Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Education and Skills – in the House of Commons at 10:30 am on 27 October 2005.
Simon Hughes
Shadow Attorney General, Party Chair, Liberal Democrats
10:30,
27 October 2005
What we want is an answer. The Minister will know that when the Prime Minister attended the opening of the new buildings of the City of London academy in Bermondsey on
"it is bringing new hope and breathing new life into the local community."
If that city academy must now find an extra £3.5 million so that it can open its doors to after-school, weekend and community activities—and the director of education for Southwark has made it clear that it will not be possible to deliver the programme that was intended—will Departments get their act together, sort out the problem and prevent that threat, involving millions of pounds, from hanging over not just our city academy but every other city academy in the country?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
