37. > :06:42.my constituency the Chancellor said he would write to the member. Can I

:06:43. > :06:46.point out the family are due to be deported in the next few days and I

:06:47. > :06:50.am concerned about the timeliness of the letter, if that was to be

:06:51. > :06:56.written. Can I asked the Speaker at what routes are open to me to make

:06:57. > :06:59.sure this case is urgently addressed through the Home Secretary to

:07:00. > :07:03.respect what was put in place at the time the family came here, the

:07:04. > :07:11.post-work Visa would be in place and we don't report this family who are

:07:12. > :07:20.a credit to the Highlands? My short answer to enquiry is if the matter

:07:21. > :07:24.is urgent in his judgment he knows the recourse available. It would

:07:25. > :07:35.then be for the cheer to judge whether or not the matter was

:07:36. > :07:40.urgent. -- the chair to judge. No, he does not have a point of order.

:07:41. > :07:45.It's one thing to play with one's all here, it's another to play with

:07:46. > :07:51.somebody else's. -- own hair. We will leave it there for now. I

:07:52. > :08:00.wonder if there was a point of order brewing but not on this occasion.

:08:01. > :08:13.Another time. I'm sure he was being helpful. The clerk will read the

:08:14. > :08:18.others of the day. Queen's Speech motion, debate on question. I

:08:19. > :08:24.informed the house I have selected is an amendment be in the name of

:08:25. > :08:37.the Leader of the Opposition. I call Angela Eagle. I just reeling from

:08:38. > :08:44.the prospect of public hair up playing and whether we should end

:08:45. > :08:48.this house have a rule against it. Last Wednesday we saw the age old

:08:49. > :08:53.said audit of the State Opening of Parliament and it was done with the

:08:54. > :09:00.usual pageantry and executed to perfection. The only flaw was the

:09:01. > :09:10.one thank Her Majesty has no control over and that is the consent of the

:09:11. > :09:15.speech itself. After the build up and said on it it was yet another

:09:16. > :09:21.anti-climax. It outlined a mere 21 bels, from a Government with a

:09:22. > :09:26.majority barely one year into its time in office. It is running out of

:09:27. > :09:33.steam before its eyes. You could sense the dismay on the benches

:09:34. > :09:38.opposite. It was described as sparse and the bland, threadbare, thin

:09:39. > :09:42.gruel, uninspiring and vacuous. And that was just the verdict of the

:09:43. > :09:47.Government's all underwhelm backbenchers. Others were less

:09:48. > :09:52.diplomatic. The right honourable member, sold recently a senior

:09:53. > :09:56.Cabinet minister, called a watered-down, blaming a Government

:09:57. > :10:00.that has surrendered to the helter-skelter of the EU referendum

:10:01. > :10:05.campaign. Ex-Tory Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo was more scathing

:10:06. > :10:09.about the first majority Conservative Government since 1992,

:10:10. > :10:14.telling Andrew Newell, after 23 years of careful thought about what

:10:15. > :10:21.they would like to do in power, the answer is nothing. He went on to

:10:22. > :10:28.say,. Of course. Do you think the introduction of the national living

:10:29. > :10:32.wage is nothing? I think the introduction of the national living

:10:33. > :10:45.wage is a porn because it is not a living wage. An increase in wages --

:10:46. > :10:49.is a con. It does not apply to those under 25, describes itself as

:10:50. > :10:56.something it is not so we have scepticism about how useful it will

:10:57. > :11:00.be. Of course. Does the honourable lady consider is nothing, fairer

:11:01. > :11:04.funding for schools which will affect, not on the effect on the

:11:05. > :11:09.house, but many members opposite. The Labour Party once supported this

:11:10. > :11:14.policy. What is the current position? We must look at the policy

:11:15. > :11:23.on schools against the background of what the ISS said was a real terms

:11:24. > :11:35.cut of 8% in the budget. What the IFS said. The volume of an

:11:36. > :11:40.legislation is not an indication of the quality. I certainly agree

:11:41. > :11:47.quantity is not all and I will come onto the details of those bills as I

:11:48. > :11:55.make progress through my speech. The ex-Tory Cabinet Minister Michael

:11:56. > :12:00.Portillo said the Government is in palaces because the only thing that

:12:01. > :12:04.matters to them is saving the Prime Minister's career by winning the

:12:05. > :12:09.referendum. He concluded, in what would be a damning epitaph for this

:12:10. > :12:14.administration, that majority the bright Minister secured last year,

:12:15. > :12:19.it is all for nothing. The Government has nothing to do,

:12:20. > :12:25.nothing to say and thinks nothing. We have this nothing Queen's Speech

:12:26. > :12:29.before us. If you are eye-catching announcements designed to distract

:12:30. > :12:34.from the emptiness of the programme. Presented with the possibility of

:12:35. > :12:40.driverless cars on our roads in four years and even private spaceports.

:12:41. > :12:45.There is still no sign of a decision on the much more pressing issue of

:12:46. > :12:50.airport capacity for the travel millions must now undertake. We were

:12:51. > :12:53.told there would be a legal right to access digital broadband but there

:12:54. > :12:58.is no clear route to resolve the scandal of the Government's total

:12:59. > :13:02.failure to provide adequate digital infrastructure for all. Despite

:13:03. > :13:06.being a fifth largest economy we still languish at 18th in the world

:13:07. > :13:11.for broadband speeds. Perhaps it is a sign of how toxic things are

:13:12. > :13:14.within the Conservative Party that even this self-described uninspiring

:13:15. > :13:21.managerial and vacuous legislative programme has already caused yet

:13:22. > :13:24.another Tory backbench rebellion. The Government has already caved and

:13:25. > :13:31.by agreeing an amendment to the motion before us which will exempt

:13:32. > :13:36.the NHS from a Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership. We on the

:13:37. > :13:40.side of the house of long called for the Government to exempt the NHS

:13:41. > :13:47.from three deals and we are glad they have now agreed -- from trade

:13:48. > :13:51.deals. It is interesting to see what this divided Government are now able

:13:52. > :13:57.to agree on. The only things they seem to be able to unite on flogging

:13:58. > :14:02.of a valuable public assets such as the land Registry in the back

:14:03. > :14:07.Registry which actually makes money, and unleashing the full force of the

:14:08. > :14:14.market on higher education. This rebellion on the trade deal follows

:14:15. > :14:19.other areas such as forced academisation, cuts to tax credits

:14:20. > :14:26.for the low paid, cuts to payments for the disabled, tax relief resist

:14:27. > :14:33.reform, saw packs, tampon tax, Sunday trading, fox hunting ban,

:14:34. > :14:36.scrapping their own criminal courts charge, recommending some child

:14:37. > :14:41.refugees to the country and how soon. This does not even include the

:14:42. > :14:47.Chancellor's latest budget fiasco, which remains unresolved and seems

:14:48. > :14:55.to contain a ?4 billion hole in his arithmetic. I'm happy to give way. I

:14:56. > :14:58.am surprised that six minutes into her speech on the subject of

:14:59. > :15:03.education, skills and training she has failed to mention the first

:15:04. > :15:08.paragraph of the Queen's speech was about life chances. In circumstances

:15:09. > :15:12.where we know half of the people in prisons who I don't have no

:15:13. > :15:18.education at all and in circumstances with the Queen's

:15:19. > :15:21.speech talks about education in prisons and social care, I believe

:15:22. > :15:27.the Queen's Speech has something of real substance in it. I will get

:15:28. > :15:30.onto that but this is a debate on the entirety of the Queen's Speech

:15:31. > :15:37.and I am entitled to say what I like about any little bit of it. The can

:15:38. > :15:42.make her own speech if she catches me Speaker's I and I will thank if

:15:43. > :15:49.she let me make mine. I am here to make my point and I intend to do so.

:15:50. > :15:53.The emptiness of the current conservative agenda, outlined in the

:15:54. > :15:59.Queen's Speech, is apparent with the PR hyperbole which accompanied its

:16:00. > :16:03.announcement. We have two mind the gap between rhetoric and reality.

:16:04. > :16:07.Whilst they boast about their credentials as a one nation

:16:08. > :16:13.Government, they are cutting support for working people and giving the

:16:14. > :16:18.richest tax cut. They think ?450,000 for a starter home is affordable and

:16:19. > :16:22.they are doing nothing effective to solve the housing crisis or soaring

:16:23. > :16:28.rents. They boast of the life chances, as indeed the honourable

:16:29. > :16:33.lady has just done, but in 2016, in Saudi Britain, homelessness is

:16:34. > :16:39.soaring, millions are forced to resort -- in Tory Britain. There is

:16:40. > :16:43.a widening attainment gap between different areas on the contrary,

:16:44. > :16:48.millions more people are struggling to see the doctor and cuts in

:16:49. > :16:56.funding me this is likely to get worse. The Prime Minister's life

:16:57. > :17:00.chances agenda is either a joke or a con. How do you improve life chances

:17:01. > :17:07.by abolishing shouldn't maintenance grant for the purpose, increasing

:17:08. > :17:13.tuition fees and barely mentioning further education colleges and your

:17:14. > :17:17.plans at all? How do you agree to attainment by fiddling the school

:17:18. > :17:21.structures and ignoring low morale, chronic teacher shortages and

:17:22. > :17:26.growing pressure on school places? The proposals have to be judged on

:17:27. > :17:33.the context of the funding settlements for education, as I

:17:34. > :17:39.mentioned earlier. The 16 - 19 age have seen a 14% fall in the funding

:17:40. > :17:44.provision since 2010 and educational capital spending fell by 34%.

:17:45. > :17:51.I hesitate to interrupt such a positive speech she is making but

:17:52. > :17:55.she's having a busy day. Perhaps you'd be kind enough to rally a

:17:56. > :17:58.little support for the Hereford University project which will

:17:59. > :18:03.deliver the very life chances that I know she and I can unite in

:18:04. > :18:07.supporting. The honourable gentleman should invite me to visit it and me

:18:08. > :18:13.and him can go together so that I can see what is going on in

:18:14. > :18:17.Herefordshire. Now, Mr Speaker, the Institute of fiscal studies have

:18:18. > :18:24.percolated there is likely to be an 8% fall in funding per pupil between

:18:25. > :18:29.now and 2020 in the School Centre. After a modest 0.6% rise in funding

:18:30. > :18:34.per pupil in the last Parliament, don't say I don't put the figures

:18:35. > :18:40.accurately on the record and give the government credit where it is

:18:41. > :18:45.due, 0.6% for the first five years of the coalition, -8% for the next.

:18:46. > :18:49.With adult and part-time education have seen huge falls in numbers

:18:50. > :18:56.participating because they simply cannot afford to pay. Yet... I give

:18:57. > :19:00.way. One of the things this government is trying to do through

:19:01. > :19:03.the Queen's Speech and its new bills is to introduce new universities

:19:04. > :19:07.which will give so many more people an opportunity to get the education

:19:08. > :19:13.they need. Would my honourable friend join with me in looking at

:19:14. > :19:16.students across this country right at this moment are very concerned

:19:17. > :19:21.that there are threats to universities right now, with unions

:19:22. > :19:25.going on strike and destructing teaching and exams. I've got one of

:19:26. > :19:29.my daughters about take a finals. Would she agree this is not

:19:30. > :19:33.acceptable behaviour? The first thing to say is I think some of the

:19:34. > :19:38.threat is, if it isn't properly looked at, and we will have to look

:19:39. > :19:42.at the Bill when it comes in greater detail, with the so-called new

:19:43. > :19:47.providers, which and tried and untested and we will get into

:19:48. > :19:54.talking about that particularly we get into the Bill itself. By the

:19:55. > :20:00.way, I haven't done so, but I'd like to acknowledge the fact that the

:20:01. > :20:05.honourable gentleman has taken the Secretary of State's place. I know

:20:06. > :20:10.he is on his way to mum by to help talk to Tata about the crisis facing

:20:11. > :20:16.the steel industry in our country, and might I say that it is about

:20:17. > :20:22.time as I wish him all the best with the work that he's doing. So it is a

:20:23. > :20:28.pleasure to welcome the honourable gentleman to the despatch box in his

:20:29. > :20:31.stead. Mr Speaker, there is nothing in this Queen's Speech on the

:20:32. > :20:36.growing funding crisis affecting schools. There is no mention of

:20:37. > :20:39.adult up Skilling, which is a particularly difficult admission.

:20:40. > :20:44.Without action in these areas we went tackle the skills urgency which

:20:45. > :20:50.is holding back our economy. Unfilled vacancies have risen 130%

:20:51. > :20:54.since 2011 with skills shortages accounting for over a third of

:20:55. > :21:01.unfilled vacancies in key industries. I'm happy to give way. I

:21:02. > :21:05.thank the right to honourable lady not least for once describing me as

:21:06. > :21:14.a Eurosceptic Mart on before of the house. In terms of skills, why does

:21:15. > :21:18.she think it has taken a Conservative government open in new

:21:19. > :21:23.university technical College in Peterborough, opening in September,

:21:24. > :21:27.whereas in benign economic times we saw massive increases in youth

:21:28. > :21:32.unemployment and young people who didn't want to go to university left

:21:33. > :21:36.on the sidelines? Well, I'm glad to see that despite being a Eurosceptic

:21:37. > :21:42.Marta, the honourable gentleman is still alive and kicking, and doing

:21:43. > :21:49.his thing on the Tory backbenches. I have to say to him that it was a

:21:50. > :21:52.Labour government that started university technical colleges, and

:21:53. > :21:59.I'm glad now he is having one in his own area, but I think that he is

:22:00. > :22:03.being rather churlish in talking about our record, when we actually

:22:04. > :22:07.created the university technical college concept. The government has

:22:08. > :22:13.if very large target for apprenticeships come about 30% of

:22:14. > :22:21.those starting don't actually finish the course. And 96% are level two or

:22:22. > :22:26.three with lowly numbers attending apprenticeships. I understand level

:22:27. > :22:30.two and three are important to attain, but even more important for

:22:31. > :22:41.the future Health and Wellbeing Boards our economy is expanding the

:22:42. > :22:44.higher degree level apprenticeships. And grateful to my honourable

:22:45. > :22:49.friend, and she will remember that in the last Parliament I introduced

:22:50. > :22:52.up private members bill, the apprenticeships and skills public

:22:53. > :22:57.procurement bill. Isn't there a real opportunity being missed here that

:22:58. > :23:00.with public procurement and major engineering project in particular

:23:01. > :23:07.that we really ought to be getting more anchor our taxpayer Buck in

:23:08. > :23:16.getting proper, decent, high-quality, advanced, and further

:23:17. > :23:18.level apprenticeships tied into those public procurement contracts?

:23:19. > :23:24.I couldn't agree more with my honourable friend. I Menard fire of

:23:25. > :23:28.his, especially as I've seen those recent pictures of him abseiling

:23:29. > :23:32.down a very tall buildings so my admiration has grown even more. His

:23:33. > :23:35.bill was an extremely good one, and I think it is important the

:23:36. > :23:40.government does think much more carefully than it has to date about

:23:41. > :23:46.how it can tie in the money it spends in public procurement with

:23:47. > :23:51.skills creation. The Business Secretary is going to have to do

:23:52. > :23:53.that if he's going to save a prosperous future for British Steel

:23:54. > :24:01.and he should think about doing it in a locked more areas. It is a to

:24:02. > :24:06.boo that needs to be broken. I'm very grateful for giving way. Does

:24:07. > :24:09.she share the concern of those that worried that the government's 3

:24:10. > :24:13.million apprenticeships target will only be achieved if the quality of

:24:14. > :24:21.what is being offered in this apprenticeships being diminished?

:24:22. > :24:24.I'm afraid I do share that worry about the very large quantities

:24:25. > :24:30.target to which the government has set and wants to pass by all

:24:31. > :24:35.accounts. When I go to talk to business, which I do regularly up

:24:36. > :24:40.and down the country, that of session with quantity, rather than

:24:41. > :24:44.quality, causes some real worries and I hope the Minister will be able

:24:45. > :24:50.to tell us today that he's got some ways of dealing with this because I

:24:51. > :24:55.have come across some extremely dubious actresses, if I can put it

:24:56. > :24:58.that way, with one of the apprenticeships, which I'm glad the

:24:59. > :25:07.enterprise act has closed that loophole, but will need pretty

:25:08. > :25:13.forceful and enforcement otherwise we will seek abuse. Would she accept

:25:14. > :25:17.that social clauses within public sector contracts, which have worked

:25:18. > :25:24.very effectively in Northern Ireland and Scotland, could be used much

:25:25. > :25:28.more widely, and I don't even contradict EU rules, so they don't

:25:29. > :25:31.even have that excuse on this occasion, and they could ensure

:25:32. > :25:35.public money is used to ensure the skills base of the country is

:25:36. > :25:43.increased? I couldn't agree more with the comments that the

:25:44. > :25:47.honourable gentleman has made. It is absolutely right that social clauses

:25:48. > :25:53.in procurement have really important role to play. I make one observation

:25:54. > :25:57.that I have made over my time in Parliament, and that is that those

:25:58. > :26:04.involved in public procurement can be very risk averse. All too often,

:26:05. > :26:11.they don't think about the extra things they can get out of the money

:26:12. > :26:16.the government is spending in committing to particular projects,

:26:17. > :26:20.and they often use the excuse of EU procurement rules as a reason for

:26:21. > :26:27.not being creative enough with the way in which they pursue

:26:28. > :26:34.procurement. Now... No one, Mr Speaker, argues with the state today

:26:35. > :26:36.in the higher education and research will of widening access and

:26:37. > :26:41.participation in higher education. That is what we all want to see. We

:26:42. > :26:45.on the side of the house object strongly to the approach the

:26:46. > :26:48.government has taken in both the white Paper and the accompanying

:26:49. > :26:52.Bill. The Business Secretary appears to believe that the solution to

:26:53. > :26:57.widening participation is to inject market forces into the provision of

:26:58. > :27:03.higher education, allowing new, untried, and providers to start up a

:27:04. > :27:07.cheap degree awarding powers, and securing university status and he

:27:08. > :27:12.wants to force students to pay for it all through higher Jewish and

:27:13. > :27:18.fees. Yet there is absolutely... I'm happy to give way. I'm very grateful

:27:19. > :27:22.to my honourable friend to giving way, and she's making an excellent

:27:23. > :27:30.speech. Does she agree with me that also these reforms to hire education

:27:31. > :27:32.and deregulation risk the excellent reputation that UK higher education

:27:33. > :27:36.institutions have internationally, and that help us attract

:27:37. > :27:45.international students into this country? There is, if I might call

:27:46. > :27:49.it a brandishing with the risks that my honourable friend has raised with

:27:50. > :27:55.particular suggestions in both the White Paper and the Bill. And we on

:27:56. > :27:58.this side of the house will want to study in great detail and ask a

:27:59. > :28:02.great deal of serious questions about the potential consequence of

:28:03. > :28:08.what the honourable gentleman has suggested in the White Paper, and

:28:09. > :28:12.what is present in the Bill. The rear is absolutely no evidence that

:28:13. > :28:17.competition of this sort will lead to higher standards or a better

:28:18. > :28:23.solution students. It is likely to entrench privilege and elitism even

:28:24. > :28:28.more in the system his proposal, the proposal before us in this Queen's

:28:29. > :28:33.Speech the regulates entrance to what this government sees as a

:28:34. > :28:38.market in higher education. And this is taking a gamble, as my honourable

:28:39. > :28:40.friend said, with the UK's international reputation for

:28:41. > :28:46.providing the highest standards of degree education and also means that

:28:47. > :28:48.any student studying at one of these probationary degree awarding

:28:49. > :28:53.institutions, whatever they will be, will be taking a very personal

:28:54. > :28:59.gamble, too. It's unclear what will happen if it all goes wrong or who

:29:00. > :29:03.will pick up the pieces. After trebling Jewish and fees to ?9,000 a

:29:04. > :29:06.year, this government now wishes to raise them again. The government

:29:07. > :29:11.have chosen to remove the cap on Jewish and fees and to tie the

:29:12. > :29:16.capacity to raise fees to very dubious proxies for what they've

:29:17. > :29:20.called teaching excellence. Nobody objects to teaching excellence, Mr

:29:21. > :29:24.Speaker. It is like motherhood and apple pie. Except motherhood and

:29:25. > :29:31.apple pie is a lot at easier to define than teaching excellence. You

:29:32. > :29:36.see motherhood fairly obviously. Apple pie, or once you've cut it

:29:37. > :29:39.open to check there aren't any blackberries in it, but it is a lot

:29:40. > :29:49.harder to know what teaching excellence is. Now, the

:29:50. > :29:54.government... Has chosen various proxies, such as the subsequent

:29:55. > :30:00.employment record of graduates. Student retention is another one,

:30:01. > :30:08.and satisfaction surveys. I will give way, but in a minute and I want

:30:09. > :30:11.to finish my point about the subsequent employment record of

:30:12. > :30:16.graduates. There are many reasons why people have good or bad

:30:17. > :30:21.subsequent employment records. And many, many of them have got

:30:22. > :30:25.absolutely nothing to do with the teaching excellence of those schools

:30:26. > :30:28.or universities they attended. For example, some people with

:30:29. > :30:31.disabilities are routinely discriminated against in our labour

:30:32. > :30:39.market, and it's very difficult for them to have very, very successful

:30:40. > :30:45.subsequent employment records. That may have absolutely nothing to do

:30:46. > :30:49.with the way they were taught or the standards of excellence of their

:30:50. > :30:55.teaching. Many women, likewise, especially if they leave early to

:30:56. > :30:58.have children have a very different subsequent employment record to what

:30:59. > :31:04.they might have had if they hadn't left to have a family. It is well

:31:05. > :31:07.documented, for example, those from the black and ethnic minority

:31:08. > :31:13.communities are discriminated against in our labour market. It's

:31:14. > :31:19.clear also when one looks at the figures that those who have exact

:31:20. > :31:23.need the same qualifications, but from the black and ethnic minority

:31:24. > :31:28.communities are discriminated against and have less successful, in

:31:29. > :31:36.many, many cases, less successful subsequent employment careers, so,

:31:37. > :31:42.having subsequent employment instead of teaching excellence already

:31:43. > :31:43.breaks down. I give way. Has she seen the statement from universities

:31:44. > :31:48.UK who say they welcome the plan is to maintain

:31:49. > :31:50.the value of these and are looking forward to working with government

:31:51. > :32:00.to develop Teaching Excellence Framework? They have also got grave

:32:01. > :32:04.concerns and reservations about the route the government are taking and

:32:05. > :32:07.for some of the reasons that I'm outlining now. Of course they going

:32:08. > :32:11.to work with the government because they've got a White Paper in front

:32:12. > :32:14.of them. There is a Bill on the table of this house and they want to

:32:15. > :32:19.make it the best it can be but I wouldn't take that kind of

:32:20. > :32:26.endorsement for bland agreement. Would she also agree with me there

:32:27. > :32:30.is great difficulty of selling this concept of higher fees for students

:32:31. > :32:35.at a time when universities haven't got to grips with inflation of the

:32:36. > :32:38.salaries at the higher levels within the higher universities and many

:32:39. > :32:48.students will simply see them being used as a means to fund wages? The

:32:49. > :32:51.honourable gentleman makes a good point and I look forward to hearing

:32:52. > :33:00.what the minister has to say about it.

:33:01. > :33:07.I am grateful. She has been generous with her time. In circumstances

:33:08. > :33:11.where we not one of the biggest single factors affecting a child

:33:12. > :33:15.at's education is the quality of teaching, does she agree with the

:33:16. > :33:19.principle it is appropriate to ensure we have excellence in

:33:20. > :33:26.teaching and improve it, if we can? Yes but I am talking about how we

:33:27. > :33:29.measure it and what it means. To be honest, if the honourable lady was

:33:30. > :33:37.so concerned about the excellence in teaching C would be looking at Sure

:33:38. > :33:42.start and early teaching, she would look at the problems we have with

:33:43. > :33:49.teacher recruitment and she would look at a range of other things.

:33:50. > :33:53.Nobody in this, as I said, in that house agrees, disagrees with the

:33:54. > :33:58.concept of teaching excellence. It is how one defines and measures it

:33:59. > :34:02.which is what I am trying to deal with known. We talked about

:34:03. > :34:08.subsequent employment. The other two areas the Government looked at was

:34:09. > :34:14.student retention and satisfaction surveys. There was a reason and a

:34:15. > :34:18.student may not be satisfied with that institution which may not have

:34:19. > :34:22.anything to do with whether it teaches in an excellent way not and

:34:23. > :34:26.I think probably a lot more is going to have two be, a lot more work will

:34:27. > :34:32.have to be done on these proxies if they will have any meaning. I look

:34:33. > :34:35.forward to what the Minister will have to see about that because at

:34:36. > :34:44.the moment it is a very dubious concept. Further to the points made

:34:45. > :34:48.by the member, many people have given evidence to the business

:34:49. > :34:53.select committee's enquiries into the teaching excellence framework

:34:54. > :34:56.and many of the University vice chancellors were clear they want to

:34:57. > :35:03.work with the Government to ensure needs to prove that might improve

:35:04. > :35:07.teaching excellence. They need more time to ensure the metrics chosen

:35:08. > :35:11.and the correct ones. Does she agree with me that would be more sensible

:35:12. > :35:15.way forward for the Government? I know the select committee report

:35:16. > :35:22.does outline sector has these entire reforms are being rushed to a

:35:23. > :35:25.timetable that does not reflect best practice and I know there are a lot

:35:26. > :35:35.of vice chancellors and others in the sector who are worried about the

:35:36. > :35:38.implications. Just to say, she has made an argument about teaching

:35:39. > :35:44.excellence and somebody who stored in university for six years as 15

:35:45. > :35:48.years ago there was a very little ambiguity, even then about student

:35:49. > :35:52.satisfaction surveys as though someone was doing a decent teaching

:35:53. > :35:56.job. There is even less now given all the other modes of feedback.

:35:57. > :36:04.Even if there was not you could fill in the aggregate from the service --

:36:05. > :36:11.tale from the anchoring it. It is quite clear teaching can be

:36:12. > :36:16.evaluated and it is quite proper it should be included in an evaluation

:36:17. > :36:19.for student fees. I am not saying it can't be included I'm seeing the

:36:20. > :36:27.proxies the Government have chosen have given cause for concern and I

:36:28. > :36:35.tried to explain why and I think you have to think about how this works

:36:36. > :36:40.through and we will be interested in what the Minister has to see about

:36:41. > :36:49.this but I think if he is not... Let me finish this point first. If he is

:36:50. > :36:59.not careful, he could end up introducing a range of results that

:37:00. > :37:05.are not what he wants to see Andy could be paradoxical, disincentives

:37:06. > :37:08.for excellence -- and they could be. Certain people always find it

:37:09. > :37:16.difficult to good job subsequently in the labour market may become less

:37:17. > :37:19.valid as students or less attractive as students to certain institutions

:37:20. > :37:25.because of how these measurements are taken. That would be a utterly

:37:26. > :37:31.backward step for the opportunities and life chances of a large number

:37:32. > :37:35.of people already suffering disadvantage in our society. I think

:37:36. > :37:38.the honourable gentleman at least ought to recognise that is a

:37:39. > :37:41.possibility with some of these measurements. He is wanting to

:37:42. > :37:50.indicate so I will give away again to him. It would be a consequence of

:37:51. > :37:55.her arguments that it would be impossible to assess the teaching of

:37:56. > :37:58.the Royal National College of the blinds in Hereford because it

:37:59. > :38:02.teaches disabled people who suffer in the future life chances but no

:38:03. > :38:12.one doubts that institution can be properly evaluated and indeed, it

:38:13. > :38:15.does an excellent job. This is also a competition between universities

:38:16. > :38:20.and there are some paradoxical results. If I were interested in

:38:21. > :38:22.widening opportunities I wouldn't be worried about them and I think the

:38:23. > :38:28.honourable gentleman ought to accept that. I give with. I am just going

:38:29. > :38:32.to follow the point the Shadow minister is making. Obviously it is

:38:33. > :38:41.aborted the metrics and process is right and appropriate but, just as

:38:42. > :38:45.was the other thing, we're going through a process which is why the

:38:46. > :38:49.white Paper states this is going to be phased in and piloted and it

:38:50. > :38:53.recognises there will be an important process of consultation

:38:54. > :39:00.and feedback. It is not entirely clear to me why the shadow minister

:39:01. > :39:05.is expressing this as a concern that it will be imposed with no

:39:06. > :39:14.consultation. Partially the speeds, it took six years for what she spoke

:39:15. > :39:19.about and this will be done in only a couple. We must get this right or

:39:20. > :39:24.there will be consequences but I don't think any people on either

:39:25. > :39:30.side of the house would want to see. I am actually not wanting to get

:39:31. > :39:37.into the second reading of the bill, I think that is not wise. I want to

:39:38. > :39:41.get on and finish my speech. I tried to take a lot of interventions and I

:39:42. > :39:44.think it's only fair on those who want to get into the rest of the

:39:45. > :39:51.debate I get to the end of my speech. Education should not be

:39:52. > :39:53.about shackling a generation with yet more debt, but I'm wishing that

:39:54. > :39:58.balance to build a brighter future and that despite we on the side of

:39:59. > :40:02.the house understand why that is the cost of higher education we cannot

:40:03. > :40:07.allow market forces director worlds. These changes changes went ahead --

:40:08. > :40:11.if these changes went ahead with in the parliament it is likely fees

:40:12. > :40:15.would have risen to ?10,000 per year and poorer students could face bills

:40:16. > :40:18.of up to ?55,000 bursary for a three-year degree. This is

:40:19. > :40:29.unacceptable and we will oppose lifting the cap. -- ?55,000 for a

:40:30. > :40:33.three-year degree. Out onto the education Bill. We know this was not

:40:34. > :40:39.the belt the Prime Minister wish to include in the Queen's Speech. He

:40:40. > :40:44.told us it would include measures to force schools -- all schools to

:40:45. > :40:48.become academies. Since then witnessed a humiliating come-down

:40:49. > :40:53.when the Government walk up to the fact the plans were unacceptable. My

:40:54. > :40:55.honourable friend has done a fantastic job and her front bench

:40:56. > :41:02.position and pointing that out to the Government. We welcome that you

:41:03. > :41:08.turn on the sake of the house and will continue to challenge the

:41:09. > :41:12.Government on its fixation with the forced academisation of good or

:41:13. > :41:16.outstanding schools. We also support the principle of moving towards a

:41:17. > :41:19.better funding formula but it is essential measures are put in place

:41:20. > :41:24.to assist those areas set to lose out. A new formula cannot disguise

:41:25. > :41:31.the fact that over this Parliament school budgets face the highest real

:41:32. > :41:35.terms cuts -- school budgets face the highest real terms cut since the

:41:36. > :41:40.70s. The aim of the Government does not do seem to be to address the

:41:41. > :41:43.shortage of teachers but when they knew the path of forced

:41:44. > :41:48.academisation. This has nothing to do with improving life chances but

:41:49. > :41:52.has a rather dangerous, shows the Government with a dangerous

:41:53. > :41:56.obsession with structures at the expense of standards. A Government

:41:57. > :42:02.that is ideological at the expense of other children's future. On the

:42:03. > :42:07.children's social worker bill we will support measures to protect and

:42:08. > :42:11.create opportunity for the most vulnerable children in our society

:42:12. > :42:15.and look closely at the detail of the spill the proposals the

:42:16. > :42:19.Government is putting forward. We must ensure when action is taking it

:42:20. > :42:24.as high-quality, has proper oversight and has the needs of

:42:25. > :42:29.children at heart. We are clear up the child protection services should

:42:30. > :42:32.never be run for profit. This Government has failed to provide

:42:33. > :42:39.adequate adoption support. Local authorities are being starved of

:42:40. > :42:42.support and social workers. Every child deserves a fulfilling

:42:43. > :42:47.upbringing and I believed we all agree on that, but provides a solid

:42:48. > :42:53.path to adulthood and we have a moral duty to tackle abuse and

:42:54. > :42:58.neglect. This is Government which has ground to a halt just one year

:42:59. > :43:03.after it was elected. The Government taken over by a referendum of its

:43:04. > :43:08.own making. Consumed by its own poisonous infighting to present a

:43:09. > :43:12.compelling vision for our country. The Prime Minister is contradicted

:43:13. > :43:15.by his own junior defence and employment ministers and the

:43:16. > :43:19.honourable member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip is taking time off

:43:20. > :43:27.from his blunder bus tour to offer the keys to number 11 to at least

:43:28. > :43:36.three different people. I don't know whether you are one of them, we know

:43:37. > :43:39.all three. -- we know of three. I. Not without he approached the

:43:40. > :43:44.Minister for higher education but know that people tell us when he

:43:45. > :43:48.gets up. This is a Government which resorts to PR stunt and gimmicks and

:43:49. > :43:56.we bought all their behaviour out for what it is. Order. The original

:43:57. > :44:01.question was a humble address be presented to Her Majesty, as on the

:44:02. > :44:05.order paper. Since when an amendment has been proposed, as on the order

:44:06. > :44:10.paper, the question is the amendments be made. I call the

:44:11. > :44:19.Minister of State for universities and science, Mr Johnson. As the

:44:20. > :44:23.Right honourable lady the already said, the secretary of state is not

:44:24. > :44:27.what is because he is in Mumbai where he is attending the board

:44:28. > :44:32.meeting Tata and fighting for the interests of the UK's steel sector.

:44:33. > :44:37.He would want to be here to champion this Queen's Speech and to expose

:44:38. > :44:41.some of the shortcomings in the arguments we have just heard. I want

:44:42. > :44:44.to dignify the suggestion of the quality of the Queen's Speech can be

:44:45. > :44:52.measured by the number of bills in its. We let deregulatory Government

:44:53. > :44:58.and all that legislate one strictly necessary. -- we are in the regular

:44:59. > :45:04.Tory Government. Even if that were a regional benchmark it is worth

:45:05. > :45:10.noting 21 build is higher than the average of 18 bills per session of

:45:11. > :45:15.the last decade. -- 21 bills. But we won't go there. This Queen's Speech

:45:16. > :45:19.that opportunity and life chances to education at the top of the

:45:20. > :45:24.legislative agenda, ensuring every child goes to an excellent school

:45:25. > :45:28.and there is barely funded one of the honour. Delivering high quality

:45:29. > :45:32.employer led apprenticeships providing a clear route to

:45:33. > :45:36.employment for young people and on the part of quality that were raised

:45:37. > :45:40.by the right honourable member it is worth noting all apprenticeships

:45:41. > :45:44.must be paid job with substantial training lasting at least 12 months

:45:45. > :45:51.that develop transferable skill and lead to feel confident in an

:45:52. > :45:54.occupation. And putting it high-quality university place within

:45:55. > :45:59.reach of everyone with the potential to benefit. We have made huge

:46:00. > :46:06.progress since 2010. 1.4 million more young people attending good or

:46:07. > :46:09.outstanding schools, 2.4 million apprenticeships created and record

:46:10. > :46:14.application rates to university. This Queen's Speech is the next step

:46:15. > :46:20.in our long-term plan for our economy. I thank the Minister for

:46:21. > :46:24.giving way. Can he explain why some young people going on apprenticeship

:46:25. > :46:29.programmes and not actually being paid, they are being paid by our

:46:30. > :46:34.costs. That amounts to around ?100 per week. Is that genuine page, in

:46:35. > :46:40.his view? As I said, we are committed to high quality employer

:46:41. > :46:43.led programme in which apprenticeships must be paid jobs

:46:44. > :46:47.with substantial training opportunities that will equip them

:46:48. > :46:57.to take on the full responsibility in that particular occupation. I

:46:58. > :47:01.thank the Minister for giving way. In Macclesfield we have been

:47:02. > :47:06.fortunate to see a major employer to consult the apprenticeships last

:47:07. > :47:10.year. It is in some of the most important areas in our constituency.

:47:11. > :47:15.Does he agree that approach with colleges taking a keen interest in

:47:16. > :47:19.relevant local businesses is the way to establish more apprenticeships

:47:20. > :47:29.and take that important initiative further forward.

:47:30. > :47:34.Employers are continuing to drive up quality to provide the skills that

:47:35. > :47:37.young people need. High quality apprenticeships will be embedded

:47:38. > :47:40.further with the future established before the into jute of

:47:41. > :47:44.apprenticeships and Ofsted will ensure providers continue to deliver

:47:45. > :47:51.the high quality training expected. As to speak at, in her White Paper,

:47:52. > :47:55.educational excellence everywhere, my right honourable friend sets out

:47:56. > :48:00.this government's plan to drive up educational standards in England.

:48:01. > :48:06.The government's goal is to achieve a school system where every school

:48:07. > :48:10.is an academy by 2022 so that excellent teachers have the freedom

:48:11. > :48:15.to give their pupils the best start in life. My honourable friend has

:48:16. > :48:23.been clear we have listened and will not take blanket powers to force

:48:24. > :48:24.good schools in strong local conduct...

:48:25. > :48:28.good schools in strong local We will convert schools in the worst

:48:29. > :48:32.performing areas where local authorities are unable to guarantee

:48:33. > :48:36.their continued success. We will consult carefully on how these local

:48:37. > :48:39.authorities will be identified and Parliament will have further

:48:40. > :48:43.opportunities to debate our proposals. That is the basis of the

:48:44. > :48:49.important legislation which my honourable friend will present to

:48:50. > :48:52.Parliament. I'm extremely grateful for the Minister for giving way.

:48:53. > :48:56.I've set up to academies and I remain a chair of governors of one

:48:57. > :49:01.academy so I know full well that academy status can be one powerful

:49:02. > :49:04.tool for school improvement but it isn't the only tool for school

:49:05. > :49:11.improvement. Interim executive board, investment in teaching, new

:49:12. > :49:17.curriculum are other tools. Why is he so assessed with 1-2 at the

:49:18. > :49:20.expense of all the others? I'd point the honourable gentleman to the

:49:21. > :49:26.White Paper which has a chapter on structure, and all the others are

:49:27. > :49:33.about what makes great schools. Teaching, governments and so on. Mr

:49:34. > :49:36.Deputy Speaker, turning to our universities, in the last parliament

:49:37. > :49:41.we put in place the essential funding reforms that have set

:49:42. > :49:46.universities finances on a stable footing and enabled us to lift its

:49:47. > :49:50.Juden number controls. I'm grateful to the Minister for giving way. As

:49:51. > :49:53.well as increasing the level of Jewish and fees, the government is

:49:54. > :50:00.also proposing to extend them to students of nursing, midwifery...

:50:01. > :50:03.This is the biggest shake-up in funding since 1968 and will

:50:04. > :50:07.Beaminster give us a commitment those changes will be made on the

:50:08. > :50:13.face of the education ale in order there can be a full debate in this

:50:14. > :50:17.house and a vote on that measure? We are delighted that we are able to

:50:18. > :50:24.put NHS bursary is on the same footing as has enabled a widening of

:50:25. > :50:30.participation in higher education in recent years, said that we address

:50:31. > :50:34.the shortage is that we've seen in the nursing profession as a result

:50:35. > :50:39.of the current system. Turning to our universities, in the last

:50:40. > :50:43.Parliament we put in place essential funding reforms that have set

:50:44. > :50:45.universities finances on a stable footing and enabled us to lift

:50:46. > :50:52.number controls that have been affecting nursing profession. We

:50:53. > :50:56.committed to ensuring the committed success and stability of these

:50:57. > :50:59.reforms and we also committed to ensuring that universities deliver

:51:00. > :51:05.the best possible value for money to students. And we said we would

:51:06. > :51:07.introduce a new framework of incentives to recognise universities

:51:08. > :51:13.offering the highest quality of teaching. The Bill, introduced in

:51:14. > :51:17.the Commons last week, will deliver on these and other manifesto

:51:18. > :51:22.commitments. I'll happily give way. He will be aware that until this

:51:23. > :51:26.month, Suffolk was one of the only counties in the country with no

:51:27. > :51:30.university that fits that technical description, so can I offer him my

:51:31. > :51:34.profound thanks and that of our county that he has given permission

:51:35. > :51:37.for the creation of a brand-new University of Suffolk, and will he

:51:38. > :51:42.congratulate all those that worked for this and join me in wishing them

:51:43. > :51:46.well for the future. Yes, I'll happily join him in congratulating

:51:47. > :51:49.the new University of. It is terrific that one of four counties

:51:50. > :51:54.in this country that didn't have a university now does. There are three

:51:55. > :51:58.others and we're hoping new institutions, which we are hoping to

:51:59. > :52:04.encourage of similar quality to the University of offer, will soon come

:52:05. > :52:14.in and cover the cold spots which we have inherited. Can I congratulate

:52:15. > :52:19.my honourable friend on the new University project in Herefordshire

:52:20. > :52:23.which is under way. That is not merely aim to transform higher

:52:24. > :52:26.education in my county. And to create extraordinary economic

:52:27. > :52:33.potential. But also to innovate across the country as a whole in

:52:34. > :52:37.areas of tying higher education together and using all the resources

:52:38. > :52:44.of those different aspects towards greater in point but it. With the

:52:45. > :52:50.support of colleges here and in America. In order to make that

:52:51. > :52:54.vision happen, does he agree it's important not just for central

:52:55. > :52:58.government to give a lead, as he has done, artful local government,

:52:59. > :53:08.grants and central government guarantees, and private eye to come

:53:09. > :53:13.together as a single hub? Thank you. We are delighted to be supporting

:53:14. > :53:17.this great new venture in Herefordshire. The new model in

:53:18. > :53:20.technology and engineering which addresses several long-standing

:53:21. > :53:26.problems, skills shortages in engineering. We welcome this and we

:53:27. > :53:29.welcome its arrival and collaboration with world leading

:53:30. > :53:34.institutions from the United States, and we want to see more such

:53:35. > :53:41.institutions, and I applaud the honourable member for Herefordshire

:53:42. > :53:46.and his other Hereford MP Coley, no longer here, who has just left the

:53:47. > :53:51.chamber, for their tireless work in championing this new institution.

:53:52. > :53:55.England's universities rank among the best in the world. They generate

:53:56. > :54:01.the knowledge, skills and attitude that fuel our economy and sustain

:54:02. > :54:03.our open society but the world of higher education has changed

:54:04. > :54:08.fundamentally since the last major legislative reforms of 1992, and our

:54:09. > :54:14.system needs to meet new challenges. A rapid increase in jobs requiring

:54:15. > :54:18.high and level skills has created a worldwide demand for more graduate

:54:19. > :54:24.employees and for greater diversity of higher education provision. Yet,

:54:25. > :54:27.in this country, we are still well below the OECD average for

:54:28. > :54:31.university attendance, was proportionately fewer to university

:54:32. > :54:37.to study at an undergraduate level than our main competitors.

:54:38. > :54:42.First-time entrants were 48% versus 55% for the OECD average in 2013. We

:54:43. > :54:48.also lagged behind when it comes to further studies. First entry rates

:54:49. > :54:52.to Masters courses are only 15% versus 20% for the OECD average. We

:54:53. > :54:57.are also far from eating our economy's needs for graduate level

:54:58. > :55:05.skills. Between now and 2022, over half of job vacancies will be and

:55:06. > :55:09.occupations most likely to have graduates. We need to remove

:55:10. > :55:14.barriers to entry high quality new entrants to help meet the demand for

:55:15. > :55:19.skilled graduates. Given the Minister has outlined the desperate

:55:20. > :55:24.need for skilled graduate employees, why is his government so reticent to

:55:25. > :55:31.reintroduce the post study work Visa for Scotland's? Mr Deputy Speaker,

:55:32. > :55:36.we have a very successful international education export

:55:37. > :55:41.sector in this country. We have a market share globally of over 10%,

:55:42. > :55:46.which we are holding. We see annual growth in international student

:55:47. > :55:50.numbers of between 3-4% a year. We are attentive to the need to remain

:55:51. > :55:58.competitive but we have a successful international educational sector,

:55:59. > :56:02.and we have to drive up the quality of the student experience on offer

:56:03. > :56:11.in all our universities. I will give way. On the note of the skills gap

:56:12. > :56:14.that he referred to, he knows that characteristically in the south-west

:56:15. > :56:20.we are below productivity levels, and what would make a big difference

:56:21. > :56:23.in my constituency is actually university to help skill up those

:56:24. > :56:28.young people that I fear we're losing to other places, like

:56:29. > :56:34.Hereford. I completely agree with my honourable friend. Universities are

:56:35. > :56:39.read great driver of regional and local economic growth, and there has

:56:40. > :56:43.been an LSE study that came out recently that demonstrated this very

:56:44. > :56:45.strong correlation between opening new universities and significantly

:56:46. > :57:03.increased economic growth. They estimate the doubling universities

:57:04. > :57:07.is related to GDP. On skills, we all understood the government was going

:57:08. > :57:11.to publish a skills White Paper. That appears to have been downgraded

:57:12. > :57:20.to a skills plan. Has that change been made, and, if so, why? The

:57:21. > :57:24.honourable member should wait a little bit longer and he will see

:57:25. > :57:29.the full fruits of the work of my friend, the skills minister, and

:57:30. > :57:35.colleagues in the Department of education, led by the expert panel,

:57:36. > :57:41.chaired by Lord Sainsbury. At the same time, continuing with why our

:57:42. > :57:44.higher education needs to meet new challenges, at the same time, the

:57:45. > :57:49.system needs to be more innovative, so it meets the diverse needs of

:57:50. > :57:54.learners of all ages and employers of all sizes. As promised in our

:57:55. > :57:57.manifesto, we will promote more flexible learning, including the

:57:58. > :58:01.provision of two-year degrees, and degree apprenticeships. And we need

:58:02. > :58:05.the system to be delivering outcomes for those that go through it, and

:58:06. > :58:11.for the taxpayers that underwrite it. At the same time as employers

:58:12. > :58:16.suffer skills shortages, especially in highly skilled STEM areas, we see

:58:17. > :58:21.20% of graduates winding up in nonprofessional rolls 3.5 years

:58:22. > :58:26.after graduating. This graduate labour market mismatch is a waste of

:58:27. > :58:33.their potential and Dave brake on our productivity as an economy. --

:58:34. > :58:38.and a break. What he agree with me that it's also important that we use

:58:39. > :58:44.our local enterprise partnerships in order to invigorate where the needs

:58:45. > :58:47.are and how we can meet those needs, and not Tony has my honourable

:58:48. > :58:52.friend mentioned the University of Suffolk camp but my own West Suffolk

:58:53. > :58:59.College has had an ?8 million stimulus from our new Anglia LEP.

:59:00. > :59:04.Yes, we certainly agree with all of that. Universities are the heart of

:59:05. > :59:09.many of the most successful LEPs and we want to see their good work

:59:10. > :59:12.stimulator economic growth and relevant provision of higher

:59:13. > :59:18.education in their local areas by universities. That's why at the

:59:19. > :59:21.heart of this Bill our powers to make it easier for high quality new

:59:22. > :59:24.universities and Challenger into douches to enter the sector and

:59:25. > :59:30.award degrees, to drive up quality and to give applicants more choice

:59:31. > :59:33.about where and how to study. There are some who say close the door to

:59:34. > :59:39.new universities, put the cap back on student numbers, restrict the

:59:40. > :59:44.benefits of higher education to a narrow elite. We've heard the same

:59:45. > :59:50.arguments at every period of university expansion. In the 1820s,

:59:51. > :59:54.UCL and kings were dismissed as Cockney universities. Today, they

:59:55. > :00:00.are globally renowned universities. We heard it at the time, the Civic

:00:01. > :00:05.colleges in Manchester, earning, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and

:00:06. > :00:08.Bristol became redbrick universities before the First World War, and we

:00:09. > :00:13.heard it when the Conservative government of John Major was putting

:00:14. > :00:19.through Parliament the 1992 act that created a wave of new universities

:00:20. > :00:24.out of the politic mix. We need more universities again today.

:00:25. > :00:27.Universities are great engines of social mobility, and formidable

:00:28. > :00:30.drivers of regional economic growth, which is why I was so pleased to

:00:31. > :00:35.welcome the announcement of the University of Southampton, and I'm

:00:36. > :00:38.so supportive of the Hereford plans. These are just two good examples of

:00:39. > :00:43.the challenge institutions we have in mind in opening up the sector to

:00:44. > :00:48.new high-quality entrants, and we welcome support for our proposals

:00:49. > :00:52.from sensible figures, such as Lord Mandelson, now chancellor of

:00:53. > :00:55.Manchester Metropolitan, one of those very institutions that gained

:00:56. > :01:00.university thanks to a Conservative government in 1992. As he put it,

:01:01. > :01:05.who have recognised the essential contribution, a wide range of

:01:06. > :01:08.institutions can make to our economic success and social mobility

:01:09. > :01:17.in this country. I'm happy to give way. Well, thank goodness for that!

:01:18. > :01:21.Just to make it clear to the honourable gentleman, nobody on this

:01:22. > :01:30.side of the house objects to expanding the university sector. We

:01:31. > :01:34.do have and we are right to ask about the speed of which that will

:01:35. > :01:39.be done, how probationary status will work and what kind of gamble

:01:40. > :01:41.that will represent, and we will go on asking those questions. The

:01:42. > :01:46.honourable gentleman shouldn't set up a straw man or woman and tried to

:01:47. > :01:54.accuse us of being against expansion. We aren't but it has to

:01:55. > :01:57.be high-quality! I am delighted the Shadow Secretary of State is

:01:58. > :01:59.supportive of new entrants, new challenge institutions. It is

:02:00. > :02:04.exactly what the sector needs and I'm glad we have established that

:02:05. > :02:07.important point of principle that you are supportive of new entrants

:02:08. > :02:13.into the sector and that you believe in competition. But a good thing I'm

:02:14. > :02:18.delighted to hear it. Can I just caution my friend the Minister not

:02:19. > :02:22.to be so quick to assume the opposition will be as supportive as

:02:23. > :02:25.perhaps they say today. Take a lesson from the expense of the

:02:26. > :02:28.Labour Party when it came to introducing competition in schools

:02:29. > :02:35.with the introduction of free schools. We faced extensive

:02:36. > :02:39.opposition from Labour councils at local level, from vested interests

:02:40. > :02:41.that even though they talk about improving the quality, they hated

:02:42. > :02:48.the competition which delivered choice to parents and students.

:02:49. > :02:54.I hope my right honourable friend will be proven wrong but I suspect

:02:55. > :02:58.he may be proved right in the course of this bill when we discover the

:02:59. > :03:04.true colours of the party opposite and it real desire to see

:03:05. > :03:10.competition in the sector, which I somewhat doubt. The former Business

:03:11. > :03:14.Secretary of state is right. The higher education Bill we introduced

:03:15. > :03:17.last week represent an ambitious agenda for social mobility. Some

:03:18. > :03:22.said when we reform the student finance but this person --

:03:23. > :03:29.participation would fall. Everyone on the opposite benches dead. That

:03:30. > :03:32.is not the case. We have made progressive student loan system

:03:33. > :03:37.ensuring finance is no barrier to entry, and that is working. Students

:03:38. > :03:46.from disadvantaged backgrounds are going to university at a record of.

:03:47. > :03:52.13% in 2009 to 15% in 2015. Labour were wrong then and wrong now.

:03:53. > :03:54.You're now 36% more likely to go to university if you're from

:03:55. > :03:58.disadvantaged backgrounds than in 2009. If the right honourable member

:03:59. > :04:05.wants to comment on this I will happily take an intervention

:04:06. > :04:10.nothing? OK. We are not complacent. The Prime Minister has set a

:04:11. > :04:16.challenging call to double potatoes and -- -- participation rates for

:04:17. > :04:24.disadvantaged by 2020. The Sutton trust shows only 3% of disadvantaged

:04:25. > :04:28.pupils go to the highest universities. It's a product that

:04:29. > :04:34.record was much indeed. That is why I have just written to the director

:04:35. > :04:40.of the access giving him all the political cover he needs to drive

:04:41. > :04:43.further progress in widening participation at the most selective

:04:44. > :04:48.institutions in this country. Furthermore we are strengthening

:04:49. > :04:54.access agreements more generally and they will now cover both access and

:04:55. > :04:57.participation so students receive support the needs right the way

:04:58. > :05:05.through their courses, not just at the point of entry. And we will give

:05:06. > :05:09.the director fair access and participation in greater set of

:05:10. > :05:12.sanctions to help ensure universities deliver the agreements

:05:13. > :05:16.they have made with him. We know some students face additional

:05:17. > :05:20.barriers in accessing higher education because, in some cases

:05:21. > :05:24.their religious beliefs mean they are unable to take on

:05:25. > :05:28.interest-bearing loans which is why, subject to Parliament, we will be

:05:29. > :05:32.the first Government to introduce an alternative student finance product

:05:33. > :05:36.that will support the students enjoy education. This, combined with other

:05:37. > :05:44.measures, will help us meet our goal of increasing the number of people

:05:45. > :05:46.from disadvantaged backgrounds, one third of whom are Muslim, going to

:05:47. > :05:51.university. We are committed to increasing the number by 2020. The

:05:52. > :05:56.Minister will know I have been writing to this department is about

:05:57. > :06:01.compliant loans and the thing missing for students who are put off

:06:02. > :06:05.by the failure to provide this product is a timetable for when it

:06:06. > :06:13.will be available sharia compliant loans. Can he commits a timetable

:06:14. > :06:18.for communities like mine can access these products? I congratulate the

:06:19. > :06:26.right honourable member for her contribution towards this campaign.

:06:27. > :06:29.This Government was the first to consult on how such a product and

:06:30. > :06:35.what the man they might be for such a product. We now have a legislative

:06:36. > :06:39.vehicle with which to introduce it and we are moving at full speed and

:06:40. > :06:43.the sooner you let this bill through the house the sooner we can crack on

:06:44. > :06:50.and deliver the alternative finance product you want to see.

:06:51. > :06:55.Thanks to the reforms we are already making to part-time and postgraduate

:06:56. > :07:01.study also a clear message to people in this country that it is never too

:07:02. > :07:04.late to learn. This Government is transforming the funding landscape

:07:05. > :07:10.for part-time and postgraduate study. We are, for the first time,

:07:11. > :07:14.introducing a maintenance loans for part-time undergraduates in addition

:07:15. > :07:17.to the tuition fee loans made available in the previous

:07:18. > :07:22.parliament. We are continuing to reverse Labour's restriction on

:07:23. > :07:31.studying for a second degree so you can get your student loan to take a

:07:32. > :07:37.second part-time degree in a sub mac subject. We are introducing finance

:07:38. > :07:42.for postgraduate study. -- STEM subjects. We are giving people the

:07:43. > :07:53.opportunities they need to gain new skills at every stage of their

:07:54. > :07:55.lives. Would-be Minister outline the Government's commitment to support

:07:56. > :08:01.the interrogation of refugees, not just with English-language, -- not

:08:02. > :08:06.least with English language, which is a crucial component in their

:08:07. > :08:10.learning. We are committed to supporting refugees as they enter

:08:11. > :08:13.higher education and will look closely at that any gaps, with

:08:14. > :08:18.respect to English language provision.

:08:19. > :08:23.Turning to a question any opposition's Amendment, could only

:08:24. > :08:27.take the steps we have taken to wider participation in higher

:08:28. > :08:31.education because the decision, the difficult decisions taken as a

:08:32. > :08:35.Government to ensure our universities are sustainable

:08:36. > :08:45.finance. They are. Total funding for the sector has increased from 22

:08:46. > :08:51.billion in 2009 - ten, two 28 million in 2014-15 and is forecast

:08:52. > :08:55.to reach 31 billion by 2017 - 18. The OECD said or approach means

:08:56. > :09:00.we're one of the few countries in the world to half of a sustainable

:09:01. > :09:04.approach to financing in modern system of higher education. Our

:09:05. > :09:07.economy needs a world-class higher education system and we cannot allow

:09:08. > :09:14.a situation where our universities are once again underfunded. The

:09:15. > :09:20.?9,000 tuition fee of 2012 has already fallen in real term value to

:09:21. > :09:24.?8,500. If we leave it and change it will be worth ?8,000 by the end of

:09:25. > :09:31.this Parliament. We want to ensure our universities have the funding

:09:32. > :09:34.they need and every student receives the high quality experience for the

:09:35. > :09:38.time it in higher education. I am not the First Minister to the

:09:39. > :09:41.variability in teaching quality or imbalance between teaching and

:09:42. > :09:45.research in the higher education system. Labour ministers for many

:09:46. > :09:49.governments or many governments have made exactly the same point but it

:09:50. > :09:53.will be a Conservative Government that will actually do something

:09:54. > :09:56.about it. We want to shine a spotlight on good practice, give

:09:57. > :10:00.applicants more information about the type of teaching and graduate

:10:01. > :10:05.outcomes they can expect and raise the status of excellent duress

:10:06. > :10:08.teaching and that is why we are implementing our manifesto

:10:09. > :10:11.commitment to introduce a teaching excellence of famotidine up the

:10:12. > :10:19.quality of teaching and spread best practice. -- excellence of teaching.

:10:20. > :10:28.It's worth noting the irony that it was a Labour Government under Tony

:10:29. > :10:30.Blair that in 2004 sensible Blake put in place new legal powers

:10:31. > :10:37.allowing governments to maintain university fees in line with

:10:38. > :10:43.inflation. For the 2017-18 academic year I can confirm the rate of

:10:44. > :10:44.inflation apply to maximum fees applied to institutions

:10:45. > :10:54.demonstrating high quality teaching us 2.8%. The measure we are using a

:10:55. > :10:58.set out by measures introduced by Labour in 2006. The party opposite

:10:59. > :11:03.might have changed their views on that entire era and no longer

:11:04. > :11:06.support the policy it itself introduced but we on the scent will

:11:07. > :11:17.refuse to allow students learning to suffer. -- are we on this side.

:11:18. > :11:21.Allowing the value of maximum fees permitted by legislation to be

:11:22. > :11:25.maintained in real terms is essential if universities are to

:11:26. > :11:34.continue to be able to deliver high quality teaching. He is making a

:11:35. > :11:41.very credible case and does he agree that if we do not find better

:11:42. > :11:46.quality degrees through this system the only alternative is to taxation

:11:47. > :11:53.or borrowing levied across the whole populist who do not necessarily

:11:54. > :11:58.benefit from higher education? -- through the whole population. My

:11:59. > :12:04.right honourable friend makes the point perfectly. The alternative to

:12:05. > :12:08.what we're doing is in general -- greater burden on general taxpayers

:12:09. > :12:13.who have lower lifetime earnings than those who benefited from a

:12:14. > :12:18.university education. In the case of wood and they will lifetime earnings

:12:19. > :12:31.?250,000 higher than nongraduates. -- in the case of women. For men it

:12:32. > :12:35.is ?170,000. I find it interesting the Minister

:12:36. > :12:39.is accepting that is a need to keep in line with increasing costs in the

:12:40. > :12:48.university sector but does not accept the same for further

:12:49. > :12:52.education in our school system. Our our Father education budget has been

:12:53. > :12:55.protected and we to prioritise apprenticeships as one of our most

:12:56. > :13:04.important policies and for the committed to achieving 3 million

:13:05. > :13:09.high quality apprenticeships. There are also clear in the support for

:13:10. > :13:13.our intention to link access to this limited inflation uplift to an

:13:14. > :13:18.assessment of quality. A principle we have long accepted for the

:13:19. > :13:21.funding of research in our universities. It was a Conservative

:13:22. > :13:26.Government that brought in the first research assessment exercise in 1986

:13:27. > :13:30.and it is now doubts our rigorous system of only funding excellent and

:13:31. > :13:35.delivered up the quality of our research over the last three

:13:36. > :13:40.decades. Look at the statistics. The UK recently overtook the US to and

:13:41. > :13:46.trust among compilations for field within citations and back. With just

:13:47. > :13:50.0.9 of the world's population and 3.2% of research and development

:13:51. > :13:55.expenditure the UK accounts for 60% of whom more highly cited articles.

:13:56. > :14:04.Now is the time to extend that -- 16%. We should link teaching

:14:05. > :14:11.excellence not just a student numbers in the way we have long and

:14:12. > :14:15.successfully done for research. There were two very interesting

:14:16. > :14:19.omissions from the right honourable lady from the other side. One

:14:20. > :14:26.involved the fact not one mention of what students want out of this which

:14:27. > :14:29.is higher quality teaching. The second got massive omission, was if

:14:30. > :14:33.teaching quality decreases then the fees at the crease as well which

:14:34. > :14:40.gives a mass of carrot to all the universities to improve the quality

:14:41. > :14:45.of teaching. We are putting in place the reputational and financial

:14:46. > :14:47.incentives to spread best practice and the teaching excellence

:14:48. > :14:52.framework will be an important part of that. The inflationary uplift and

:14:53. > :14:57.we are allowing universities who demonstrate high quality teaching is

:14:58. > :15:03.a ?12 billion investment in the skills base of this country over the

:15:04. > :15:07.next decade. It is now up to the opposition to explain how they will

:15:08. > :15:12.make this shortfall in university funding. Either it will mean cutting

:15:13. > :15:17.resources from our universities, risking the sustainability of our

:15:18. > :15:22.world-class sector and leading to do be introduction of aspiration

:15:23. > :15:29.limiting student number controls, or it will be the classic Labour Party

:15:30. > :15:34.response, which we are already beginning to see articulated to any

:15:35. > :15:38.policy challenging, more spending, more taxes, more borrowing, more

:15:39. > :15:48.debt. Members opposite might heed the words of Ed balls. He originally

:15:49. > :15:53.told the Times that Labour, clearly did not find a sustainable way

:15:54. > :15:57.forward for the financing of higher education. He described that failure

:15:58. > :16:02.in the run-up to the last election as, a blot on Labour's copybook.

:16:03. > :16:07.Indeed it is and the shame is the clearly still have not learned the

:16:08. > :16:12.lessons. We are fulfilling our manifesto commitment to ensure the

:16:13. > :16:17.continuing success of our reforms, balancing the interests of taxpayers

:16:18. > :16:20.and students. We have struck a balance, numbers of disadvantaged

:16:21. > :16:25.students are at record levels of university funding it up, research

:16:26. > :16:28.funding is predicted this is a one nation Queen's

:16:29. > :16:32.nation Government and through our proposals we are extending the

:16:33. > :16:35.benefits of education to school pupils and students across the

:16:36. > :16:43.country and we must never let the party opposite put that at risk. May

:16:44. > :16:49.I remind the house after the SNP spokesperson there will be

:16:50. > :16:54.five-minute limit on all speeches. I am grateful for this opportunity to

:16:55. > :16:59.take part in this debate. Given the subject of the debate before I begin

:17:00. > :17:04.in earnest, I should declare to the house my wife is a primary school

:17:05. > :17:07.teacher in Scotland. I would like to put on record my welcome for the new

:17:08. > :17:11.Scottish Government seem an odd spike the First Minister Nicola

:17:12. > :17:21.Sturgeon last week and in particular new members of the Cabinet. --

:17:22. > :17:24.Scottish Government Cabinet. I look forward to working with all my

:17:25. > :17:29.friends and colleagues in the interests of the people of Scotland.

:17:30. > :17:35.It would be remiss of me not to pay tribute to College leaving the

:17:36. > :17:41.Scottish Cabinet, which Lochhead, Scotland's rural affairs Secretary

:17:42. > :17:46.for nine years and stood up for Scottish farming and the food and

:17:47. > :17:56.drink sector. Also might constituency counterpart Alex Neil.

:17:57. > :18:00.After driving infrastructure and health portfolios in his imaginative

:18:01. > :18:05.and diligent way. I wish them all the best.

:18:06. > :18:13.So far up the successive days of debate we have had had more far more

:18:14. > :18:16.substance than the government's programme in itself. This was an

:18:17. > :18:21.utterly vacuous Queen's Speech with very little cheer and even less of

:18:22. > :18:24.relevance to the people of Scotland. The SNP is the widely acknowledged

:18:25. > :18:29.effective opposition in this place and it put forward an alternative

:18:30. > :18:33.Queen's Speech, an alternative programme for government and an

:18:34. > :18:35.alternative to austerity. We have proposed 15 bills which we believe

:18:36. > :18:40.the government should have considered as part of its programme.

:18:41. > :18:43.These bills of substance and would have made a real difference to

:18:44. > :18:48.people up and down these Isles who have been hammered by Tory

:18:49. > :18:53.austerity, a political and ideological choice, not an economic

:18:54. > :18:56.necessity. While the bills contained in the Queen's Speech regarding

:18:57. > :19:01.education, skills and training and access to employment, the subject of

:19:02. > :19:05.this debate relate to England I will certainly but they serve to

:19:06. > :19:08.highlight the contrasting approach to these important matters between

:19:09. > :19:13.the SNP, Scottish Government, which has independent power over education

:19:14. > :19:17.and the Conservative UK Government. The great spectre hanging over the

:19:18. > :19:23.higher education and research bill is that of students facing fees of

:19:24. > :19:27.up to and is now more than ?9,000 per year. Scottish students access

:19:28. > :19:32.their university education without fees. Members will be interested to

:19:33. > :19:36.note that the right Honourable member for tartan, the chance of the

:19:37. > :19:41.exchequer, promised that the Conservative Party when electing

:19:42. > :19:45.government would scrap tuition fees altogether but what a Damascene

:19:46. > :19:49.conversion we have seen. He wants to see tuition fees rise even further.

:19:50. > :19:55.Following the elections in Scotland it is clear that the government's

:19:56. > :19:58.Tory colleagues up the road falling suit -- right following suit, as

:19:59. > :20:02.they are about back door taxes for students as well. Members opposite

:20:03. > :20:05.and our colleagues in Scotland to benefit from free tuition now wish

:20:06. > :20:11.to pull that ladder from behind them. The SNP government has

:20:12. > :20:15.guaranteed free university tuition in Scotland had to maintain a

:20:16. > :20:20.principle that access to university education must be about your ability

:20:21. > :20:25.to learn, not your ability to pay. It is worth noting at this stage

:20:26. > :20:34.that more of our population in Scotland is educated beyond school

:20:35. > :20:37.than any other European country, at 46.5% educated at tertiary level and

:20:38. > :20:39.a high percentage of young people now leave school for a positive

:20:40. > :20:44.destination than any time on record. One area where the UK Government

:20:45. > :20:48.sadly retains control over education in Scotland is in relation to the

:20:49. > :20:53.non-EU graduate's right to remain a work in the UK after studying here.

:20:54. > :20:59.Abolishment of the post-study work Visa for students was a regressive

:21:00. > :21:03.step which has reduced our ability to retain world-class talents for

:21:04. > :21:08.highly skilled and much-needed positions. It seems foolish, a

:21:09. > :21:12.foolish position to take but it is a good idea for the students to

:21:13. > :21:16.benefit from our world-class universities, but to disallow

:21:17. > :21:20.ourselves from benefiting from their skills and talents once they have

:21:21. > :21:23.finished their education here. The Smith commission report stated that

:21:24. > :21:28.the Scottish and UK governments should work together to explore the

:21:29. > :21:31.possibility of introducing formal schemes to allow international

:21:32. > :21:35.higher education students graduating from Scottish further and higher

:21:36. > :21:39.education institutions to remain in Scotland and contribute to economic

:21:40. > :21:45.activity for a defined period of time. At the time of the Smith

:21:46. > :21:50.discussions a letter was spent to representative organisations warning

:21:51. > :21:54.that the removal of the UK wide post-study work Visa in 2012 had

:21:55. > :21:58.resulted in a significant fall in the number of international students

:21:59. > :22:03.coming to Scotland. At a time when it is crucial, as we heard from the

:22:04. > :22:08.minister, who has left its place, that we address skills shortages in

:22:09. > :22:10.key areas of industry, to improve economic growth it is extremely

:22:11. > :22:14.disappointing that this Queen's Speech makes no mention of the

:22:15. > :22:19.introduction of the scheme in Scotland. In 2015 the post study

:22:20. > :22:23.working group set up by the Scottish Government to provide a view from

:22:24. > :22:27.the business and tertiary education sector is on the impact of the

:22:28. > :22:33.removal of a work scheme in Scotland at how such a scheme should operate

:22:34. > :22:36.if introduced concluded that, and I quote, introducing a poster they

:22:37. > :22:39.were written Scotland would benefit Scottish economic growth and

:22:40. > :22:43.business development as well as enriching the learning experience

:22:44. > :22:48.for all students by attracting more international students to Scotland.

:22:49. > :22:53.In February of this year the Holyrood devolution commission, made

:22:54. > :22:56.up of MSPs from all five political parties unanimously recommended that

:22:57. > :22:59.the Home Office change this policy and it is therefore extremely

:23:00. > :23:04.disappointing that the UK Government seem unwilling to listen to the

:23:05. > :23:08.views of a diverse range of political parties and organisations

:23:09. > :23:13.in Scotland on this matter. In our alternative Queen's speech we have

:23:14. > :23:16.progressed I get -- proposed a migration bill which would include

:23:17. > :23:20.the reintroduction of the post study work Visa and as highlighted at

:23:21. > :23:23.Prime Minister's Questions by my right honourable friend from Murray,

:23:24. > :23:30.as well as my honourable friend from Glasgow North and latterly the local

:23:31. > :23:34.MP, the disgraceful treatment of the brain family highlights the

:23:35. > :23:41.desperate need for the Visa reintroduction. There is also an

:23:42. > :23:45.urgent need for changes to the government's approach on access to

:23:46. > :23:48.employment, employment support and training and skills, all issues that

:23:49. > :23:51.have been run down by this government's actions today and

:23:52. > :23:54.reckless cuts to government spending. We want to see an

:23:55. > :23:58.emergency summer Budget to boost investment in public services and

:23:59. > :24:03.stimulate GDP growth and support wage growth and increased taxes

:24:04. > :24:11.beats and boost productivity. All the Tory rhetoric a long-term

:24:12. > :24:14.economic plan the speech includes no recommendation of havoc among will

:24:15. > :24:19.boost productivity and economic growth in the long run. Members on

:24:20. > :24:24.the benches opposite feel betrayed that there was no mention of the

:24:25. > :24:29.much vaunted white Paper on health and work, which was supposed to

:24:30. > :24:36.compensate for the savage cuts to GSA rag and universal work credits.

:24:37. > :24:40.Many people were given the promise of jam tomorrow by their ministers

:24:41. > :24:43.in order to withdraw their opposition to these cuts on the

:24:44. > :24:47.basis of the White Paper being published this year. Some were right

:24:48. > :24:51.to say, as I did, and others on the benches beside me, that the White

:24:52. > :24:55.Paper should have been published before these cuts were made for

:24:56. > :25:02.exactly the scenario we now see unfolding. The cuts to GSA rag and

:25:03. > :25:05.universal credit reaping all that damage have been made and now the

:25:06. > :25:10.supposed replacement has been scrapped. The secretary of state

:25:11. > :25:12.used an appearance at the work and pensions select committee to

:25:13. > :25:17.announce that he was scrapping the proposed White Paper and taking more

:25:18. > :25:22.time to consider a green paper and he said he made it clear in his

:25:23. > :25:29.first statement in this house that he was looking to court -- to press

:25:30. > :25:32.the reset button. I asked him a direct question that day about the

:25:33. > :25:35.White Paper, when it would be published, given his predecessor

:25:36. > :25:38.told me at the last appearance at the dispatch box that it would be

:25:39. > :25:42.long before the summer, and how much money would be committed to it? The

:25:43. > :25:46.new secretary of state could not answer my questions as I post on

:25:47. > :25:57.that day, so he committed from the dispatch box to write to me on the

:25:58. > :25:59.matter. I wrote to him, as a follow-up, to request a meeting

:26:00. > :26:02.along with my honourable member friend and I am still waiting for a

:26:03. > :26:07.reply. I have repeatedly chased the matter up and perhaps now we will

:26:08. > :26:11.see a reply forthcoming. The UK Government has wasted precious time

:26:12. > :26:14.in not publishing the White Paper. I would now urge the new secretary of

:26:15. > :26:17.state to come to this house with a date for the green paper to be

:26:18. > :26:21.published. Any success will ultimately be determined by the

:26:22. > :26:26.government's willingness to engage with community and voluntary

:26:27. > :26:30.organisations as well as experts to shape any new framework. The new

:26:31. > :26:40.secretary of state at the DWP hopes to have changed the tone of the

:26:41. > :26:42.debate but what we need to see is substance so when he talks about

:26:43. > :26:45.pressing the reset button, why has he not gone back to the brutal cuts

:26:46. > :26:48.to ESA and universal credit? The lack of assistance to women born in

:26:49. > :26:53.the 1950s regarding the repeated delay and mishandled state pension

:26:54. > :26:58.entitlement which has been commendably spearheaded by the

:26:59. > :27:02.campaign members and the bedroom tax or the reforms to benefit tank

:27:03. > :27:06.capability assessment for those with mental health issues and long-term

:27:07. > :27:11.conditions, who face the stress of constant unnecessary reassessments,

:27:12. > :27:13.and the waste of money and time and additional stress caused by

:27:14. > :27:20.decisions that never should have been made in the first place. They

:27:21. > :27:24.are then overturned a tribunal. Or the two child rule, or the rate

:27:25. > :27:28.clause or any of the decisions taken by the secretary of state's

:27:29. > :27:32.predecessor, why was it that the White Paper, of all these disastrous

:27:33. > :27:37.areas of policy, that he chose to review Chris Pratt we are concerned

:27:38. > :27:40.that the valuable time to make progress on disability employment is

:27:41. > :27:43.being lost as a result of this delay and ministers should bring forward

:27:44. > :27:48.the proposals as soon as possible. The announcement of the green paper

:27:49. > :27:52.ought to be a welcome move if brought forward with urgency and

:27:53. > :27:57.real meaningful engagement with the community and voluntary sector but

:27:58. > :28:02.we remain sceptical that the Tories will rise to that challenge. They

:28:03. > :28:06.cannot be allowed to kick this any further into the long grass. The

:28:07. > :28:09.Minister must make an statement of his intentions and lay out the

:28:10. > :28:13.development of a new programme with a time frame and cuts coming down

:28:14. > :28:17.the line for the disabled, the Tories must act now. Tory

:28:18. > :28:21.backbenchers will also be interested, as we are, into how the

:28:22. > :28:25.Minister has abandoned the White Paper and we hope they will join us

:28:26. > :28:27.in calling for progress on the green paper and come forward with haste.

:28:28. > :28:46.It must be drawn to the attention the house that after the

:28:47. > :28:48.release of 49 DWP enquiry reports into the deaths of Social Security

:28:49. > :28:50.receptions -- recipients, finally released after a long freedom of

:28:51. > :28:53.information battle, we should know that 40 of the reports followed a

:28:54. > :28:55.suicide and in ten cases the recipient had been sanctioned. The

:28:56. > :28:58.peer reviews do not make a direct link between TWE policy and deaths

:28:59. > :29:03.but they do highlight the serious problems faced by claimants with

:29:04. > :29:06.complex issues, mental health challenges or learning support needs

:29:07. > :29:10.and I would hope that we can now see an end to the unwillingness of

:29:11. > :29:13.ministers to accept that their policies, however well intentioned

:29:14. > :29:18.they may think they are, are having serious consequences and could be

:29:19. > :29:24.costing lives. There must be a full review urgently to include the

:29:25. > :29:28.impact of the work capability assessments as they stand and the

:29:29. > :29:33.punishing sanctions regime and the cuts to disability support. The SNP

:29:34. > :29:38.has proposed a social equality Bill to restore work allowances for low

:29:39. > :29:41.income workers and single parents, to end maternity discrimination and

:29:42. > :29:46.further shared paternity rights for individual employers and also

:29:47. > :29:49.address the barriers to employment for disabled people. This would take

:29:50. > :29:53.matters in line with the principles by which the Scottish Government

:29:54. > :29:58.will found the new Scottish Social Security agency, by treating people

:29:59. > :30:02.with dignity and respect. Whilst the Queen 's speech did not have

:30:03. > :30:05.anything useful to say about these matters at the tail end of it we

:30:06. > :30:08.were informed that the government would hold a referendum on the

:30:09. > :30:12.membership of the European Union, which despite a lacklustre campaign

:30:13. > :30:17.so far will not have come as a revelation to many. This was

:30:18. > :30:20.followed by the vaguest of sentences notifying us that proposals would be

:30:21. > :30:23.brought forward for a British Bill of Rights. Given the vast

:30:24. > :30:26.differences that exist in the Cabinet and the government's

:30:27. > :30:29.backbenchers on the issue of membership of the European Union and

:30:30. > :30:36.the European Convention on human rights and many people losing track

:30:37. > :30:40.of who is in and out it is difficult to imagine how we could find enough

:30:41. > :30:43.comic course to agree on what such a bill would contain and the Queen 's

:30:44. > :30:46.speech did not shed any further insight into this and this is

:30:47. > :30:53.probably for this reason that the Bill of Rights will be brought

:30:54. > :30:59.before the house this year. The briefing notes for the Queen 's

:31:00. > :31:04.speech on rights say they would be based on those set out in the

:31:05. > :31:06.European Convention of human rights and also taking into account our

:31:07. > :31:10.common law tradition that suggest that while the government is

:31:11. > :31:14.sensibly distancing itself from Home Secretary's personal view on EC HRA

:31:15. > :31:19.has little of substance to say regarding the purpose or need for

:31:20. > :31:22.such a bill. A professor from the University of Cambridge stated that

:31:23. > :31:27.there is no hint of any developed thinking in the Queen's Speech about

:31:28. > :31:30.how the perceived shortcomings of the HRA ought to be addressed or how

:31:31. > :31:35.reform in this area could be reconciled with the UK remaining a

:31:36. > :31:38.part of the EC HR. If the government is unable to provide detailed

:31:39. > :31:41.answers to these points it should question whether in attempting to

:31:42. > :31:45.appease some of its own backbenchers is worth more than having sensible

:31:46. > :31:49.legislation. With regards to Scotland a key concern in this area

:31:50. > :31:53.is that government has shown little consideration has to about how this

:31:54. > :31:57.will affect the Scottish parliament and other devolved legislators in

:31:58. > :32:01.these isles. The Queen's Speech briefing notes addressed this issue

:32:02. > :32:05.only briefly. It stated that revived in the Human Rights Act can only be

:32:06. > :32:08.done by the UK Parliament and they will consult fully before bringing

:32:09. > :32:12.forward proposals and it is true that the Scottish parliament does

:32:13. > :32:15.not have power to alter the Human Rights Act but the Law Society of

:32:16. > :32:19.Scotland have argued that under demolition guidance note ten, when

:32:20. > :32:24.UK legislation will alter the legislative competence of the

:32:25. > :32:27.Scottish parliament or the executive competence of Scottish ministers,

:32:28. > :32:31.the consent of the Scottish parliament is needed. Repeal and

:32:32. > :32:36.replacement of the humans rights act would, in our view, require the

:32:37. > :32:42.amendment of the Scotland act 1998. In those respects which would affect

:32:43. > :32:44.the competences of the Parliament and the Scottish ministers. Any

:32:45. > :32:48.change to the Scotland act concerning the Human Rights Act and

:32:49. > :32:51.98, which affects the competence of the Parliament or the Scottish

:32:52. > :32:55.ministers will in terms of DGN Tenneco hard disk -- require the

:32:56. > :33:00.consent of the Scottish parliament. It is not simply a consultation with

:33:01. > :33:03.the consent from the Scottish Parliament that will be needed given

:33:04. > :33:06.that there is a clear majority in the Scottish Parliament that do not

:33:07. > :33:14.support such a change this consent is unlikely be forthcoming.

:33:15. > :33:22.Theodore Roosevelt said the credit belongs to the man who spends his

:33:23. > :33:27.time only worthy cause, and who at worst if he fails, feels well

:33:28. > :33:31.dealing greatly. In this case I believe the Prime Minister and the

:33:32. > :33:34.government have instead offered a weak and poor programme which will

:33:35. > :33:40.do little to address the needs of the people of these isles, and while

:33:41. > :33:44.some measures are to be welcomed such as the likely delivery of the

:33:45. > :33:48.universal service obligation on broadband, the Queen's Speech is yet

:33:49. > :33:52.another missed opportunity by the government to address the key

:33:53. > :33:57.issues. Instead of offering clear solutions and innovative ideas, I am

:33:58. > :34:01.afraid that in the years to come, this Queen's Speech will be

:34:02. > :34:06.remembered as an empty, vacuous and largely irrelevant sideshow from a

:34:07. > :34:10.government and party more concerned about patching over internal

:34:11. > :34:14.divisions on the issue of EU membership and jockeying for who

:34:15. > :34:18.will be the next leader than the living to the people. As a result of

:34:19. > :34:22.a large number of members having with prawn I will now raise the

:34:23. > :34:35.limit to eight minutes. Better up than down! Thank you very much. For

:34:36. > :34:42.that splendid news! I can only carry on as I normally do. I just want to

:34:43. > :34:46.talk about the actual Queen's Speech which of course is a one nation

:34:47. > :34:53.Queen's Speech and is a one nation Queen's Speech because it talks

:34:54. > :34:57.about opportunity and also productivity. Opportunity that

:34:58. > :35:05.everybody and productivity for our economy, because underneath all the

:35:06. > :35:08.21 bels lies that demand, that interest form or opportunity, fairer

:35:09. > :35:14.opportunity and the better economy delivering more productivity. I will

:35:15. > :35:19.talk about two bills in particular and one is the children and social

:35:20. > :35:25.work Bill because our committee has done some work in this field and I

:35:26. > :35:29.would invite the Secretary of State to think about what we will be

:35:30. > :35:34.seeing about social work. I will not let any cuts out of the bag because

:35:35. > :35:41.we haven't published it yet. I think it will be of interest to those

:35:42. > :35:45.considering more detail as the bill develops. One thing I am really

:35:46. > :35:49.pleased to note is we will have a care leavers covenant and that is

:35:50. > :35:53.the one thing I would say came out of some other early discussions in

:35:54. > :35:58.the education select committee about children in care with mental health

:35:59. > :36:04.difficulties who felt they were basically falling off a cliff edge,

:36:05. > :36:11.and the care leavers covenant is clearly going to prevent that from

:36:12. > :36:17.happening. Would he agree that in the work the education select

:36:18. > :36:21.committee did on clear, it was many care leavers who felt the support

:36:22. > :36:26.that children might ordinarily get from their own families was suddenly

:36:27. > :36:32.gone by the age of 18? I completely agree. My honourable friend who was

:36:33. > :36:39.a member of the education select committee at the time and that the

:36:40. > :36:44.early work, and I think the whole point of this is to make sure they

:36:45. > :36:47.do not fall over the cliff edge and children looked after by the state

:36:48. > :36:50.are particularly vulnerable to falling over that edge and we must

:36:51. > :36:56.do all we can to stop that happening. Just one quick word about

:36:57. > :37:00.regulation. We covered this in our early enquiries and I will not

:37:01. > :37:04.comment in any great detail about what that regulation framework

:37:05. > :37:12.should look like. We certainly agree that we need to see an improved

:37:13. > :37:19.regulatory offering for social work. Can I now talk about the education

:37:20. > :37:22.for all bit. I am going to start off by noting that for all means for

:37:23. > :37:26.absolutely all children and there are some children in schools

:37:27. > :37:31.unregulated and unregistered and we need to think about them as well. I

:37:32. > :37:37.will be asking the Secretary of State to give some thought as to how

:37:38. > :37:41.she will respond to the expressions by the Chief Inspector about the

:37:42. > :37:46.schools which are not effectively doing a good job and are not often

:37:47. > :37:54.seen and are beneath the radar. We need to make sure that when we see

:37:55. > :38:01.education for all, we mean all. The White Paper talks about the school

:38:02. > :38:04.led system and absolutely it should. Those of us who support the

:38:05. > :38:11.academies programme will come its continued growth. Obviously it is

:38:12. > :38:16.important for us to be sure that academies feel comfortable once they

:38:17. > :38:19.are out there and one of the reasons why the education select committee

:38:20. > :38:26.is going to be looking at what does a good trust lookalike is precisely

:38:27. > :38:30.that thought, because we do need to encourage academies to come together

:38:31. > :38:36.to support each other because this is partnership and co-operation.

:38:37. > :38:39.This is schools taking the initiative to help other schools and

:38:40. > :38:42.I think that is a combination that will work to drive up standards

:38:43. > :38:46.especially in those areas where standards are not high enough, and

:38:47. > :38:55.we know there are pockets of such places. Is he there are four in

:38:56. > :38:59.favour of Ofsted inspecting academy chains? At the moment the government

:39:00. > :39:03.prevents them from doing so so we don't know what their overheads are

:39:04. > :39:10.or what they are spending on the chief executive salary. This is a

:39:11. > :39:14.matter of the education select committee has been forceful in both

:39:15. > :39:19.the last Parliament and I expect will comment on that matter again. I

:39:20. > :39:23.am personally in favour of Academy trusts being inspector will and I

:39:24. > :39:29.think that is something we should be looking into. We will obviously

:39:30. > :39:39.comment on that when we do our enquiry in due course. I will not

:39:40. > :39:45.prejudge what that enquiry will say. Unless issue of local authorities, I

:39:46. > :39:48.think it is important that we recognise some local authorities

:39:49. > :39:53.have not delivered adequate education and there are examples in

:39:54. > :39:59.Yorkshire for example, and I think it would be helpful for the

:40:00. > :40:04.department to set out effectively the case in terms of data and maps

:40:05. > :40:11.as to where the problems are, so that members of Parliament and

:40:12. > :40:14.others can effectively calibrate the need for more academies as

:40:15. > :40:24.appropriate to that information. That will be really useful for us to

:40:25. > :40:29.have. On the issue of fairer funding because this is implicit in the

:40:30. > :40:36.White Paper, and absolutely rightly so, we need to see some improvement

:40:37. > :40:41.in funding. It's got to be the case that schools in Gloucestershire can

:40:42. > :40:46.be confident of fairer funding. I say Gloucestershire because I

:40:47. > :40:51.represent the area but that applies to a whole range of counties and

:40:52. > :40:57.urban areas as well. Fairer funding is absolutely necessary. I am really

:40:58. > :40:59.pleased that the education select committee will have the opportunity

:41:00. > :41:07.to check what is proposed by the Department. I think that is

:41:08. > :41:13.extremely helpful. We will conduct some enquiries and you course. It is

:41:14. > :41:16.very good that the Secretary of State has effectively enabled us to

:41:17. > :41:22.do so through the timescale that she has set out just as she responded to

:41:23. > :41:28.the issue of the academies when we first launched the White Paper and

:41:29. > :41:34.there was something of a furore over the scale of ambition in connection

:41:35. > :41:38.with academies. So it is in the same vein that I make my next point about

:41:39. > :41:46.cooperation and opportunity to consider. I think it would be really

:41:47. > :41:50.helpful with the education for all bill was published soon so that we

:41:51. > :41:56.could have an opportunity for pre-legislative scrutiny, that might

:41:57. > :42:02.be a useful opportunity to look at some of the detail behind what is a

:42:03. > :42:09.feeling local authority, what would be a local authority which is

:42:10. > :42:15.effectively beneath the capacity threshold which would be defined in

:42:16. > :42:21.terms of whether or not it should cease to be a provider of schools

:42:22. > :42:24.and so on. That opportunity would help members of Parliament to

:42:25. > :42:29.understand more clearly the direction of travel and perhaps see

:42:30. > :42:34.a way forward. I invite the Secretary of State to consider that

:42:35. > :42:40.proposal and I know the legislative programme is tight and I know there

:42:41. > :42:47.are few opportunities for delay, but I do think that would be a good

:42:48. > :42:50.contribution to the debate. I am going to end on something that I

:42:51. > :42:57.think would be important and it is this. I was reading with interest

:42:58. > :42:59.these thoughts of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent and

:43:00. > :43:02.very authoritative organisation picking up the point about whether

:43:03. > :43:08.or not we should be in the European Union. And noting that if we left

:43:09. > :43:14.the economy would be smaller in size by about 15 billion within about two

:43:15. > :43:19.years. These are figures which are bandied about frequently and

:43:20. > :43:26.understood by many. And the ISS is not the only leading authority to

:43:27. > :43:30.basically point out our economy is doing well precisely because we are

:43:31. > :43:35.part of the European Union. I mention this because throughout the

:43:36. > :43:39.Queen's Speech there was an awful lot of dependency on public

:43:40. > :43:43.expenditure. We will deliver an education system which is ambitious

:43:44. > :43:48.and successful as the Secretary of State intends it to be, we are going

:43:49. > :43:54.to have to pay for it. It'll be harder to pay for it if we kept

:43:55. > :43:57.ourselves the shins by leaving the European Union and reducing the size

:43:58. > :44:02.of our economy and therefore making it harder to meet public expenditure

:44:03. > :44:11.pledges we might wish to have in the future. I would suggest that it is

:44:12. > :44:17.really important that we do remain in the European Union precisely to

:44:18. > :44:23.the lover our ambitions. I have just spotted somebody must be trying to

:44:24. > :44:27.intervene because my honourable friend has helpfully informed

:44:28. > :44:33.everybody that I am completely deaf in my left ear! I find that always

:44:34. > :44:37.quite useful, certainly in family conditions and often in politics but

:44:38. > :44:43.not with my honourable friend wants to intervene. I thank my honourable

:44:44. > :44:46.friend. That must also be the reason why sometimes my husband doesn't

:44:47. > :44:53.respond when cold, obviously deaf in one ear. The point I was trying to

:44:54. > :44:57.make is not only is it important we are part of the European Union for

:44:58. > :45:02.the reasons he outlined but also in order to ensure that our young

:45:03. > :45:13.people have access to broaden educational environments such as the

:45:14. > :45:17.Erasmus programme. Thank you. I am very grateful to have the chance to

:45:18. > :45:20.speak in this debate. I am pleased to be following the chain of the

:45:21. > :45:24.select committee and they agree with a good deal of what he said on our

:45:25. > :45:29.membership of the EU and I also agree with him in his invitation to

:45:30. > :45:32.the Secretary of State to publish the education for all Bill in time

:45:33. > :45:36.for the select committee to undertake some pre-legislative

:45:37. > :45:40.scrutiny. That would be very valuable, and it is on that bill I

:45:41. > :45:47.want to focus my remarks this afternoon. I wanted to start by

:45:48. > :45:54.welcoming warmer leave the abandonment of the Pledge of

:45:55. > :45:58.universalisation by 2022. That is a very welcome U-turn. I am pleased

:45:59. > :46:02.the honourable member for Worcestershire is in his place

:46:03. > :46:07.because he and I had a debate about this on the radio and I made the

:46:08. > :46:10.point that it was absolutely clear there wasn't the support on the

:46:11. > :46:17.Conservative benches to get that legislation through house. He

:46:18. > :46:23.assured the listeners to the programme that actually it was all

:46:24. > :46:28.absolutely fine, but I am delighted the Secretary of State recognised

:46:29. > :46:34.that I was right about this and he wasn't. I do pay tributes to her as

:46:35. > :46:38.well for at least executing the U-turn were commendable speed and

:46:39. > :46:42.not dragging out the agony over a long period as we have sometimes

:46:43. > :46:46.seen in the past. I don't think it was ever have an idea we should

:46:47. > :46:50.force all schools to become academies and I am glad she has

:46:51. > :46:57.dropped it, but it is disappointing that the bill still has the aim

:46:58. > :47:01.according to the documentation along the Queen's Speech to move towards a

:47:02. > :47:07.system where all schools and academies and I do think that

:47:08. > :47:13.ministers should be listening not least a headteachers about this very

:47:14. > :47:17.important subject because the National Association of head

:47:18. > :47:22.teachers says that aim, the declared aim of this bill, and I quote, good

:47:23. > :47:27.and outstanding schools should still be made to convert regardless of the

:47:28. > :47:30.professional judgment of school leaders, the opposition of parents

:47:31. > :47:35.and the best interests of local communities. I really think that a

:47:36. > :47:39.Conservative government ought to be listening to headteachers, to

:47:40. > :47:43.parents and to local communities in these matters, and not continuing

:47:44. > :47:50.with their view that every school should become an Academy, whether or

:47:51. > :47:54.not it is in those interests. Akkad isolation can be a very good thing

:47:55. > :47:58.with plenty of examples where it has turned around the fortunes of a

:47:59. > :48:02.school, but forced academies nation isn't.

:48:03. > :48:08.Ministers have not been able to provide any evidence that a

:48:09. > :48:16.canonisation necessarily raises standards because it does not. Areas

:48:17. > :48:18.identified by Ofsted as having problems with low education

:48:19. > :48:26.standards include areas where most of the school have already become

:48:27. > :48:31.academies. It would be very helpful if there was a panacea like

:48:32. > :48:35.acadamisation, every organisation to overcome the problem of

:48:36. > :48:40.underperforming schools but the reality is there is not a panacea,

:48:41. > :48:45.that raising standards is a long and tough horn and ministers are looking

:48:46. > :48:49.for a short cut but the fact is that there is not one. To quote the

:48:50. > :48:54.National Association of head teachers again, targeted support is

:48:55. > :49:00.what is needed rather than forced top-down reorganisation. I thank my

:49:01. > :49:05.honourable friend for giving way. He is making a very powerful speech.

:49:06. > :49:09.Does not the history of his part of Tower Hamlets and east you show that

:49:10. > :49:14.acadamisation is not the answer but what transformed prospects in his

:49:15. > :49:19.area was the London Challenger 's schools working together to raise

:49:20. > :49:23.standards. It is about what has happened in east London where we

:49:24. > :49:26.have seen a remarkable transformation of education

:49:27. > :49:29.standards in the last 20 years and it has been because of the

:49:30. > :49:34.application consistently of the tools that he has identified,

:49:35. > :49:40.including Academy ovation in some cases, but other leaders as well. I

:49:41. > :49:44.am worried that that could be at risk and I will speak more about

:49:45. > :49:49.that in a moment. There is a cost to academies and eight, there is legal

:49:50. > :49:56.costs and other cost and we had a debate when the government policy of

:49:57. > :50:00.forced acadamisation and how much it would cost. The secretary of state

:50:01. > :50:03.did say to the education select committee that she would let the

:50:04. > :50:09.committee have the department's robust estimates of academies Asia

:50:10. > :50:13.but that information has not been provided yet and I would be grateful

:50:14. > :50:16.if the secretary of state could make sure that her department does

:50:17. > :50:22.deliver on that commitment to provide it. As the chair of the

:50:23. > :50:26.select committee has pointed out the role of the multi-Academy trust

:50:27. > :50:31.would be very important and all of this. If you look at the achievement

:50:32. > :50:36.of disadvantaged pupils some multi-Academy trusts are doing an

:50:37. > :50:41.outstanding job delivering very high standards but the majority of

:50:42. > :50:45.multi-Academy trusts are not. The trust analysis shows that the

:50:46. > :50:50.majority of multi-Academy trusts are doing less well than the average

:50:51. > :50:54.cost to the school system as a whole. They are underperforming and

:50:55. > :50:59.a big part of the reason for that is that many of them have expanded too

:51:00. > :51:03.fast and everybody in the house will recognise that it is difficult to

:51:04. > :51:06.maintain good standards if you are having to manage very rapid

:51:07. > :51:13.expansion and that problem will get a lot worse ace -- if, as appears to

:51:14. > :51:15.be the government's intention many hundreds of thousands of schools are

:51:16. > :51:24.forced into multi-Academy trusts in the next few years. It is worrying

:51:25. > :51:29.that we are starting to see some of the practices that we used to

:51:30. > :51:32.deprecate in poor local education authorities cropping up in some of

:51:33. > :51:38.the multi-Academy trusts because under the reforms of the last 20

:51:39. > :51:48.years local education authorities have been transformed. Maintained

:51:49. > :51:52.schools now enjoy a high degree of autonomy whereas academies are

:51:53. > :51:56.frequently not allowed very much autonomy at all from the

:51:57. > :52:02.multi-Academy trust. One primary headteacher said to me that he did

:52:03. > :52:07.not want to categorise specifically because a multi-Academy trust at his

:52:08. > :52:12.school would not allow the degree of autonomy for his school that his

:52:13. > :52:20.local education authority does allow. We are starting to see some

:52:21. > :52:23.bad old practices creeping into education through multi-Academy

:52:24. > :52:27.trusts and the Sutton trust is absolutely right to point out that

:52:28. > :52:33.the speed of their extension makes this problem worse. I would very

:52:34. > :52:36.much welcome the assurance that the Secretary of State gave to the

:52:37. > :52:41.education select committee that multi-Academy trusts should only be

:52:42. > :52:45.allowed to expand when they have a track record of success and

:52:46. > :52:48.improvement to their existing academies and I hope that will be

:52:49. > :52:52.reflected in the bill when it is published and I wonder whether she

:52:53. > :52:57.can tell us if that will be the case. She also recognised the

:52:58. > :53:05.importance in circumstances which we are now seeing in some instances,

:53:06. > :53:10.where a trust has demonstrably failed to deliver adequate standards

:53:11. > :53:14.and improvement in a particular Academy. She recognised the

:53:15. > :53:18.importance of parents being able to secure transfer for that Academy

:53:19. > :53:26.from its existing trust that has not succeeded to a different trust. I

:53:27. > :53:30.think, of course with appropriate standards, if that was allowed for

:53:31. > :53:35.parents it would be an important protection. She fully recognise the

:53:36. > :53:38.value of that in her evidence to the select committee and I wonder if she

:53:39. > :53:45.can tell us whether that provision will be in the bill as well.

:53:46. > :53:49.Finally, the bill will also deliver the National school funding formula

:53:50. > :54:03.that we recently debated in the house, the impact of that initiative

:54:04. > :54:06.on schools in London and I am worried that ministers seem to have

:54:07. > :54:14.given exclusive access to their deliberations about this topic to a

:54:15. > :54:20.group of largely rural authorities and my worry is that we may well end

:54:21. > :54:24.up with an unfair formula as a result and in particular there were

:54:25. > :54:30.no London authorities at all included in that group. I am

:54:31. > :54:33.particularly anxious that the high rate of people mobility in some

:54:34. > :54:40.authorities should be included in the formula. It is our pleasure to

:54:41. > :54:45.follow the honourable member who was one of the ministers that was

:54:46. > :54:49.respected by the opposition as somebody who listened I was ready to

:54:50. > :54:52.engage. I support the gracious speech about think it provides a

:54:53. > :55:00.good programme for this government to move forward and I think it is

:55:01. > :55:04.certainly that there are plenty of important and decent bills that we

:55:05. > :55:09.can support but to start on the issue of the moment, the referendum,

:55:10. > :55:13.when I was first elected I voted for a referendum on Amsterdam and I was

:55:14. > :55:16.defeated and then I voted for a referendum on Nice and I was

:55:17. > :55:20.defeated and then I voted for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and

:55:21. > :55:25.I was defeated and although Mr Blair and Mr Brown had committed to having

:55:26. > :55:29.a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but it is refreshing to find that we

:55:30. > :55:32.have a Prime Minister with the confidence to put it in his

:55:33. > :55:39.manifesto and win an election and legislate in this house and give the

:55:40. > :55:45.British people a choice. I am 59, I voted in the referendum in 1975.

:55:46. > :55:50.There are very few people in this chamber I suspect to voted in 1975

:55:51. > :55:55.and I think it right and proper that British people should consent to the

:55:56. > :56:00.arrangements for the future. I lean on the leave side but nevertheless I

:56:01. > :56:05.think it is a real shock horror politician carries out what he said

:56:06. > :56:09.moment and I think we really ought to give credit to the Prime

:56:10. > :56:14.Minister. In terms of the bills I actually do think the education bill

:56:15. > :56:20.will be a game changer, particularly because of the fair funding formula

:56:21. > :56:22.and I know members of the public are worrying about that and I pay

:56:23. > :56:25.tribute to the member for Worcester who campaigned for the government to

:56:26. > :56:28.look at this. It is not the case that we believe people in urban

:56:29. > :56:33.areas should have more money but sometimes when they have two or

:56:34. > :56:36.three or four times as much money than children in places like Dorset

:56:37. > :56:41.and Poole are really being undervalued in terms of what the

:56:42. > :56:45.nation actually thinks of them. I think we need to start to move in a

:56:46. > :56:49.new direction but be aware of the fact that clearly with all of these

:56:50. > :57:26.things there are winners and losers and it cannot be

:57:27. > :57:30.done quickly but I think the bill is a very good start. I am also very

:57:31. > :57:33.pleased with the NHS charging Bill, particular visitors to the UK, as

:57:34. > :57:35.the Secretary of State for Health is often said we have a National Health

:57:36. > :57:38.Service not an international health service and there are occasions when

:57:39. > :57:40.I wonder whether we ought to be a little bit more vociferous in

:57:41. > :57:43.pursuing people who use the service and shouldn't really be using the

:57:44. > :57:45.service. Part of the problem is the difficulties of recruiting mone y

:57:46. > :57:48.from people and the service isn't set up to do that so we need to

:57:49. > :57:51.think very carefully about how we will recode the ?500,000 a year that

:57:52. > :57:53.the bill expect from those use the service and shouldn't. We all know

:57:54. > :57:56.that people sometimes come to this resources and in these tough times

:57:57. > :57:58.it is right and proper that the British government stand up for

:57:59. > :58:00.British interests by insuring that people pay their fair share the

:58:01. > :58:03.express purpose of taking advantage of the NHS and we are short of

:58:04. > :58:05.resources and in these tough times it is right and proper that the

:58:06. > :58:08.British government stand up for British interests by insuring that

:58:09. > :58:10.people pay their fair there is a range of bills within this gracious

:58:11. > :58:13.address that will make life chances for people in the, as was mentioned

:58:14. > :58:15.yesterday in the house, I care are being given higher priority. One

:58:16. > :58:18.honourable member who was no longer a member of the house spent quite a

:58:19. > :58:20.long time campaigning about the rights of children in care and

:58:21. > :58:23.sometimes they get lost and they have life chances less than others

:58:24. > :58:25.and it is right and proper that these sometimes forgotten children

:58:26. > :58:27.are looked children in care are being given higher priority. One

:58:28. > :58:30.honourable member who was no longer a member of the house but quite a

:58:31. > :58:32.long time campaigning about the rights of children in care and

:58:33. > :58:35.sometimes they get lost and they have life chances less than others

:58:36. > :58:37.and it is right and proper that these sometimes forgotten children

:58:38. > :58:39.and given the best start in life, a better start than their

:58:40. > :58:41.circumstances might one slight word of criticism, I visited a local

:58:42. > :58:43.company called sun-seeker yachts who employ nearly 2000 people in one

:58:44. > :58:46.slight word of criticism, I visited a local company called sun-seeker

:58:47. > :58:48.yachts who employ nearly 2000 people quarter of ?1 million and they

:58:49. > :58:51.haven't seen yet how and they have 40 apprentices on and they worked

:58:52. > :58:53.out that the apprentice levy will cost them a quarter of ?1 million

:58:54. > :58:56.and they haven't seen yet how claim money against plan they havein their

:58:57. > :58:59.forward plan they have it as a dead weight loss and they are anxious for

:59:00. > :59:02.the government to explain very soon what the procedures will be and what

:59:03. > :59:04.the criteria will be so they can plan for the future. They export a

:59:05. > :59:09.large amount of their turnover and they are well regarded

:59:10. > :59:12.internationally but not -- but like many businesses they are worried

:59:13. > :59:18.that the devil in the detail has not been known and we need some more

:59:19. > :59:23.evidence on how they will be able to plan. There are a whole range of

:59:24. > :59:29.bills that I am able to support and I think the transport bill is

:59:30. > :59:35.innovative. I think that what we actually have is a very good

:59:36. > :59:40.programme for the next four years and I think we will make people's

:59:41. > :59:45.life chances substantially better and I think what David Cameron has

:59:46. > :59:49.put forward is a one nation progressive programme that I think

:59:50. > :59:52.we can all work -- rally around and it will lead to a much better

:59:53. > :59:59.citizen -- situation for our citizens and the government we can

:00:00. > :00:03.be proud of. It is always a pleasure to follow the honourable gentleman,

:00:04. > :00:08.although I really disagree with him, not only about the contents of the

:00:09. > :00:13.Queen's Speech but Europe as well. While measures to improve the

:00:14. > :00:18.national citizenship scheme and donations to charities and giving

:00:19. > :00:22.the right to broadband and protecting cultural property are

:00:23. > :00:29.welcome and laudable as a whole other measures in the Queen's Speech

:00:30. > :00:34.fail to address this huge challenges facing this country, such as

:00:35. > :00:39.problems of underfunding and marketisation, caused by the

:00:40. > :00:43.top-down restructuring of the NHS. There is nothing to deal with the

:00:44. > :00:48.chronic shortage of doctors and nurses, never mind the investment in

:00:49. > :00:52.social care that is needed to properly protect and look after

:00:53. > :00:58.older people with the dignity they desire. On education there is

:00:59. > :01:04.nothing to address the chronic teacher shortages, the shortage of

:01:05. > :01:07.school places and the need for capital investment to create the

:01:08. > :01:12.21st-century schools our constituents need, as my right

:01:13. > :01:17.honourable friend from the front bench said, this is 's speech with

:01:18. > :01:24.emptiness at its core. But some of the measures that are in the Queen's

:01:25. > :01:30.Speech are it, in fact, deeply worrying and I want to concentrate

:01:31. > :01:35.on two specific issues. First of all on the higher education Bill I have

:01:36. > :01:40.to say I am really, really disappointed by this bill. Measures

:01:41. > :01:45.and it could see fees climb even higher. Sadly young people who want

:01:46. > :01:48.to go to university -- saddling young people who want to get

:01:49. > :01:53.university with even more debt. Some students are already coming out of

:01:54. > :02:02.university with ?40,000 or ?50,000 debt, and where will it end? We

:02:03. > :02:06.support a focus on teaching equality but if this is simply a framework

:02:07. > :02:11.with parameters already set to enable the removing of the fees cap,

:02:12. > :02:19.then that is not something that I think we should support. Focus on

:02:20. > :02:25.teaching quality, yes, providing the metrics are right and providing the

:02:26. > :02:31.risks of doing so are properly managed, but why link to higher

:02:32. > :02:36.fees? I think we have to be really careful, as I said earlier, about

:02:37. > :02:45.what we are doing about the reputation of higher education so we

:02:46. > :02:51.are concerned about the deregulation of establishing universities and the

:02:52. > :02:55.lack of safeguards which could undermine the excellence of our HEA

:02:56. > :03:00.institutions. I hope the minister recognises that that is not because

:03:01. > :03:05.we are against an of higher education. I am really very much in

:03:06. > :03:09.support of an expansion in higher education and I would like to see

:03:10. > :03:12.more of our young people going to universities, but we are simply not

:03:13. > :03:18.sure that the government is going about expansion in the right way.

:03:19. > :03:26.The we are not the only ones to have concerned. Competition can

:03:27. > :03:31.undoubtably promote innovation but lowering standards to help new,

:03:32. > :03:37.inexperienced or smaller single degree providers with no interest in

:03:38. > :03:41.being research active to gain degree awarding powers and the University

:03:42. > :03:50.title is not opening up the market but lowering the bar. They emphasise

:03:51. > :03:55.the huge risk with the marketisation approach and they also point to the

:03:56. > :04:00.fact that UK universities to read globally on the basis of a national

:04:01. > :04:03.quality assurance system. High student satisfaction rates and high

:04:04. > :04:08.quality teaching and research and the assumption that institutions

:04:09. > :04:13.with UK university degree awarding powers should be allowed is

:04:14. > :04:23.potentially at variance with the government ambitions to promote the

:04:24. > :04:31.UK internationally, and they are set of concerns we would share and that

:04:32. > :04:35.universities UK also outlined, and I think we need to yearly lot more

:04:36. > :04:39.from minister when we get to the second reading of that bill about

:04:40. > :04:46.what safeguards will be in place. The Minister also said today about

:04:47. > :04:51.improving participation in our universities and increasing social

:04:52. > :04:57.mobility but again, a briefing we have had from the open University

:04:58. > :05:02.has pointed to the fact that despite the Prime Minister having a target

:05:03. > :05:06.of increasing the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds going

:05:07. > :05:12.to university, they think they will feel on this because the number of

:05:13. > :05:16.part-time disadvantaged students entering part-time teaching is

:05:17. > :05:22.falling and not increasing and yet part-time is often the most common

:05:23. > :05:29.way for people from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter universities.

:05:30. > :05:31.They also point to the lack of clear opportunities for lifelong learning,

:05:32. > :05:35.and again that is something that I think the minister will need to

:05:36. > :05:38.address. I am astounded there is nothing in the Queen's Speech to

:05:39. > :05:45.tackle reduction in the number of part-time students or promote

:05:46. > :05:47.lifelong learning or promote upscaling or reskilling

:05:48. > :05:55.opportunities for adult learners. We know that budget has been massively

:05:56. > :05:59.cut by 335 million. We can only hope the white paper or whatever it is we

:06:00. > :06:06.are expecting addresses some of these issues. Moving on, I wanted to

:06:07. > :06:12.briefly comment on the NHS measures and we know the government is

:06:13. > :06:15.ploughing ahead with these seven-day key objectives, but I think the

:06:16. > :06:21.government is refusing to accept the reality of what is happening in NHS.

:06:22. > :06:26.Patients are waiting longer and suffering longer. Wait times and

:06:27. > :06:32.increasing and it is much harder to see a GP. Instead of measures to

:06:33. > :06:41.tackle this or to tackle the crisis in social care, we get more cuts to

:06:42. > :06:45.older people's services. We also know that the or visits to AMD

:06:46. > :06:51.basically because of a breakdown in services elsewhere and ?22 billion

:06:52. > :06:58.of efficiency savings are not going to help this. My own local authority

:06:59. > :07:04.has over the last five years had to make ?43 million of cuts to adult

:07:05. > :07:09.care and is going to make a further 25 million over the next couple of

:07:10. > :07:13.years. I really do want to hear something from the government about

:07:14. > :07:19.what they are going to do to tackle this crisis in social care, and

:07:20. > :07:23.lastly I want to see a beef word about the northern Powerhouse,

:07:24. > :07:31.because ministers and indeed some bits of the media talk about this as

:07:32. > :07:33.though it is a reality. I am an MP representing a constituency that

:07:34. > :07:40.should be benefiting from the Northern Powerhouse. I see

:07:41. > :07:45.absolutely nothing in reality and the devolution deal brings with it

:07:46. > :07:49.very little money to promote the economy and skills development in

:07:50. > :07:53.the north-east and it would be great to know what it is actually

:07:54. > :08:02.delivering as I see nothing at present. It is a pleasure to follow

:08:03. > :08:06.the honourable lady. I went into politics because I was that bored

:08:07. > :08:11.16-year-old growing up frustrated by the lack of opportunities and keen

:08:12. > :08:15.to do my bit to make it better. I had loving and supportive parents

:08:16. > :08:19.but little access to people or places and it could be said that I

:08:20. > :08:24.didn't even know what I did know at that time. I am a Conservative today

:08:25. > :08:30.because I believe it is not where you're coming from but where are

:08:31. > :08:33.going. That can only be answered by opportunities and by ensuring that

:08:34. > :08:37.every person has the chance to make themselves what they want.

:08:38. > :08:40.Conservatives believe fundamentally in people and their freedom because

:08:41. > :08:45.people are enterprising and can choose their own course but people

:08:46. > :08:52.need opportunity to be able to do so. As the Secretary of State for

:08:53. > :08:56.Work and Pensions has argued, over the past generations we have seen

:08:57. > :09:00.some untenable and dramatic changes in society. Never before has so much

:09:01. > :09:07.information been at the fingertips of so many. Never before have we

:09:08. > :09:12.seen such a decline of social deference and never before have such

:09:13. > :09:18.a leaked preserves as universities been an option but we're not living

:09:19. > :09:22.in a golden age of social mobility. Today, far too many people have

:09:23. > :09:25.their life chances determined before they have even had the opportunity

:09:26. > :09:33.to explore all that life has to offer. I am proud it is a

:09:34. > :09:39.Conservative Prime Minister, and be capable ministers here today setting

:09:40. > :09:42.out actions spanning families, early years, education, treatment and

:09:43. > :09:47.support and an end to discrimination and opportunity. We should listen it

:09:48. > :09:52.today and here the hopes and quite wishes being made by mums and dads,

:09:53. > :09:57.rich and poor, for their children every minute of every day, and we

:09:58. > :10:02.should seek to give every child the chances and the choices they need to

:10:03. > :10:05.live their lives. That is why I welcome the bills in this Queen's

:10:06. > :10:10.Speech that promote life chances through better education. Let me

:10:11. > :10:14.start with the higher education and research bill and first of all its

:10:15. > :10:22.expansion into higher education. The origin of the University in my area

:10:23. > :10:28.was in that great expansion of the 1960s and I welcome the measure

:10:29. > :10:33.today to make it easier for more universities to enter the sector and

:10:34. > :10:36.best choices for students. Higher education is one of the greatest

:10:37. > :10:40.engines for social mobility we have and we should celebrate the record

:10:41. > :10:44.application rates we are seeing among students from disadvantaged

:10:45. > :10:50.backgrounds. There's a lot more to do and in January this year, the

:10:51. > :10:53.social mobility and child poverty commission identified the life

:10:54. > :10:58.chances of a poor student growing up as some of the very worst in the

:10:59. > :11:02.country. This is something I am determined to confront as a

:11:03. > :11:04.constituency MP and that is not something to be proud of but I

:11:05. > :11:08.equally notice something the government is determined to

:11:09. > :11:15.confront. Turning on words to the transparency data we see, there is a

:11:16. > :11:19.key for doing so. If we don't have data we are perhaps the words of

:11:20. > :11:23.that commission to make progress blindly so we need evidence -based

:11:24. > :11:30.policies and the data to be able to prioritise our efforts. Timing also

:11:31. > :11:35.on words to access participation. I really welcome the broader

:11:36. > :11:39.definition that we see in this bill. From Access agreements to access and

:11:40. > :11:43.participation plans, meaning universities will be expected to

:11:44. > :11:45.welcome students from disadvantaged backgrounds and take steps to

:11:46. > :11:50.support them throughout their courses. As well as recruiting more

:11:51. > :11:54.students from disadvantaged backgrounds and if we can do all of

:11:55. > :11:57.those things we will meet the goals this government has rightly set out

:11:58. > :12:02.to get more people participating again in higher education. Let me

:12:03. > :12:08.also welcome a couple of measures from the children and social work

:12:09. > :12:12.Bill, and, in particular the men touring measure. This bill is

:12:13. > :12:16.sensible in requiring local authorities to publish a local offer

:12:17. > :12:20.setting out the support available for care leavers and ensuring they

:12:21. > :12:27.have access to pick a personal adviser to the age of 25, but I must

:12:28. > :12:30.say this has to be done well and I saw a constituency recently with the

:12:31. > :12:34.personal adviser who it appears was really able to meet his charge and

:12:35. > :12:39.quite unbelievably when he died so I was told it was usually at the side

:12:40. > :12:42.of the Lord for ten minutes. That is not what it should look like and the

:12:43. > :12:51.state ought to do better as a parent and mentor. I also welcome the

:12:52. > :12:53.measures for greater support at school and in the national Citizen

:12:54. > :13:03.service bill to promote volunteering and social action. There is more we

:13:04. > :13:07.can all do. We need to work in the way I am seeing from universities UK

:13:08. > :13:11.in the social mobility action group formed through the green paper and

:13:12. > :13:15.White Paper process behind the bill that we see here. They are rightly

:13:16. > :13:19.bringing together sectors of education and society to take a

:13:20. > :13:26.proper look at the systemic issues of peoples chances and choices. In

:13:27. > :13:30.my own constituency I am doing in response to the social mobility

:13:31. > :13:32.index of educationalists and business representatives, local

:13:33. > :13:37.authorities and the voluntary sector coming together to analyse what we

:13:38. > :13:40.can do. Much good work is going on and we want to identify the extra

:13:41. > :13:45.things we can do to make a difference. We know the factors

:13:46. > :13:51.involved are complex and deep rooted and we only stand to solve them by

:13:52. > :13:55.working together. Let me turn finally to the education for all

:13:56. > :14:00.Bill and bill we see the lesson of being willing to look at what works.

:14:01. > :14:02.I support the government was Mike education reforms because the

:14:03. > :14:06.reality is that skills in my constituency do need to improve if

:14:07. > :14:10.children are to get the best start in life. The there's no room for

:14:11. > :14:17.complacency when you see the index already referred to. If it has some

:14:18. > :14:22.of the poorest life chances in England, then the years spent in

:14:23. > :14:26.school are absolutely crucial. There is some improvement to be seen in

:14:27. > :14:31.the performance of schools in Norwich and Norfolk but we must not

:14:32. > :14:34.rest. I believe the academy structure can help in its

:14:35. > :14:39.improvement and they want to see the government focusing on building

:14:40. > :14:44.capacity in good trusts and leaders and recruiting and developing those

:14:45. > :14:49.teachers. I do also want to see local leaders in schools continue to

:14:50. > :14:53.use pupil premium money in the most imaginative and ambitious ways to

:14:54. > :14:57.help the poor students break out and there is much good work to be seen

:14:58. > :15:02.in the Southern trust toolkits to be able to do this. Finally, I welcome

:15:03. > :15:09.the promise to make school funding failure. Schools with the same

:15:10. > :15:14.pupils should get the same funding and that brings me back to my same

:15:15. > :15:16.starting point. Wherever you come from, whatever background, you

:15:17. > :15:22.should expect the same opportunities. Norwich children

:15:23. > :15:27.should have the same chances and choices as children from Newcastle,

:15:28. > :15:32.the new Forest Nottingham. As I said, this is what brought me into

:15:33. > :15:36.politics and what inspired many of us into Parliament. It should spot

:15:37. > :15:40.is on today afresh to make sure the chance of a decent life is

:15:41. > :15:45.universal, available in all communities and parts of the

:15:46. > :15:51.country, in every household, regardless of your background, and

:15:52. > :15:57.especially for the poorest. I always think of the Queen's Speech, the

:15:58. > :16:01.first one you and I went to, because it was the last time I spent any

:16:02. > :16:06.real time with my good friend Roman cookery most people will agree is a

:16:07. > :16:11.fine parliamentarian and you wonder what he would make the shambles in

:16:12. > :16:16.government today, why you have the former DWP secretary describing the

:16:17. > :16:19.Business Secretary is disappointing. His own Prime Minister disingenuous

:16:20. > :16:26.and his own Chancellor as nothing short of a liar, calling him

:16:27. > :16:30.Pinocchio. On the other side you have former DWP secretary and Mayor

:16:31. > :16:35.of London, former Defence Secretary, all saying, look out, the Turks are

:16:36. > :16:40.coming. Ten years ago they were seeing you we want you in Europe! It

:16:41. > :16:43.is against this backdrop that this most wasteful use of parliamentary

:16:44. > :16:50.time in history went ahead last week. What we're used to in this

:16:51. > :16:56.house, contempt from the leader of this country towards this house.

:16:57. > :17:00.Worse, contempt for our Queen, bringing a woman along here in her

:17:01. > :17:06.record-breaking 90s the year to deliver this piece of rubbish. Even

:17:07. > :17:13.worse than that, the contented sure the people who don't just send us

:17:14. > :17:21.here. It is that I want to reflect on in one particular area, someone

:17:22. > :17:25.from my part of the world, the ludicrous programme of English

:17:26. > :17:31.devolution. A farce, a joke and sadly deadly serious. This party,

:17:32. > :17:37.the Labour Party, is and always has been the party of devolution. In

:17:38. > :17:42.Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, London. All given real powers and

:17:43. > :17:49.real democracy all given accountability and crucially all

:17:50. > :17:52.with genuine engagement in democratic decision-making for the

:17:53. > :17:57.people affected. What have we got no? Devolution drawn up on the back

:17:58. > :18:02.of a cigarette packet and decisions taken behind closed doors by

:18:03. > :18:03.Treasury officials, local government senior officers and leaders of

:18:04. > :18:15.councils. Imposition of elected mayors without

:18:16. > :18:18.asking people if they want them. Ignoring the voices of those who

:18:19. > :18:43.have already rejected mayors in their own towns and cities.

:18:44. > :18:52.Austerity goes on and on. Agreeing a funding stream there is no basis in

:18:53. > :18:57.fairness or transparency. Cajoling locally elected representatives into

:18:58. > :19:05.agreeing poor deals as the only game in town. You take this already get

:19:06. > :19:10.nothing. Coming altogether under the crass PR title of the Northern

:19:11. > :19:14.Powerhouse, the Midlands engine, and God knows what else. The people of

:19:15. > :19:18.England deserve better than this. More and more people are recognising

:19:19. > :19:23.this, as more and more politicians of all colours. Indeed I have sat in

:19:24. > :19:28.amazement in the last few weeks and heard people who I object with on

:19:29. > :19:32.almost every issue and I have seen how very concerned in that part of

:19:33. > :19:35.the world, in East Anglia and the south-west in the West Midlands

:19:36. > :19:42.about the way this is going through the house. People are asking why is

:19:43. > :19:46.this happening this way? Why must we in the north-east be told we can't

:19:47. > :19:50.have this without ever people in Cornwall can have an authority

:19:51. > :19:54.without air. Why can't we have a proper consultation and a referendum

:19:55. > :19:58.that has happened everywhere else across the United Kingdom, quite

:19:59. > :20:04.rightly. Why do we not have a fair funding system? I would give you an

:20:05. > :20:09.example of that in my part of the world. Tees Valley, which is the

:20:10. > :20:14.south of the north-east, has agreed to proceed, which is their right,

:20:15. > :20:17.with a mayoral combined authority. The north-eastern part of the

:20:18. > :20:24.north-east has not as yet fully done the same. One of the sticking point

:20:25. > :20:29.is resources. We are asking in our part of the world why is it that the

:20:30. > :20:35.Tees Valley, which is an area much smaller than I was geographically,

:20:36. > :20:40.and with a population of about a quarter of hours, actually getting

:20:41. > :20:43.?15 million a year dedicated to their so-called powerhouse while we

:20:44. > :20:49.in the northern part are only getting ?30 million? It might just

:20:50. > :20:56.be coincidence that the Tees Valley is one of the homes of the Northern

:20:57. > :20:59.house -- Northern Powerhouse minister. Surely this can't have

:21:00. > :21:03.anything to do with this decision. That would almost be as absurd as

:21:04. > :21:07.suggesting that the greater Manchester area has anything to do

:21:08. > :21:12.with the fact that the Chancellor of the Exchequer lives on the fridges

:21:13. > :21:18.of the greater Manchester area. Surely even Pinocchio won't disagree

:21:19. > :21:22.with that. I am grateful to my honourable friend for giving way but

:21:23. > :21:25.I would like to make it clear that we do deserve the ?15 million and we

:21:26. > :21:30.will spend it vary widely -- wisely but we are deeply opposed to the

:21:31. > :21:34.imposition of an elected mayor. Can I say clearly to my honourable

:21:35. > :21:37.friend that I have no doubt that the people of Tees Valley deserve that

:21:38. > :21:41.and a lot more, given what they have gone through in the last 30 years,

:21:42. > :21:45.where they have been through deindustrialisation in the 1980s and

:21:46. > :21:50.they have taken a hit lately and they have faced issues that mean

:21:51. > :21:57.this is eager for the people of the Tees Valley and I am in no way

:21:58. > :22:03.begrudging that. How can it be fair that a population of four times the

:22:04. > :22:07.size does not get four times the money. I am a clear fan of

:22:08. > :22:11.devolution and I believe that we in the north-east do know what is

:22:12. > :22:14.better for us rather than the old it only ends and I do believe that we

:22:15. > :22:20.can and should be allowed the freedom to decide on what is best

:22:21. > :22:25.for our part of the world, but to do that we need sufficient resources to

:22:26. > :22:31.match responsibilities given to us. We need the to meet the needs we

:22:32. > :22:36.have. We need structures that are transparent and accountable and they

:22:37. > :22:40.should be negotiated by the people who have vested interests, the

:22:41. > :22:42.leader of the Council are decent and honourable people but they shouldn't

:22:43. > :22:46.be the ones sitting around the table saying this is what we want and we

:22:47. > :22:54.will agree without the course to the people in their local areas.

:22:55. > :22:59.Gateshead the council in the consultation have a list of 200

:23:00. > :23:02.people in 30 people replied. A poll in the north-east happened a couple

:23:03. > :23:06.of weeks ago and out of a population of 2 million people 511 people

:23:07. > :23:10.replied and the majority of them said they didn't really know enough

:23:11. > :23:15.about what was going on to make a value choice. What on earth is that

:23:16. > :23:18.showing but the way that this government is pushing through this

:23:19. > :23:24.programme has nothing to do with real transparency and real

:23:25. > :23:28.democracy? We need genuine in from the people and commitment. Without

:23:29. > :23:32.this this this is going nowhere. We need a range of powers to recognise

:23:33. > :23:38.the differences in the needs of people, for example in rural

:23:39. > :23:41.Northumberland and Durham and Tyneside people are different and

:23:42. > :23:45.they will have different demands. None of these have been fully

:23:46. > :23:49.addressed to our satisfaction and, common law might I suggest, as I

:23:50. > :23:54.said earlier, to people in other parts of England, including those in

:23:55. > :23:58.a number of places who have already signed up to these dodgy deals. I

:23:59. > :24:03.want to be very clear specifically on my borough of Gateshead who have

:24:04. > :24:07.refused to sign up to a deal that other people in the world have

:24:08. > :24:12.agreed to. We are walking away from this. We want this to work and we

:24:13. > :24:16.wanted to work properly and there is nothing in this Queen 's speech that

:24:17. > :24:26.makes me believe anything do with what we have been landed with. It is

:24:27. > :24:28.our pleasure to follow the honourable member for belated but I

:24:29. > :24:33.can't agree with his every statement. I would like to focus

:24:34. > :24:36.briefly on the welcome emphasis on research and innovation in the

:24:37. > :24:39.gracious speech. Properly drawn the higher education and research bill

:24:40. > :24:43.and the Digital economy Bill in the education for all built and the

:24:44. > :24:47.modern transport Bill should work together to upgrade the foundations

:24:48. > :24:50.of our knowledge economy, unlocking a UK robotics revolution in boosting

:24:51. > :24:53.our space sector and playing the infrastructure for our data hungry

:24:54. > :24:58.economy and crucially underpinning all of this with a pipeline of

:24:59. > :25:03.course stem cells and R investment. I am sure the chamber

:25:04. > :25:06.will be devastated to hear that I can't go into detail on all of these

:25:07. > :25:09.bills but overjoyed to hear that the science and Tech committee will

:25:10. > :25:13.shortly be publishing its report into space and satellites including

:25:14. > :25:36.its conclusions other space port and we have begun our enquiry

:25:37. > :25:40.into AI and robotics which is looking at driverless cars and we

:25:41. > :25:42.will ensure we report on time to ensure the progress of the modern

:25:43. > :25:45.transport Bill. Whether we are talking about AI and robotics or the

:25:46. > :25:47.space sector or our digital economy the scarlet thread that runs through

:25:48. > :25:50.our evidence that we are receiving is we have a stem skills crisis in

:25:51. > :25:53.the UK, especially core skills you need to be addressing this as a

:25:54. > :25:55.matter of urgency so while I welcome the investment that will flow from

:25:56. > :25:57.the Digital economy Bill I urge the government to reduce their long

:25:58. > :26:00.overdue digital strategy and make sure it takes into account the

:26:01. > :26:03.findings of the report and makes the scale of the skills challenge that

:26:04. > :26:05.we are facing. When it comes to the HD Bill I know that Minister is

:26:06. > :26:08.aware that the science and Tech committee have been taking a keen

:26:09. > :26:11.interest and I am glad to see that a number of concerns that have been

:26:12. > :26:17.raised by the community have been taken on board already and I am glad

:26:18. > :26:21.in particular to hear that the Taff timetable has been amended and the

:26:22. > :26:25.technical paper has been published alongside it although, as we have

:26:26. > :26:29.heard, there will be a rigorous debate about not just that timetable

:26:30. > :26:33.but also the quality and metrics measured which will be appropriate

:26:34. > :26:38.to make sure they deliver what they intend to. I also welcome the

:26:39. > :26:41.restating of the holding principle and the government intention to

:26:42. > :26:47.enshrine the dual support system into law by bringing all funding

:26:48. > :26:51.into UK are I will require separation in practice as well as

:26:52. > :26:54.principle if we are to preserve the allocation on which our world

:26:55. > :27:01.leading system is founded. The quality of leadership will play a

:27:02. > :27:06.key role in delivering this but we can't leave the health of our

:27:07. > :27:09.science and immigration system to the whim of personality. We have to

:27:10. > :27:14.make sure the structures we have set in place safeguard the autonomy and

:27:15. > :27:17.the strong voices of existing research councils while achieving

:27:18. > :27:21.the stated goal of better interdisciplinary working. With a

:27:22. > :27:25.single accounting office I feel this will be challenging. There has also

:27:26. > :27:28.been concern about in the rate UK being merged into this. That is

:27:29. > :27:32.because the Budget are not ring fenced and there is fear of

:27:33. > :27:36.annexation. Many have welcomed the fact that research UK has been

:27:37. > :27:50.renamed and it puts innovation funding has been

:27:51. > :27:52.hypothecated but in practice the questions remain. How will innovate

:27:53. > :27:54.UK retain a clear and separate business facing focus, and not

:27:55. > :27:58.become research facing? How in this new structure will we stimulate our

:27:59. > :28:02.innovation structure so that it comes to match our research sector

:28:03. > :28:06.for excellence and efficiency? To achieve that we need to know where

:28:07. > :28:10.we are going and what the visionaries. Not just of the H E

:28:11. > :28:14.Bill but of this clutch of innovation driven bills. How will we

:28:15. > :28:18.make sure that we join them up seamlessly against all of the

:28:19. > :28:23.natural impetus of the Whitehall machine? On H E the government has

:28:24. > :28:27.been clear of their intent on competitiveness and raising teaching

:28:28. > :28:31.standards and transparency in driving improvements in diversity

:28:32. > :28:36.and few would argue with those aims. On research and innovation I think

:28:37. > :28:39.the scale of the not matched by the ambition and merging all councils to

:28:40. > :28:44.improve into patisserie at working, I think we can do better than that.

:28:45. > :28:47.Reform on this scale is disruptive and it requires buying and I think

:28:48. > :28:50.the government needs to clearly articulate its vision for the future

:28:51. > :28:53.of research and research and innovation and explain not just why

:28:54. > :28:59.these disruptive changes will be worth it in the end but how we will

:29:00. > :29:06.safeguard our science and innovation ecosystem, a national treasure, from

:29:07. > :29:09.unintended harm. I welcome the oversight over the sustainability of

:29:10. > :29:14.a cheaper given the removal of the structural link between teaching and

:29:15. > :29:18.research, one of the key strengths of our system in this process, I

:29:19. > :29:22.would like to know who has responsibility for monitoring the

:29:23. > :29:25.health of our whole system as we progress through these reforms. It

:29:26. > :29:31.is possibly a job envisaged for the Council for science and technology

:29:32. > :29:35.in lieu of the ministerial committee but I doubt their capacity to

:29:36. > :29:38.deliver that. There should be closer links with the government through a

:29:39. > :29:41.ministerial committee and a government white perspective on

:29:42. > :29:44.research priorities but this committee was supposed to be not

:29:45. > :29:48.just about scanning and health checking but also to deliver

:29:49. > :29:51.high-level leadership and accountability for science and

:29:52. > :29:55.innovation across government and it is not clear to me how they will be

:29:56. > :30:00.able to deliver on that function. We have long had a Chancellor who

:30:01. > :30:02.prioritised science and innovation fund even in times of austerity

:30:03. > :30:27.because he recognises that science and innovation is a

:30:28. > :30:29.strategic national investment, not subsidy. We have a major programme

:30:30. > :30:32.of cross government form to match that ambition and I congratulate the

:30:33. > :30:34.government for recognising we have no time to lose in backing science

:30:35. > :30:37.and innovation is a key strategic asset and a driver of our national

:30:38. > :30:39.knowledge economy but we should be under no illusions. The higher

:30:40. > :30:42.education and research bill alone is far reaching and it should not be

:30:43. > :30:44.taken lightly. We speak often that we punch way above our weight in

:30:45. > :30:47.science and innovation and we have the worlds top six universities and

:30:48. > :30:49.we should proud of our research base but we should never forget the

:30:50. > :30:51.research this takes. As we contemplate structures and

:30:52. > :30:55.regulations it is our responsibility in this table -- chamber to

:30:56. > :30:58.jealously guard their health and vibrancy of our science and

:30:59. > :31:01.technology base as a strategic national asset and go further and

:31:02. > :31:06.ensure the decisions that we make to more than maintain the status quo

:31:07. > :31:09.and the decisions we make with these innovative and forward thinking

:31:10. > :31:13.bills should make sure that we take this extraordinary jewel in our

:31:14. > :31:16.crown and supercharger, matching infrastructure with skills and

:31:17. > :31:21.excellence with efficiency and delivering in the process a science

:31:22. > :31:25.and innovation ecosystem that drives not just our economy as more

:31:26. > :31:28.productively and creatively but also fuels the very discoveries that will

:31:29. > :31:38.unlock the great global challenges of our age. Thank you for allowing

:31:39. > :31:42.me to speak on the Queen's Speech debate. The thing make was a one

:31:43. > :31:47.nation speech and I will be speaking mainly about my nation, -- their

:31:48. > :31:52.Queen's Speech was a one nation speech and I will be speaking mainly

:31:53. > :31:55.about my nation, Scotland. It is a UK Parliament that I am elected as a

:31:56. > :31:59.member of the UK Parliament had come from Scotland for the Met of the

:32:00. > :32:05.members opposite. Are many things to welcome in this speech but many more

:32:06. > :32:11.things that can be improved on, given the experiences we have in

:32:12. > :32:18.Scotland. It would appear that the Cabinet Secretary has been complete

:32:19. > :32:21.and there should be no forced academic I -- acadamisation of

:32:22. > :32:28.schools in England and that is good but I have heard it rumoured that

:32:29. > :32:31.happens to education resource funding to local authorities might

:32:32. > :32:36.mean that they may not have the cash that helped them improve services to

:32:37. > :32:41.schools in their areas and that then that would lead them to become

:32:42. > :32:47.academies in any case. This kind of acadamisation has no proof, there

:32:48. > :32:53.has been no proof given that it improves educational attainment. I

:32:54. > :32:59.didn't say that, Michael Wilshaw said that. Free schools as well came

:33:00. > :33:04.from Sweden, and it would appear that in Sweden they have decided

:33:05. > :33:08.that it is now a political failure. I am very glad that we have neither

:33:09. > :33:15.at academies nor free schools in Scotland.

:33:16. > :33:26.Could I also moved the higher education and research bill for

:33:27. > :33:32.England, I beg your pardon, because that has at least the laudable aim

:33:33. > :33:38.of improving access to higher education and that has to be

:33:39. > :33:41.welcomed across the United Kingdom. However, I find it difficult to

:33:42. > :33:49.believe that widening access can actually happen with a government

:33:50. > :33:56.that has systematically cut funding to poorer students since 2015 and

:33:57. > :34:02.before. Maintenance grants being abolished, disabled students'

:34:03. > :34:04.allowances cut, the abolition of the national scholarship programme. The

:34:05. > :34:11.abolition of the educational maintenance allowance, which helps

:34:12. > :34:18.poorer students in schools and further education. How can they

:34:19. > :34:23.possibly move on to access higher education if they are crippled by

:34:24. > :34:28.debt. In England as well, the number of part-time students has been

:34:29. > :34:36.reduced by 38%, and there are now 180,000 fewer mature students in

:34:37. > :34:43.higher education since 2010. As a former further education lecturer, I

:34:44. > :34:48.find that really unconscionable. Mature students bring so much to

:34:49. > :34:57.higher and further education that to actually cut their chances is

:34:58. > :35:05.absolutely impossible to understand, why any government would do that. In

:35:06. > :35:11.Scotland, we don't charge fees, and we still pay educational maintenance

:35:12. > :35:16.allowance and we actively encourage students to move forward in higher

:35:17. > :35:22.education. We actually also really try hard to encourage them. We don't

:35:23. > :35:27.ask universities just to publish information on the types of students

:35:28. > :35:36.from deprived backgrounds who assess their services. We actually have

:35:37. > :35:39.legislated so that universities must show that they are actually

:35:40. > :35:45.improving access for our most disadvantaged students. I would

:35:46. > :35:53.actually encourage this government to look at what Scotland has done in

:35:54. > :35:59.this regard. It is really important that you not only ask but tell

:36:00. > :36:03.universities that they must encourage people from BME

:36:04. > :36:09.backgrounds, disabled students and from the most disadvantaged

:36:10. > :36:16.backgrounds. One of the these and many disadvantaged students don't go

:36:17. > :36:20.to university is the cost. -- one of the reasons. In Scotland we believe

:36:21. > :36:26.students should access university based on ability, not the ability to

:36:27. > :36:33.pay. The Right Honourable member for Gordon has that in a rock at

:36:34. > :36:36.Edinburgh at Herriot Watt University, and it is a subject that

:36:37. > :36:43.the majority of people in Scotland is totally agree with. I am grateful

:36:44. > :36:49.to her forgiving way and I am listening carefully what she says,

:36:50. > :36:52.but can she promised to go away and read a report from the social

:36:53. > :36:58.mobility and child poverty commission entitled elitism in

:36:59. > :37:02.Scotland? I certainly well, but can I also remind the Honourable lady

:37:03. > :37:06.that the First Minister has been re-elected on a huge mandate to put

:37:07. > :37:12.education at the heart of her government and has asked to be

:37:13. > :37:17.judged on her progress in it. I believe and I think there are many

:37:18. > :37:20.people in England and Wales and Northern Ireland to agree that

:37:21. > :37:26.university fees are huge barrier to higher and further education. I have

:37:27. > :37:31.a great respect for you if you have taught within this system but that

:37:32. > :37:35.doesn't seem like a very good one nation system if for example my son

:37:36. > :37:41.came to university in Scotland, he has two not only do a four-year

:37:42. > :37:48.system but he has to pay whereas his colleagues all over free. Can I say,

:37:49. > :37:52.that if Scotland was independent that wouldn't happen because we

:37:53. > :37:55.would be members of the European Union and that wouldn't happen, so

:37:56. > :38:03.the answer is to give us our independence. Can I just also say

:38:04. > :38:07.that while I welcome a lot of what is in this report, it really is

:38:08. > :38:12.important and I think everyone across the chamber should agree,

:38:13. > :38:18.that encouraging that you are disadvantaged people to university

:38:19. > :38:25.only increases the standing of any country within the UK. Can I just

:38:26. > :38:31.make a little progress? Education doesn't just benefit the person who

:38:32. > :38:37.gets it. I stand here as someone who went to university in 1967 in a time

:38:38. > :38:42.when women didn't go to university, woman of my background didn't get a

:38:43. > :38:47.chance, and I had very farseeing parents who actively encouraged me

:38:48. > :38:52.to make the best of what I could. As a result of that, I have been able

:38:53. > :38:55.to contribute back to Scotland greatly, and as I have already said

:38:56. > :39:00.I ended up working in further education and for someone in this

:39:01. > :39:04.chamber, and I don't want to name names, to say that educational and

:39:05. > :39:13.benefits those who get it, is a total piece of nonsense. I totally

:39:14. > :39:17.agree with that having more and more of our fellow citizens in higher

:39:18. > :39:23.education is good for the whole nation and this is why we are here

:39:24. > :39:25.to promote that, which she therefore welcome that the proportion of young

:39:26. > :39:37.people from disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education is

:39:38. > :39:42.actually up? I do welcome any increase in access for people from

:39:43. > :39:46.poorer backgrounds but I don't think accessing education should be at the

:39:47. > :39:52.risk of being in debt for the remainder of quite a long part of

:39:53. > :40:00.your adult life. I will give way later. I would like to make

:40:01. > :40:11.progress. The National Union of Students in Scotland has said, and

:40:12. > :40:16.here in England, has said that it is really likely that higher education

:40:17. > :40:26.fees will rise yet again and that just underlines the point that I

:40:27. > :40:29.would make. I will give way. I listened with great interest and it

:40:30. > :40:33.is all very well and good in the points being made but I would like

:40:34. > :40:42.to ask one simple question. We had the money come from from taking away

:40:43. > :40:46.the fees? Government is about choices. Could I suggest that you

:40:47. > :40:51.get rid of Trident and plug the money into education? That is a

:40:52. > :40:57.simple choice. That is the obvious choice for me and it may not be for

:40:58. > :41:02.you, but there are other things that you can do. Being in government

:41:03. > :41:08.especially is about choices. That is what this government needs to look

:41:09. > :41:14.at, the choices it is making by increasing the likelihood of higher

:41:15. > :41:18.fees for university students. Could I move onto another bill that is

:41:19. > :41:25.part of the Queen's Speech. That is the children in social work Bill. As

:41:26. > :41:30.the chair of the education select committee has already alluded to, we

:41:31. > :41:37.have the port and the commission not ready to be published so I have to

:41:38. > :41:41.be very careful as to what I say, but some part of a former report

:41:42. > :41:46.looked at looked after children and their mental health needs, and that

:41:47. > :41:49.was quite an eye-opener for me. Everything I do in the education

:41:50. > :41:53.select committee tends to be an eye-opener because a lot of what I

:41:54. > :41:59.do I don't understand until I have gone through writing a report. It is

:42:00. > :42:06.a totally different situation. In Scotland, we have a system for

:42:07. > :42:12.looked after children and all children, getting it right for every

:42:13. > :42:26.child, which is very child focused and based on an understanding of

:42:27. > :42:30.tackling equality. Thank you. A great pleasure to follow the member

:42:31. > :42:37.for Motherwell but also to see you in the chair but I have to say prior

:42:38. > :42:42.to your arrival you missed a parade of relatively churlish speeches from

:42:43. > :42:46.the opposition, which I find quite surprising, because to me the

:42:47. > :42:51.Queen's Speech appears to be a smorgasbord of legislative delights,

:42:52. > :42:56.a legislative milk Tray filled with hard and soft centres from which you

:42:57. > :43:02.can take your pet. Perhaps he was worried he would get the coffee

:43:03. > :43:14.cream. In the speech which he described as rubbish, I found a huge

:43:15. > :43:17.amount of value first, as the lady for Motherwell referred to the

:43:18. > :43:23.children in social work Bill as possibly the most important bill in

:43:24. > :43:29.this session. It was in his conference speech in October the

:43:30. > :43:33.year before last that the Prime Minister electrified the room by

:43:34. > :43:40.painting a fairly bleak picture of the lives of children in care, four

:43:41. > :43:44.times more likely to commit suicide than the fact 70% more prostitutes

:43:45. > :43:49.in the UK have been through the care assistant, and he told us on then

:43:50. > :43:54.that the care system shamed us all as a nation and he was quite right.

:43:55. > :43:58.It is a tribute to him and to the member for Crewe and Nantwich, the

:43:59. > :44:03.Minister for children, that this bill has appeared. That minister

:44:04. > :44:08.said at the outset that his mission was to put children in care front

:44:09. > :44:12.and centre of the political debate, and he appears to have achieved

:44:13. > :44:16.that. There were many measures in the bill which would be absolutely

:44:17. > :44:22.vital to those children's lives in the future. Two in particular, first

:44:23. > :44:25.the focus on getting local authorities to recognise their

:44:26. > :44:27.corporate parents and these children are their charges and should not

:44:28. > :44:32.necessarily be competing for attention and resources with other

:44:33. > :44:38.issues, potholes and nephews and whatever it might be. You should not

:44:39. > :44:42.put your own children second to other requirements in your house.

:44:43. > :44:47.Why would you put children in care are second or third or last in the

:44:48. > :44:50.list in the priorities for local authorities and defining more

:44:51. > :44:55.clearly for local authorities what their responsibilities are for their

:44:56. > :44:58.children and what the obligations are, and they hacked they have to

:44:59. > :45:03.publish and consult on those locally with people will be vital and

:45:04. > :45:06.creating transparency around how these children live in all our

:45:07. > :45:12.communities. Secondly, the concentration on leaving care. It

:45:13. > :45:18.may well be that looking after these children not terribly well, but when

:45:19. > :45:25.they leave care our obligation does not cease. And so providing each of

:45:26. > :45:29.them with an adviser to the age of 25, improving leaving care services

:45:30. > :45:33.and in particular again getting local authorities to publish their

:45:34. > :45:37.plans for the link year, to consult on them, allowing local people to

:45:38. > :45:41.see what is being done in their name to all of our collective children. I

:45:42. > :45:46.think that'll be absolutely vital for driving standards up. There are

:45:47. > :45:53.two areas I would like to see added to the bill and I put the Minister

:45:54. > :45:58.on notice. If it is right that children leaving care should have an

:45:59. > :46:02.adviser up to 25, surely it is also right that we look back earlier than

:46:03. > :46:09.their lives to see if we might be able to influence their outcomes. In

:46:10. > :46:12.particular, the educational attainment is extremely low. It

:46:13. > :46:16.strikes me it would be a sensible thing for us to do for those

:46:17. > :46:21.children underachieving, what any parent would do, which is try and

:46:22. > :46:26.look elsewhere outside of school for assistance. In London, I have to

:46:27. > :46:30.know there's a strange phenomenon of parents whose children are entitled

:46:31. > :46:36.free school meals still managing to scrape together the money to get

:46:37. > :46:41.them a tutor. I do not understand why local authorities do not look at

:46:42. > :46:44.children in care, and see if they are underachieving we should be

:46:45. > :46:48.providing them with tutors. The government has done lots and

:46:49. > :46:52.designated teachers and the resorts around virtual headteachers but

:46:53. > :46:54.there is no substitute to one-to-one assistance to children in care as

:46:55. > :47:02.they go through particularly the early years of education. 4-7 are

:47:03. > :47:07.critical to setting the standard for future life and death they were to

:47:08. > :47:12.get one-to-one tuition as often the most privileged kids do then I think

:47:13. > :47:15.it would make a big difference. My honourable friend is making a

:47:16. > :47:20.powerful point and I wondered if you might comment on does he think the

:47:21. > :47:27.suggestions you are making would link well into our prisons reform?

:47:28. > :47:31.Author, and I am sorry to interrupt, but now we're in the second session

:47:32. > :47:38.of this Parliament, I cannot allow members to use the word you when

:47:39. > :47:47.they mean the honourable gentleman. If one says you it means the chair,

:47:48. > :47:51.and we have been quite easy in the first part, but from now on we have

:47:52. > :47:54.to observe those niceties correctly, but sorry to connect the honourable

:47:55. > :48:03.lady and she me finish an intervention.

:48:04. > :48:10.Thank you, I am suitably reprimanded. These suggestions in

:48:11. > :48:14.the care system to me seem to link very well with our reforms of the

:48:15. > :48:17.prison system as well where too often those people in prison have

:48:18. > :48:24.gone through so many care systems themselves. Absolutely right. I am

:48:25. > :48:29.going to come onto some of those points a little later. Incidentally,

:48:30. > :48:35.Madam Deputy chair, use is a term of abuse in Liverpool so you absolutely

:48:36. > :48:41.shouldn't allow that in the chamber. Secondly, private schools which have

:48:42. > :48:44.charitable stations. I wonder if we can encourage private schools to

:48:45. > :48:49.take on children in care. By my maths if each private school where

:48:50. > :48:54.to take about 20 children, which is not a huge amount in 400 or 600 in

:48:55. > :48:59.the school, it would mean that every child in care can go to a private

:49:00. > :49:02.school. Given that they benefit from charitable status I think maybe they

:49:03. > :49:09.should look a little further than the community and let our

:49:10. > :49:11.disadvantaged children take advantage of the Philistines they

:49:12. > :49:17.provide. Just rattle through some issues. The initiatives that are

:49:18. > :49:21.proposed on prisons and courts reform, policing and crime and

:49:22. > :49:25.allowing greater innovation will be absolutely vital. I burned the scars

:49:26. > :49:29.on my back, as famous Labour politician once said, from trying to

:49:30. > :49:34.do a moderate amount of innovation in the criminal justice system at

:49:35. > :49:38.Feltham. We attempted to look at youth offending from the different

:49:39. > :49:41.point of view. It was an incredibly difficult process and incredibly

:49:42. > :49:45.bureaucratic and in the end it foundered in a morass of about 19

:49:46. > :49:52.organisations that were required to agree and a Ministry of Justice was

:49:53. > :49:55.broadly reluctant. Getting innovation into the criminal justice

:49:56. > :49:57.system and the ability of people on the ground to create and design

:49:58. > :50:01.their own solutions to the problems we face such as education in prisons

:50:02. > :50:08.will be absolutely key. The Digital economy Bill is incredibly exciting.

:50:09. > :50:12.For those of us who have rural constituencies recognising that 25%

:50:13. > :50:17.of all small businesses are registered in rural areas, that is

:50:18. > :50:21.no .5 million small businesses, allowing people to the right to

:50:22. > :50:28.demand service obligation of ten miles an hour for the Internet

:50:29. > :50:33.absolutely critical. 12% of GDP now comes through the Internet in the UK

:50:34. > :50:41.and so it is vital, if we are to grow as an economy, that we connect

:50:42. > :50:44.all of those people up. The neighbourhood planning Bill. Many of

:50:45. > :50:49.us have neighbourhood plans going through in our constituencies and it

:50:50. > :50:53.is completely vital if the government is to get people to take

:50:54. > :50:59.up its planning policy and take up neighbourhood plans, that they are

:51:00. > :51:03.strengthened and protected and I understand the bill is designed to

:51:04. > :51:05.do that and to particularly allow local authorities greater scope to

:51:06. > :51:11.protect their five-year housing supply figures so that developers

:51:12. > :51:16.cannot constantly challenged and wear them down by a war of attrition

:51:17. > :51:19.to get their way on speculative developments. There will be many

:51:20. > :51:25.rural members watching that bill with care and of course elsewhere.

:51:26. > :51:29.The modern transport Bill, again very exciting and if we are to be at

:51:30. > :51:33.the forefront of these developments and grabbed the technology for

:51:34. > :51:36.ourselves, rather than as the British normally do, let the

:51:37. > :51:40.Japanese miniaturising time the Americans consume arise it, we

:51:41. > :51:43.should take some of the things we have invented and exploit them,

:51:44. > :51:47.particularly as modern transport is focused around autonomous cars, I

:51:48. > :51:52.would urge ministers to look at the hydrogen economy. There is no doubt

:51:53. > :51:56.that the fuel cell is coming. Toyota have already launched the next

:51:57. > :52:01.generation previous in California. It is a hydrogen fuel cell car and

:52:02. > :52:05.powered by hydrogen with all it omits is water with hydrogen being

:52:06. > :52:11.the most abundant chemical in the universe it holds out the option of,

:52:12. > :52:16.-- extremely cheap power for all of us and using this bill to accelerate

:52:17. > :52:19.our adoption of that technology will be key. Finally the better markets

:52:20. > :52:27.Bill holds out enormous promise for consumers. I have one plea, please

:52:28. > :52:30.can we use the consumer to get rid of the requirement to produce

:52:31. > :52:34.utility bills wherever we go. For those of us who are paperless these

:52:35. > :52:37.things are anachronistic and the Foresters of Britain will rejoice at

:52:38. > :52:47.the trees that will not require to be felt as a result. It is a

:52:48. > :52:51.pleasure to follow the honourable gentleman from North West Hampshire.

:52:52. > :52:55.I did actually agree with much of what he said. It was also good to

:52:56. > :52:59.follow my honourable friend, the member for Blaydon, who made a

:53:00. > :53:03.powerful speech about the current devolution offer from the

:53:04. > :53:08.government. He is right to raise concerns but the deal that has been

:53:09. > :53:12.presented must be a stepping stone for the real devolution that the

:53:13. > :53:16.north-east deserves and I hope that Gateshead can find their way back

:53:17. > :53:22.into rejoining the process as clearly as a whole we are much

:53:23. > :53:26.stronger together as a region. Madam Deputy Speaker, I, along with many

:53:27. > :53:32.members on both sides of this house, cautiously welcomed the climb-down

:53:33. > :53:37.that appeared to have taken place to the nonsensical idea of forcing all

:53:38. > :53:41.schools down the path of academy ovation by Twenty20 and it is true

:53:42. > :53:45.that in the education for all Bill announced during the Queen 's speech

:53:46. > :53:50.last week it did not include the wholesale for standardisation of our

:53:51. > :53:54.schools through legislation, but the government does continue to state

:53:55. > :53:57.that this Bill is being brought forward to lay forward foundations

:53:58. > :54:01.for educational excellence in all schools, giving every child the best

:54:02. > :54:06.start in life, and aim which clearly every member in this chamber shares,

:54:07. > :54:10.but this will be done by moving towards a system where all schools

:54:11. > :54:16.are academies and all schools are fairly funded and despite there

:54:17. > :54:20.being no evidence that academies and leads to improved performance we are

:54:21. > :54:25.informed that one of the main benefits of the bill would be to

:54:26. > :54:29.convert schools to economies -- academies in the worst performing

:54:30. > :54:32.local authorities and those that can no longer viably support the

:54:33. > :54:38.remaining schools so a new system thereby good and outstanding schools

:54:39. > :54:42.can take place. Given that the education services grant which fans

:54:43. > :54:45.local authority spending on school services on the management of school

:54:46. > :54:51.buildings on the tackling of nonattendance was cut by 200,000,020

:54:52. > :55:00.16 and is to be cut by 600 million, or 75% in later years, it would be

:55:01. > :55:03.helpful if the Minister could clarify which councils the

:55:04. > :55:07.government expects will still be able to viably support their local

:55:08. > :55:15.schools in such financial circumstances. The bill announced by

:55:16. > :55:21.the Queen 's speech will mean that good and outstanding schools can be

:55:22. > :55:24.made to convert regardless of the professional judgment of school

:55:25. > :55:28.leaders and the judgment of parents and local authorities. Schools have

:55:29. > :55:31.had the chance to convert the many years and have considered and

:55:32. > :55:36.rejected this as a way forward but we know that many other schools are

:55:37. > :55:40.already choosing, and I put that non-modal verb' is to go down the

:55:41. > :55:44.path of Academy isolation because they would rather jump before they

:55:45. > :55:48.are pushed. Many will have already started down that path following the

:55:49. > :55:52.announcement of forced my station for all schools at the Budget and

:55:53. > :55:57.will continue down that because they can quite clearly see that the

:55:58. > :56:04.government 's U-turn and promises of listening to everyone's concerns are

:56:05. > :56:07.clearly not all that they are cracked up to be. The education for

:56:08. > :56:08.all Bill also promises to make school funding fairer, with a

:56:09. > :56:12.national funding formula that schools with the same kind of pupils

:56:13. > :56:16.get the same funding. Could the Minister therefore confirm whether

:56:17. > :56:19.the government intends to go ahead with the area cost adjustment

:56:20. > :56:24.multiplier to the formula which would see schools in my region of

:56:25. > :56:27.the north-east losing out? As a director of schools north-east has

:56:28. > :56:31.commented, ironically the government is fuelling the North/ South divide

:56:32. > :56:35.in education by proposing to fund schools with similar characteristics

:56:36. > :56:40.differently, based on the location. This means our region will be losing

:56:41. > :56:45.funds to the Southwart most high cost areas are located on the

:56:46. > :56:49.rationale behind this is flawed. These concerns are extremely timely,

:56:50. > :56:52.given the findings of an IP are North report earlier this week that

:56:53. > :56:57.secondary schools in the North of England, or the Northern Powerhouse

:56:58. > :57:04.to give us our correct title, are currently receiving ?1300 per pupil

:57:05. > :57:08.( schools in London. This situation clearly needs rectifying and if the

:57:09. > :57:14.Northern Powerhouse is ever to become anything more than an empty

:57:15. > :57:17.announcement. I also wanted to comment on the proposed children and

:57:18. > :57:21.social work bill that seeks to shorten the time it takes for

:57:22. > :57:25.children to be placed within a stable and loving family, as well as

:57:26. > :57:30.facing additional restrictions on local authorities so that children

:57:31. > :57:34.are placed with support. There is not a member in the house that would

:57:35. > :57:37.not support those aims. We have to look at the prison trust report

:57:38. > :57:42.published this week to be reminded that too many of our children in

:57:43. > :57:46.care are being let down. With the report finding that up to half of

:57:47. > :57:50.the children in England and well have at some point been in the care

:57:51. > :57:54.system, indeed 20% of the adult prison population had been in care,

:57:55. > :57:58.which suggest that something has gone very badly wrong in our system

:57:59. > :58:02.and as Barnardos have highlighted, the bill will be the second piece of

:58:03. > :58:05.legislation to address adoption in as many years so the government

:58:06. > :58:14.rhetoric must be translated into action. As Barnardos also made clear

:58:15. > :58:17.it is a complex challenge. 3000 children in the UK are waiting to be

:58:18. > :58:20.adopted as some are waiting two years or even three and a half when

:58:21. > :58:29.they are older. I strongly welcome any measures that help to speed this

:58:30. > :58:32.process up. For those children leaving the care system every year

:58:33. > :58:39.the government is pledging to ensure greater support as well as the

:58:40. > :58:43.chance to further support until 25. We know the current service

:58:44. > :58:46.provision simply does not meet demand and I would argue it does not

:58:47. > :58:54.meet demand for a crucial missing piece of the jigsaw. The NSPCC's

:58:55. > :58:57.it's time campaign has powerfully -- powerfully highlighted that almost

:58:58. > :59:00.two thirds of children and young people entering the care system have

:59:01. > :59:04.experienced abuse and neglect and they are more likely to have mental

:59:05. > :59:07.health needs. But we are not properly counting of tracking abused

:59:08. > :59:11.and neglected children, including those in the care system, so we

:59:12. > :59:14.don't know if they are receiving the correct therapeutic support at the

:59:15. > :59:17.time that they needed to rebuild their lives and the findings of the

:59:18. > :59:20.education select committee enquiry into well-being and mental health of

:59:21. > :59:25.looked after children published last month were truly stark and must be

:59:26. > :59:28.addressed if the government is serious about tackling this issue.

:59:29. > :59:32.The committee heard incredibly powerful evidence from a 16-year-old

:59:33. > :59:37.young woman in foster care who told us she had been waiting for over two

:59:38. > :59:43.and a half years but had been unable to access a service because she had

:59:44. > :59:50.not been in a stable placement. She had been moved 13 times. Clearly

:59:51. > :59:55.services are unwilling to help a child even if they move placement in

:59:56. > :59:58.the same local authority area and that is unacceptable and

:59:59. > :00:01.counter-productive. I would suggest that it is no good pledging support

:00:02. > :00:05.to children and young people on leaving the care system if they

:00:06. > :00:09.don't actually provide them with the support they need on entering it and

:00:10. > :00:14.that is why the education select committee widely recommended that

:00:15. > :00:17.all children should have a specialist mental health assessment

:00:18. > :00:21.on entry into care and regular during their time in care and they

:00:22. > :00:24.should ensure that they receive and appropriate advice before they

:00:25. > :00:28.reached crisis point. It is a key change that we need to see if we are

:00:29. > :00:32.to increase the number of adoptions and long-term placement and in proof

:00:33. > :00:36.the outcomes of those leaving the care system. It is a fundamental

:00:37. > :00:39.building block to those achieving those aims are not an added extra

:00:40. > :00:46.and I would strongly urge the government to consider including it

:00:47. > :00:51.as part of these reforms. Education is the building block for our

:00:52. > :00:55.society. It is the foundation of all opportunities and that is why I am

:00:56. > :01:00.delighted that this government is putting, really creating at the

:01:01. > :01:02.heart of an objective of getting greater social mobility and ensuring

:01:03. > :01:07.we have a fine education standards for all. Delivering on the

:01:08. > :01:10.Conservative Party manifesto of a new national funding formula is

:01:11. > :01:14.something I am proud of and something that will ensure that all

:01:15. > :01:17.schools in Chippenham should get the money they deserve. A fairer funding

:01:18. > :01:20.system is something I have campaigned for for a long time, well

:01:21. > :01:25.before the election, and I pay tribute to all the members of the

:01:26. > :01:30.fairer funding campaign and all of the thousands of pupils and parents

:01:31. > :01:33.and teachers in my constituency and constituencies up and down the

:01:34. > :01:53.country that put pressure on the government to achieve this

:01:54. > :01:57.early. The two long school funding has been extremely unfair towards

:01:58. > :01:58.pupils, particularly in rural areas and market towns. Successive

:01:59. > :02:00.governments have done generations of children ages service and

:02:01. > :02:02.fundamentally an injustice. The effects have been exasperated in

:02:03. > :02:05.rural areas where services are far more expensive to deliver. The most

:02:06. > :02:07.important aim of the new education Bill is that it will close the

:02:08. > :02:10.productivity gap between the UK and other countries. The skills plan

:02:11. > :02:12.will set out an ambitious form to technical education to ensure that

:02:13. > :02:17.young people are equipped with the skills that they need to succeed.

:02:18. > :02:22.The simple fact is that an under skilled workforce limits the company

:02:23. > :02:26.'s growth and their prospects and, in turn, the prospects of the

:02:27. > :02:30.country. If our labour side don't -- supply does not map to our jobs

:02:31. > :02:35.market the result means that companies falls to locate elsewhere

:02:36. > :02:40.or, in fact, close. This effect is real and personally my constituency,

:02:41. > :02:44.one that I hear week in, week out. The UK is the 11th biggest

:02:45. > :02:48.manufacturer in the world and I was delighted to hear measures within

:02:49. > :02:52.the Queen's Speech to support the electric car industry, something

:02:53. > :02:56.that is a massive opportunity for us and one that I hope will help

:02:57. > :02:57.Wiltshire businesses and we can capitalise on as can other areas in

:02:58. > :03:05.the country. Investment and research and

:03:06. > :03:12.development is welcome but will only be welcome when it is coupled with

:03:13. > :03:16.addressing the skills gap to ensure we remain competitive research and

:03:17. > :03:21.development. We must not forget the severe shortage we have with

:03:22. > :03:23.engineers. According to the institution of engineering and

:03:24. > :03:28.technology, the country will need almost 2 million ex-engineers or the

:03:29. > :03:33.next seven years. This could severely limit their ability to make

:03:34. > :03:38.the most of government investment. There are more teachers with degrees

:03:39. > :03:45.and more pupils doing maths and sciences, but there are still

:03:46. > :03:52.massive shortages and the number of females in STEM careers are still

:03:53. > :03:55.low. The number of women in engineering is just 6%. Something

:03:56. > :04:01.needs to be done to address this and I hope the new education bill does

:04:02. > :04:04.something about this. I am delighted by what the government has already

:04:05. > :04:10.done to join up the link between businesses and schools. A school in

:04:11. > :04:14.my constituency I visited last week have an excellent school they just

:04:15. > :04:18.launched, an innovative scheme focusing on membership of local

:04:19. > :04:22.businesses that then supports the Korean education, advice and

:04:23. > :04:26.opportunities, which in turn funds the work experience programme. This

:04:27. > :04:31.is the blueprint of what we should be doing up and down the country and

:04:32. > :04:35.I would like to invite the Minister Secretary of State on 15th July to

:04:36. > :04:43.the opening of this, to a programme which really could be utilised

:04:44. > :04:45.elsewhere. It is placing the emphasis on local labour market

:04:46. > :04:51.intelligence and informing young people about jobs available.

:04:52. > :04:57.Informed choices would ensure areas like Wiltshire can reverse the drain

:04:58. > :05:02.away of youth that is happening in constituencies like mine so we can

:05:03. > :05:08.safeguard the engineering hop and ensure the skill set is available.

:05:09. > :05:11.It is quite simple, to make our economy productive we need to have

:05:12. > :05:18.an education system that is productive. The Minister will know

:05:19. > :05:23.full well that I regularly have campaigned for design and

:05:24. > :05:27.technology. For too long the subjects have been misunderstood,

:05:28. > :05:31.stigmatised and stereotyped. If we are to plug the ever-growing skills

:05:32. > :05:38.gap we need to address this and that this why they acknowledged

:05:39. > :05:40.productivity crisis head-on. I am confident the education Bill

:05:41. > :05:45.announced in the Queen's Speech will see some good steps towards this and

:05:46. > :05:50.towards addressing the productivity crisis. Would she agree also that

:05:51. > :05:54.actually it is very important that we look to all businesses because I

:05:55. > :06:00.had been approached by bakers and clockmakers of them my own

:06:01. > :06:02.constituency who find that the apprenticeship scheme needs a little

:06:03. > :06:06.more flexibility in order to cope with small business needs as well as

:06:07. > :06:10.the large ones she mentions. I am delighted by the excellent point and

:06:11. > :06:15.indeed we need to make sure we are supporting businesses, bakers and

:06:16. > :06:19.plumbers and electricians who are the backbone of our economy and

:06:20. > :06:26.important to constituencies. Just to get back to the point in hand, the

:06:27. > :06:29.government is rightly pushing ahead for ensuring education is rigorous

:06:30. > :06:34.and ensuring students get the key skills they need in the workplace,

:06:35. > :06:39.and I fully support this. I would never suggest it is anything but a

:06:40. > :06:48.robust and clear plan. However, the push towards the EBacc and its

:06:49. > :06:54.current form does not address the stigma towards design and technology

:06:55. > :06:58.and engineering. That is why I would hope the new education Bill would

:06:59. > :07:02.address this. I would like to see the vastly improved, highly

:07:03. > :07:08.scientific design and technology DS -- GS -- GCSE we're are having

:07:09. > :07:11.including a science element. There is huge support for this from the

:07:12. > :07:15.business community who are crying out for change. This would not

:07:16. > :07:20.represent a U-turn on policy. It is a minor change to strengthen and

:07:21. > :07:26.safeguard the EBacc and given the scientific and academic nature, this

:07:27. > :07:31.government has invested heavily in this, and done a great deal of

:07:32. > :07:33.considerable work, there will be no outcry for other vocational subjects

:07:34. > :07:38.because this is a totally different matter. There is also compete

:07:39. > :07:42.science which was introduced to the EBacc because of the shortages in

:07:43. > :07:47.this field, yet this doesn't make a lot of field when the shortages and

:07:48. > :07:52.design of technology are far greater than those in the digital

:07:53. > :07:56.industries. What I am proposing is that design and technology be

:07:57. > :08:01.included as an option just like computer sciences but it is an

:08:02. > :08:05.either or so that students can pick between computer science and design

:08:06. > :08:09.and technology. It would mean it in no way Watters down the EBacc and

:08:10. > :08:16.its academic rigour but instead enhance it. It would also on hand

:08:17. > :08:19.status as a route into design and manufacturing that design and

:08:20. > :08:22.technology errors, as well as highlighting that this government

:08:23. > :08:29.has yet again to listen to the business community and its need for

:08:30. > :08:41.the future economy. Would you not acknowledge as an overlap that might

:08:42. > :08:45.be ruled out by the proposal? Designer technology is the only

:08:46. > :08:54.subject which puts maths and physics to practical use, and that in Norway

:08:55. > :08:57.as an IT -based course comparable to and it is one of the only subject

:08:58. > :09:01.that produces a clear pipeline towards a career in that sector, and

:09:02. > :09:05.giving students a choice is what we all believe in and we also believe

:09:06. > :09:09.in giving them the best opportunities for the future that

:09:10. > :09:13.lies ahead, so this simple change would be about what businesses need

:09:14. > :09:18.but also what the economy needs, and also what students need if we are

:09:19. > :09:21.honest. This change would highlight that the government needs to align

:09:22. > :09:25.the education system more with the economy and give the young the best

:09:26. > :09:31.opportunity in life. If we are to remain at the forefront we must take

:09:32. > :09:37.action and I believe that bolstering the designer technology EBacc is an

:09:38. > :09:41.important step to addressing the skills shortage and safeguarding the

:09:42. > :09:46.future of the subject and supporting skills and British businesses. As I

:09:47. > :09:50.said before to the Prime Minister, the skills shortage is actually a

:09:51. > :09:54.ticking time bomb. My constituency is one of the key challenges we

:09:55. > :09:57.face. I am confident the measures announced in the Queen's Speech

:09:58. > :10:03.would take significant steps towards addressing the skills gap and

:10:04. > :10:06.boosting productivity, but I hope the measures in the bill would go

:10:07. > :10:14.towards tackling this important issue. Thank you. It is a pleasure

:10:15. > :10:19.to follow the member for Chippenham and the member for Newcastle and are

:10:20. > :10:26.passionate contributions to the importance of young people. It is

:10:27. > :10:33.difficult to have a discussion given the frankly not elephant but indeed

:10:34. > :10:39.circus in the room of what this will mean, the referendum, but it is

:10:40. > :10:42.frankly remarkable to me to hear this government saying that

:10:43. > :10:47.increasing life chances of the most disadvantaged as a priority. Given

:10:48. > :10:53.the choices they have made, it is like a dentist offering you an

:10:54. > :11:00.anaesthetic after he has taken note duties for no reason at all. Life

:11:01. > :11:08.chances is something we often say without seeing what it is, and the

:11:09. > :11:12.determination to make sure every person from every background has

:11:13. > :11:16.every opportunity to fulfil that potential, and I want to point out

:11:17. > :11:19.my fears of code in this ever-changing world we're running

:11:20. > :11:22.out of time to recognise that this means doing things entirely

:11:23. > :11:25.differently to the world we live in now. I believe everyone across the

:11:26. > :11:30.South is proud of the young people we represent, and the factors that

:11:31. > :11:35.mean the difference between them realising this and we think this. I

:11:36. > :11:38.do this job because I believe someone might community is somebody

:11:39. > :11:43.who has the skills to cure cancer the full they had the opportunity,

:11:44. > :11:46.and we would all benefit. Our job is to make sure they have those

:11:47. > :11:50.pathways to be the kinds of people they could be to change our lives

:11:51. > :11:54.and that is why I think this Queen's Speech misses the mark. We actors of

:11:55. > :11:59.opportunity as the ladder we have all known but to improve life

:12:00. > :12:02.chances we simply to get more of the next generation to take the steam

:12:03. > :12:06.steps we took. Go to school and settle into a career. If we are

:12:07. > :12:10.honest I know it wasn't that simple for ourselves and most of us can

:12:11. > :12:14.point to times in life when we had a helping hand up the ladder. Good

:12:15. > :12:19.parents, good teachers, good networks, all of whom opened the

:12:20. > :12:23.doors. Not just schools and universities but internships and job

:12:24. > :12:27.opportunities. The world is changing so quickly to really change the life

:12:28. > :12:32.chances for all of today's 15-year-olds and we need to do more

:12:33. > :12:36.to open up the old boys network. We need to see opportunity less as the

:12:37. > :12:44.more Ray Mears, with many different doors and by-elections and

:12:45. > :12:48.Whitstable. -- routes to go. Isn't what we need more good and

:12:49. > :12:51.outstanding schools producing better standards over also we can go on and

:12:52. > :12:56.fulfil our dreams and that is what this government is delivering? If

:12:57. > :12:59.the honourable gentleman let me continue I hope I can convince them

:13:00. > :13:04.to think bigger. When involved in the Scouts, we always said the key

:13:05. > :13:10.to recognise is that while everyone has been a 15-year-old, not everyone

:13:11. > :13:15.has entered a's world. If we want to improve life chances they don't just

:13:16. > :13:19.need help to get a job. They live in a world where it is predicted they

:13:20. > :13:24.will hold seven different careers, two of which yet to be invented.

:13:25. > :13:26.Every generation has faced change but this generation sees it not just

:13:27. > :13:31.in their lifetime but within a decade. The deal challenge to future

:13:32. > :13:36.prospects is not Romanian immigrants but robots, just like friends

:13:37. > :13:41.reunited was overtaken by Facebook, so technology is replacing not just

:13:42. > :13:45.manual labourer but skills. Prescriptions filled, legal forms

:13:46. > :13:51.checked, car is driven. It is a time of peril and potential, add up to

:13:52. > :13:55.fall behind. Little certainty as to be had and little time to catch

:13:56. > :13:58.breath. Because the world moves so quickly it means that if you keep

:13:59. > :14:03.learning new skills there are job opportunities that arise. There are

:14:04. > :14:11.more second chances than ever before, but not only are we feeling

:14:12. > :14:14.the Next Generation, my fear is that we can end up reinforcing the

:14:15. > :14:18.inequalities that already define life chances for so many. The

:14:19. > :14:22.Institute for Fiscal Studies sure graduates from richer family

:14:23. > :14:26.backgrounds and significantly more than their less wealthy counterparts

:14:27. > :14:31.even when they takes a more degrees and this isn't just happening at

:14:32. > :14:34.universities. -- similar degrees. Research shows that at good and

:14:35. > :14:43.outstanding schools there are large attainment gaps between rich and

:14:44. > :14:45.poor schools. The OECD has the biggest gap between 16 and

:14:46. > :14:49.19-year-olds who are not in education or employment and young

:14:50. > :14:53.people out of all countries surveyed. Our failure to teach

:14:54. > :14:57.skills that can be transferred or relevant means too many young people

:14:58. > :15:01.are not just revelling in their home territory but also against European

:15:02. > :15:04.or Chinese are South American counterparts and that isn't the

:15:05. > :15:08.cause of members of the European Union but because of their very

:15:09. > :15:13.British education. As many of my colleagues pointed out we face the

:15:14. > :15:16.biggest skills shortage for years so we have growing inequality and an

:15:17. > :15:21.outdated idea of what would fix these issues. The choices made in

:15:22. > :15:26.this Queen's Speech offer little to prepare them for the world to come

:15:27. > :15:28.and that this would only work for the minority unless independently

:15:29. > :15:33.wealthy, beneficiaries of the bank of mum and dad. The education Bill

:15:34. > :15:38.is a case in point with its obsession for tunnelling schools and

:15:39. > :15:42.academies and not every young person into an achiever. It isolates

:15:43. > :15:46.schools and doesn't link them in with businesses and opportunities.

:15:47. > :15:51.The higher education Bill would put more money into that just as they

:15:52. > :15:54.need more access to other boards, to apprenticeships and further

:15:55. > :15:58.education and internships. A bill that comes at the same time as the

:15:59. > :16:01.area based review of further education is seeking to close down

:16:02. > :16:11.those institutions. Whilst it is welcome that the government has

:16:12. > :16:15.again welcomed its commitment, poor people will again continue to get a

:16:16. > :16:20.worse deal than their affluent counterparts even if they make it to

:16:21. > :16:25.the same school. I am grateful to my honourable friend and she is making

:16:26. > :16:30.a compelling case for tackling some of the inequalities that exist in

:16:31. > :16:35.our education system. She will know of the huge benefits that were

:16:36. > :16:39.derived from the London challenge. Does she not recognise that this

:16:40. > :16:46.model ought to be replicated outside of London and indeed in places like

:16:47. > :16:50.Greater Manchester, one of the first acts of this government was to scrap

:16:51. > :16:55.the challenge? My honourable friend is exactly to point out that there

:16:56. > :17:00.are good examples where he can make a change in results that this

:17:01. > :17:04.government seems to have missed. We know the student loan brokers bust

:17:05. > :17:07.and we know University is not the only door in the maze of young

:17:08. > :17:12.people can open to unlock potential. I frankly think we should be asking

:17:13. > :17:16.the question and in a time of tight resources, why young people in my

:17:17. > :17:18.constituency who are able to make it through A-levels get offered a loan

:17:19. > :17:23.to go to university but we have nothing to offer those who have

:17:24. > :17:27.great business start-up idea? When 30% of Britain's young people want

:17:28. > :17:31.to start a business, to be the Jamal Edwards of their time, we ignore

:17:32. > :17:40.that potential at our peril, so focusing on 50% of kids who do the

:17:41. > :17:43.thing we see as important, not the 100% who need access to the bank of

:17:44. > :17:45.mum and dad to succeed, is what this government is doing. Money matters,

:17:46. > :17:48.contact matters, flexibility matters, but none of these pieces of

:17:49. > :17:52.legislation will fundamentally tackle those inequalities in access

:17:53. > :17:56.to skills and real-life experience to many in a country face. To bring

:17:57. > :17:57.together not just the institutions but the networks that can help young

:17:58. > :18:10.people died in the world to come. The government might see you should

:18:11. > :18:15.save more and can make more choices about studying. But this will mean

:18:16. > :18:21.nothing to families with no savings, no spear money in the week let alone

:18:22. > :18:25.the month. I fought for the Child trust fund to be saved, which would

:18:26. > :18:30.help those from the poorest income backgrounds the most. And give all

:18:31. > :18:36.18-year-olds something, not much, but something. Instead, inequalities

:18:37. > :18:44.will become even more, and having no money at all. The bank of mum and

:18:45. > :18:49.dad bails out grown-up children to the value of ?6,000 even after they

:18:50. > :18:54.have grown-up. One in three parents have been left cash-strapped after

:18:55. > :18:57.lending money to children, one in seven having to lend money

:18:58. > :19:04.themselves to bail out children. This government is reinforcing

:19:05. > :19:09.inequality, feeling one generation, locking another into debt to help

:19:10. > :19:13.them. If we really want to give our children more life chances, to

:19:14. > :19:18.benefit from their potential, we have to compete in the global

:19:19. > :19:23.economy, not capsized, which means a different approach. We need to bring

:19:24. > :19:29.services together instead of what this government is doing, winking

:19:30. > :19:37.universities, schools, communities. -- linking. We need to have a link

:19:38. > :19:40.between conventional academic achievement and lifelong

:19:41. > :19:46.employability. Move away from teaching functional skills which are

:19:47. > :19:50.outdated as soon as the 11. Young people need real-world learning

:19:51. > :19:55.experiences, transferable talents, giving them complex problem-solving

:19:56. > :19:59.skills and team work. And we need to rethink how we spend resources and

:20:00. > :20:05.share them, offering loans and support not just a 50% of young

:20:06. > :20:11.people but 100%, ending the need to have the bank of mum and dad to

:20:12. > :20:17.survive this injury. Do not assume your own life choices will apply to

:20:18. > :20:24.all young people. -- survive this 21st century. I believe we will

:20:25. > :20:32.always be a nation clean cap -- playing catch up. Making the bank of

:20:33. > :20:38.mum and dad the only hope, to the detriment of too many and to the

:20:39. > :20:42.cost of us all. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

:20:43. > :20:49.Addressing issues with the skills base will be key to tackling the

:20:50. > :20:52.productivity gap to ensure long-term successful and sustainable economy,

:20:53. > :20:59.ensuring young people are equipped with skills to succeed in life, this

:21:00. > :21:03.needs to underpin the entire education system, schools, colleges

:21:04. > :21:07.and universities. Young people and businesses need this. We need to

:21:08. > :21:13.ensure young people have the skills to contribute to our economy. But

:21:14. > :21:19.it's not just the education system alone that can help improve young

:21:20. > :21:23.people's life chances. The National citizens service is a fantastic

:21:24. > :21:30.programme which has to date been able to handle those and 15-17

:21:31. > :21:34.-year-olds benefit from new and different life experiences. Over the

:21:35. > :21:37.last couple of years I've been really fortunate to have the

:21:38. > :21:45.opportunity to see first-hand the benefits of young people in one

:21:46. > :21:48.region from this programme. They have been planning community

:21:49. > :21:55.projects, packed bags for customers in Sainsbury's, filled boxes for the

:21:56. > :22:02.district food back. The Outward Bound programme is a great start and

:22:03. > :22:08.a real favourite for participants. You can see many overcome lots of

:22:09. > :22:13.years. I have not attended one part, but I know they are keen for me to

:22:14. > :22:19.take part, to overcome one of my own fears, that of heights. There is

:22:20. > :22:23.another blonde member in this House well-known for experiences on as the

:22:24. > :22:33.wire. I only hope that I find myself on one I don't get stuck. --

:22:34. > :22:36.experience on a zipwire. I have seen how young people learning

:22:37. > :22:42.confidence, where to your building, I have been inspired, and I want to

:22:43. > :22:47.work to extend so that more young people from a variety of backgrounds

:22:48. > :22:53.can benefit from this life changing experience. And the duty on schools,

:22:54. > :22:59.colleges, universities and communities will help make young

:23:00. > :23:04.people aware. I will give away. Do you agree that it is of huge benefit

:23:05. > :23:09.to young people, some 6 million hours of volunteering, through the

:23:10. > :23:16.social action part of the programme, having been invested in the young

:23:17. > :23:21.people but also broader economy, as well as teaching them several

:23:22. > :23:26.valuable life lessons. Thank you for your intervention. She is right, it

:23:27. > :23:30.is not just about young people, local communities gain, we were

:23:31. > :23:36.packing bags in the local Sainsbury's to raise money for a

:23:37. > :23:42.local charity. A wide range of genetic groups and charities benefit

:23:43. > :23:46.from this scheme. Making sure young people are aware of different

:23:47. > :23:54.options we we to them -- available to them, such as qualifications, so

:23:55. > :23:59.I am pleased either new requirement for schools to inform children about

:24:00. > :24:03.apprenticeships and other vocational qualifications. After all,

:24:04. > :24:09.University is not the right option for everybody. To those who do want

:24:10. > :24:14.to go to university we must ensure they get the best value for their

:24:15. > :24:18.experience and don't graduate into non-graduate jobs. The lifting of

:24:19. > :24:23.the artificial cap on student numbers means there are many more of

:24:24. > :24:27.university places being made available, record numbers of

:24:28. > :24:32.students going to university, this is excellent news. Hire her, it is

:24:33. > :24:38.concerning the number of graduates going into non-graduate jobs and all

:24:39. > :24:44.too often we hear students, parents, businesses asking worrying

:24:45. > :24:48.questions, which is is a degree really worth it? The Higher

:24:49. > :24:51.Education and Research Bill gives us a blueprint for making what is

:24:52. > :24:59.already a great university sector even better. The higher education

:25:00. > :25:02.sector to date has been too heavily careered on academic research -- too

:25:03. > :25:08.heavily geared on academic research. This bill will focus on quality

:25:09. > :25:14.teaching and getting students into good graduate opportunities. The new

:25:15. > :25:20.excellence framework will alongside the bill put into place incentives

:25:21. > :25:24.designed to drive up standards of teaching in all universities and

:25:25. > :25:28.provide students with more clarity as to where teaching is best and the

:25:29. > :25:32.benefits they can expect from their course. This will create more

:25:33. > :25:39.competition to ensure all universities raise their game. The

:25:40. > :25:44.link between this incentive and tuition fees is crucial, providing a

:25:45. > :25:48.mechanism to ensure universities remain financially sustainable but

:25:49. > :25:55.only if they drive up quality of teaching. The business innovation

:25:56. > :26:03.skills Select Committee looked closely at this incentive, and in

:26:04. > :26:08.the report, we recognised the role that it could play in terms of

:26:09. > :26:12.ensuring universities meet with student expectations and improve on

:26:13. > :26:19.their leading international position. We did urge the government

:26:20. > :26:29.not to rush into the introduction of the incentive, so I am pleased the

:26:30. > :26:34.White Paper will use 2017-2018 as a trial year, and we can have further

:26:35. > :26:40.input from the educational unity into consultation. The report also

:26:41. > :26:44.called on the sector to work with the government to help the

:26:45. > :26:50.development of the incentive. I hope they do so because it is important

:26:51. > :26:53.to the future of the sector, its financial sustainability, the

:26:54. > :26:57.employment and career opportunities of graduates, as well as our

:26:58. > :27:03.economy. We will scrutinise the details of the Higher Education and

:27:04. > :27:07.Research Bill in the coming weeks, but what is increasingly clear from

:27:08. > :27:12.the opposition parties amendment is they don't have a credible plan for

:27:13. > :27:16.higher education, other than to threaten the financial

:27:17. > :27:21.sustainability of our world-class higher education sector. To

:27:22. > :27:26.conclude, addressing the skills of our young people will be key to

:27:27. > :27:32.helping us solve the productivity puzzle. That is why I welcome many

:27:33. > :27:35.of the measures set out in the Queen's Speech, which are designed

:27:36. > :27:42.to ensure our young people have the skills to get on in life.

:27:43. > :27:47.Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, it is a pleasure to follow the

:27:48. > :27:54.honourable member for Cannock Chase and I enjoy picturing higher as a

:27:55. > :27:59.blonde on a wire, and I admire the gusto under which she and attains

:28:00. > :28:06.her role as a constituency MP. It reflects well on the introduction of

:28:07. > :28:12.the NCS, along with the demise of our youth service, but I regress we

:28:13. > :28:19.no longer have a targeted effective resource on my local community to

:28:20. > :28:22.deal with some of the very real and immediate problems presented, not

:28:23. > :28:28.just for young people, but by the community widely, the youth service

:28:29. > :28:33.is helpful in dealing with that. It is also a great pleasure to follow

:28:34. > :28:38.the member for Walthamstow and I wish we had confirmed before this

:28:39. > :28:42.afternoon, because I find myself removing segments of my speech

:28:43. > :28:49.because she did such a great job in making the case for why this

:28:50. > :28:56.government, the credibility of any life chances strategy, when it

:28:57. > :28:58.emerges, is questionable given the government's record, and I find

:28:59. > :29:06.myself pondering the term life chances. It is much better than

:29:07. > :29:13.social mobility, because that is not widely understood, and life chances

:29:14. > :29:17.was initially coined by Max Faber, a famous sociologist, and it is a good

:29:18. > :29:25.thing the Tories are taking some reference from the work of Max

:29:26. > :29:29.Faber. This is positive, but the term life chances could become

:29:30. > :29:34.rubbished, because they will mess it up and will not deliver any

:29:35. > :29:38.improvement in life chances that is meaningful to most people in this

:29:39. > :29:45.country. And the term life chances could go the way of localism, the

:29:46. > :29:49.Big Society, and increasingly in my part of the country, the Northern

:29:50. > :29:54.Powerhouse. It is our term treated with utter derision and contempt.

:29:55. > :30:03.And I would hate that to happen to the term life chances. Because I am

:30:04. > :30:09.Law class warrior, but I am Labour, and we are about life chances and

:30:10. > :30:13.widening opportunity. -- I am now class warrior. Everyone in the

:30:14. > :30:21.Labour Party is interested in life chances. I am happy to take an

:30:22. > :30:25.intervention, should you wish to make one. But it is difficult to see

:30:26. > :30:32.how this government intends to proceed with improving life chances

:30:33. > :30:36.when it paid for the Child poverty and social mobility commission,

:30:37. > :30:39.still paying for this commission, writing excellent first-class

:30:40. > :30:48.reports, the research commissioned is so poor -- superb, but little

:30:49. > :30:54.sight of it in any policies the government seems to put forward, so

:30:55. > :30:58.they make specific recommendations at the commission, that the

:30:59. > :31:03.government ignores, relating directly to the issues under

:31:04. > :31:07.consideration. So, apprenticeships, we've heard from many members who

:31:08. > :31:13.are worried about the quality of apprenticeships. I am, I have seen

:31:14. > :31:17.extremely questionable examples of apprenticeships, where they are too

:31:18. > :31:26.short, poor quality, and don't lead anywhere. Apprenticeships should be,

:31:27. > :31:31.according to the commission, there should be a target that around

:31:32. > :31:34.30,000 should be higher-level apprenticeships, level three

:31:35. > :31:41.apprenticeships. There is a real problem with the difference in your

:31:42. > :31:46.life chances around what you do when you are 16, those decisions you make

:31:47. > :31:51.when you are 16 determine your life chances for the rest of your life.

:31:52. > :31:58.And if you take a nine academic route after 16th, your chances of

:31:59. > :32:08.doing well later in life are greatly diminished -- -- non-academic route.

:32:09. > :32:16.I will give way. I am grateful and you've made me of a scheme from 2010

:32:17. > :32:23.in my constituency. And that was Aim Higher, about encouraging young

:32:24. > :32:27.people from lower income backgrounds that higher education was something

:32:28. > :32:32.to them, such as what my mum and dad did, encouraging me to go into

:32:33. > :32:36.higher education. Isn't it a travesty that one of the first thing

:32:37. > :32:42.this government did was scrapped Aim Higher? It is, and we do not do

:32:43. > :32:47.enough at universities to encourage more people from other backgrounds

:32:48. > :32:56.to go into higher education. I have seen Gordons -- we know the

:32:57. > :33:02.long-term impact of some of the things is weak. We find people who

:33:03. > :33:09.don't go on to university, the life chances are limited, because 42% of

:33:10. > :33:14.them do all right. They find themselves in the top half of

:33:15. > :33:21.occupations, relatively well-paid, get further training and progression

:33:22. > :33:28.throughout their careers. But men in lower half occupations are low paid,

:33:29. > :33:31.there is no progression, making up 16% of non-graduates, mostly younger

:33:32. > :33:38.men working in lower paying occupations. They are the skilled

:33:39. > :33:43.but stuck, or for qualified, and generally women in part-time work,

:33:44. > :33:48.also making up 16% of non-graduates. They are mostly mothers in low paid

:33:49. > :33:55.occupations such as sales and customer services. They are not able

:33:56. > :33:56.to reach in or get childcare or get part-time work in occupations for

:33:57. > :34:08.which they may well be qualified. They does tend to be women as well.

:34:09. > :34:12.26% of nongraduates, they tend to have children, and they have low

:34:13. > :34:15.qualifications and they are at real risk of getting stuck, because if

:34:16. > :34:21.you miss that -- mess it up when you are 16, so you don't do so well in

:34:22. > :34:27.your GCSEs, or you can't get the advice about what is best to do, and

:34:28. > :34:33.you make a poor choice, you might... Because your friends are doing it,

:34:34. > :34:37.you might end up doing hairdressing, beauty therapy, is something low

:34:38. > :34:40.paid because you have not really had it explained to what alternatives

:34:41. > :34:46.might be out there for you. It is almost impossible to now get out of

:34:47. > :34:50.that, and get into something where you have a real chance of

:34:51. > :34:54.progression. If we are going to talk about life chances, it is that

:34:55. > :34:59.stage, if I could fix one thing, that stage in education really needs

:35:00. > :35:05.to be addressed. It is underfunded, it is ignored, there is no decent

:35:06. > :35:09.advice for young people before making those decisions it is really

:35:10. > :35:17.worth having. One of the recommendations again was that there

:35:18. > :35:22.should be a common access point. So if you're going to university, you

:35:23. > :35:27.have the UCAS system, where you are supported through that process, you

:35:28. > :35:31.have deadlines and you understand the process. There is a whole host

:35:32. > :35:39.of information about outcomes and destinations. We have nothing like

:35:40. > :35:46.that for someone trying to get into further education course. That needs

:35:47. > :35:52.to be addressed. I give way. I think the Ondoa -- honourable lady, who is

:35:53. > :35:57.making an extremely interesting and at the site speech. Can I just say

:35:58. > :36:03.as the father of five children who have gone through 16, your point,

:36:04. > :36:10.the honourable Lady's point, forgive me, I deserve to be hanged. The

:36:11. > :36:16.Honourable Lady's point about 16 being a crucial time for decision

:36:17. > :36:22.making is so very important. I just want to reinforce that point, having

:36:23. > :36:25.watched five children go through the age of 16. It is incredibly

:36:26. > :36:33.important, and people should recognise that 16 is the golden age.

:36:34. > :36:36.I am grateful for that in -- for intervention, and it is great to

:36:37. > :36:41.have support across the house to this point. The other point I would

:36:42. > :36:47.make is that we all know that on GCSE day, or a little day in our

:36:48. > :36:51.constituencies, we send out tweets congratulating young people,

:36:52. > :36:56.schools, parents. There is a sense of an event nationally on those

:36:57. > :37:03.days. There is nothing like that attention or celebration or

:37:04. > :37:08.recognition of a non-academic post-16 qualification. We don't have

:37:09. > :37:12.that same sense of a nation coming together to recognise the

:37:13. > :37:18.achievement of our young people, when you get your NVQ level three in

:37:19. > :37:25.whatever it might be. That is wrong. That is a new equality of status --

:37:26. > :37:29.inequality of status, and that is something we need to address if we

:37:30. > :37:34.are really serious about promoting non-graduate routes into the

:37:35. > :37:43.professions. Let's be honest, most of us are going to be encouraging

:37:44. > :37:45.our children to take recent university, because we know that

:37:46. > :37:56.takes -- gives us But non-academic qualifications

:37:57. > :38:02.post-16, those same opportunities, life chances, opportunities pay is

:38:03. > :38:07.available. They will still end up with a situation where life chances

:38:08. > :38:14.are desperately unequal. We will have a position where it is nothing

:38:15. > :38:19.to do with what you know, it is about who you know, who advises you,

:38:20. > :38:23.and even worse, who your parents know. And you do not have the

:38:24. > :38:35.quality of life chances until you address that simple issue. Thank you

:38:36. > :38:39.very much for calling me. It is a great pleasure to follow the very

:38:40. > :38:44.considered tone of the member for Darlington. I always greatly enjoyed

:38:45. > :38:49.in which she makes her speeches. Since I was elected in 2010, I have

:38:50. > :38:57.been overwhelmed by the pageantry associated with the Queens speech,

:38:58. > :39:00.critically the horses, the Sound and vision that accompanies it. But for

:39:01. > :39:06.a variety of reasons, I have never been able to speak in the Queens

:39:07. > :39:12.speech debate, so I'm pleased to be able to do so today. Want to begin

:39:13. > :39:16.by welcoming the legislative programme, especially the focus on

:39:17. > :39:25.life chances, which is featuring so much in today's debate. There is a

:39:26. > :39:30.wide welcome across the house for the life chances of those who are

:39:31. > :39:32.most disadvantaged. It is a competition in terms of