Baroness Barran: My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Knight, for bringing to your Lordships’ attention the important matter of financial sustainability in the higher education sector, and for securing this important debate. As we have heard this afternoon, higher education is of vital importance to this country’s prosperity. Many of our institutions are world leading and provide a...
Robert Halfon: ...under you, Mr Hollobone, and I extend special congratulations to my hon. Friend—a real friend— the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (David Morris) on securing the debate. He is a champion of skills. He has spoken about electronic skills needs in his constituency and the work going on to tackle it, such as the electech clusters established by businesses in the area. I congratulate him...
James Davies: My hon. Friend makes a strong argument. In fact, he will be aware that one of the Labour Members in the Senedd called for greater powers and autonomy for north Wales in response to the recent roads review, and today a representative of the business community in north Wales has called for a directly elected mayor for north Wales. It comes back to my point that devolution should be true in...
Baroness Katy Clark: We know that 128,000 people have signed a petition to the United Kingdom Government calling for the creation of a statutory legal duty of care for students in higher education. A duty of care already exists for staff and for students who are under 18. Would the minister explore the idea of introducing a statutory legal duty of care for students in colleges and universities?
Andrew Selous: I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend, who raises a very important point. I have seen exactly that in my constituency: school-age children in and out of shops in the middle of the day. My area is also subject to the terrible scourge of county lines. There are huge safeguarding and criminal concerns about what is happening to some of these children, and we need to take them seriously. My...
Mike Freer: Every student death is a tragedy. Where a student’s death is investigated by the coroner, it may be appropriate for the higher education provider to have “interested person” status in the investigation and, where this is the case, would be provided with the Record of Inquest which includes the cause of death. Inquest hearings are public and open for anyone to attend. In addition,...
Mike Freer: Every student death is a tragedy. Where a student’s death is investigated by the coroner, it may be appropriate for the higher education provider to have “interested person” status in the investigation and, where this is the case, would be provided with the Record of Inquest which includes the cause of death. Inquest hearings are public and open for anyone to attend. In addition,...
Mark Spencer: ...health and wellbeing benefits that access to the countryside can bring, including improving physical and mental health and supporting local communities and economies. Landowners have a statutory duty to keep public rights of way in good working order and therefore this is not covered by Environmental Land Management Schemes, unless they choose to upgrade to provide additional access,...
Baroness Barran: School attendance has improved since 2010, but COVID-19 and its aftermath significantly damaged attendance levels. COVID-19 caused higher levels of sickness absence, and exacerbated existing problems with persistent absence, with vulnerable children particularly affected. Attendance is now improving, and the government is committed to returning to pre-pandemic levels and better. In...
Robert Halfon: Clause 2 further supports clause 1 in ensuring that fee limits can be proportionate to the amount of study taken by students under the LLE. It makes further technical but necessary amendments to HERA 2017 as a result of the changes to legislation made in clause 1. Clause 2 amends existing reporting duties on the Office for Students and providers so that the duties include the new credit-based...
David Evennett: My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech, and we are listening with great interest. I congratulate her on securing this debate and on all her campaigning work on whistleblowing over the past few years, for which we are really grateful. Regrettably, I am unable to stay and make a speech, although I would have liked to do so. I apologise; I am on the Lifelong Learning (Higher Education...
Marion Fellows: ...to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Sir David Evennett), but I also want to chastise him because he has taken some of my best lines. I, too, am a product of social mobility. My father was a co-operative milkman and my mother was a cleaner. They both left school at 14, but they were determined to give me the...
Lord Grabiner: My Lords, I confess to be rather miffed by the Government’s acceptance of the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, because it deprives me of the ability to make the fire and brimstone remarks that I had planned to make. However, I certainly welcome the Government’s reaction to the excellent amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, and can as a result be quite brief. On Clause...
Earl Howe: My Lords, I am pleased to be back again to debate the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill. I must express my thanks once again for the time and thought your Lordships have given to this legislation. Members of the other place were particularly happy to see the amendment banning the misuse of non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual abuse, harassment or misconduct, or other bullying...
Rob Roberts: I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to exempt NHS clinical staff from the requirement to pay fees under section 68 of the Immigration Act 2014; and for connected purposes. I declare a partial interest for the avoidance of doubt, as my fiancé is a healthcare professional from overseas. However, he already has his British citizenship, so would derive no benefit from this Bill...
Lord Bilimoria: ...hell. During the pandemic, when we thought we would bounce back and have a V-shaped recovery, it has been one crisis after another instead: inflation, supply-chain challenges, energy and cost of living crises, political crises including three Prime Ministers in one year. In September, the markets were spooked by the well-intentioned growth plans of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, through...
Christian Wakeford: ...Budget for health, but it was not. This could have been a budget for justice, but it was not. This could have been a Budget for growth, but it really was not. This could also have been a Budget for education, but guess what? It was not. What we got was a sticking-plaster Budget from a Government on life support. There was nothing for public sector workers, nothing to tackle court backlogs,...
Baroness Brinton: My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association and a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adult Social Care. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, and I also look forward to hearing the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Moyo. The Chancellor says the OBR projection is now that Britain will avoid a “technical...
Baroness Scott of Bybrook: Moved by Baroness Scott of Bybrook 131: Schedule 4, page 266, line 6, at end insert—“Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (c. 56)A1 In section 69(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (interpretation), in the definition of “local authority”, after “section 103 of that Act” insert “, a combined county authority established under section 7(1) of the...
Jeremy Hunt: ...£63 million fund to keep our public leisure centres and pools afloat. I have also heard from the charities Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew), and his Secretary of State, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for South East Cambridgeshire (Lucy Frazer), about the brilliant work that third sector organisations are doing to help people struggling in...
