Lord Bates
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty as follows: “Most Gracious Sovereign—We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to thank Your Majesty for the most gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament”.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade (Baroness Berridge) (Con)
My Lords, on behalf of your Lordships’ House, I thank Her Majesty for her gracious Speech and am grateful for the privilege of opening today’s debate on the Motion for a humble Address. Today I shall outline the Government’s plans to support the economy, business, education and health to build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it is important to stop and recognise those 127,629 people who have died with Covid, those who are bereaved and those who have long Covid, and the tireless work of our NHS, businesses, charities and key workers, who still had to work even during the lockdowns. It is due only to their efforts that we find ourselves in the position to build back better, for which I am sure your Lordships are also truly grateful.
Vaccines are the way out of the pandemic, and the rollout has been a huge national effort. As someone who had their vaccine in Westminster Abbey, I can testify that we are working with faith leaders and grass-roots organisations across our diverse communities, as well as charities, and have listened to their ideas to get vaccines to as many people as possible. Over 35.5 million people have now received their first dose of a vaccine, and over 18 million have received their second dose. All those 50 and over, clinically vulnerable, or who are health and social care workers have been offered a vaccine, so we can confidently say we are ensuring that the most vulnerable have protection from the virus.
We will bring forward a landmark health and care Bill this Session. This will promote collaboration, ensuring that every part of England is covered by an integrated care system, and it will reduce bureaucracy by simplifying the provider selection regime and ensure that NHS England remains accountable, while maintaining its clinical and day-to-day operational independence. We will also enhance patient safety, delivering a new independent body to investigate healthcare incidents, which I know is legislation that your Lordships have seen before.
Throughout the pandemic, the NHS has worked incredibly hard to keep services going, going truly above and beyond. Today marks International Nurses Day. This year more than ever we must thank nurses for their incredible work in fighting a global pandemic—and sadly, of course, some have paid the ultimate price.
We now face the challenge of NHS catch-up and recovery, with over 4.7 million people currently waiting for care. The Government will support the NHS, as throughout the pandemic, and will ensure it has what it needs. We have confirmed an additional £3 billion for the NHS for this financial year, on top of the long-term settlement, to support recovery, including around £1 billion to begin tackling the elective backlog and around £1.5 billion to help ease existing pressures in the NHS caused by Covid-19.
The pandemic has also taken its toll on people’s mental health. We have published our mental health recovery action plan, and will provide around £500 million for mental health services and investment in the NHS workforce, to ensure that we have the right support in place over the coming year. We are also working towards reform of the Mental Health Act to give people more say over their own care.
Experiences during this time could have an impact on the health, well-being and opportunity of our youngest children throughout their life, even though they may not have been conscious of living through a pandemic. As demonstrated by the Leadsom review, the care given during the first 1,001 critical days from conception to age two has a significant impact on a child’s future. Attending early years education lays the foundation for lifelong learning and positive outcomes, which is why we prioritised keeping early years settings open as much as possible, in line with health and safety requirements, during the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, even when early years settings had to close, we continued to fund entitlements, which are currently around £3.6 billion a year.
The Government are committed to ensuring that no child is left behind because of learning lost over the past year. We will put in place a long-term recovery plan to allow us to build a better and fairer education system. We have already provided £1.7 billion in the past year to enable education settings to support children. The package includes significant funding aimed at addressing the needs of disadvantaged pupils. The recovery premium will be allocated to schools based on disadvantage funding eligibility and the expansion of our tutoring programmes will provide targeted support to children and young people hardest hit by disruption to their education.
The Government’s vision is for every school to benefit from being part of a strong family of schools, because multi-academy trusts are the best structure to enable schools and teachers to deliver consistently good outcomes. Seventy-five per cent of sponsored primary and secondary academies that have been inspected are good or outstanding, up from their previous grade of inadequate, compared to around one in 10 of their predecessor schools. We plan to release up to £24 million through the next phase of the trust capacity fund to help trusts grow, and we have recently launched a “try before you buy” trust partnerships model for schools to experience the benefits of being part of a strong trust. Following its autumn visits, Ofsted reported that many schools in trusts had found the support they received invaluable. What it found further cements our belief in the unique strength of the academy trust model. We are also clear on the need to improve schools where there is long-term underperformance by bringing them in to strong academy trusts—a key manifesto commitment. These include schools which have been judged “requires improvement” or worse by Ofsted in their last three consecutive full inspections. This will ensure that these schools also have access to the support of a multi-academy trust.
I turn now to HE and FE. Our universities have a long and proud history of being institutions where views may be freely expressed and debated. However, there are growing concerns that fear of repercussions is preventing open and robust intellectual debate. Over the course of this Parliament, with legislation introduced today, in the other place, we will strengthen freedom of speech and academic freedom in higher education in England. Duties on higher education providers and students’ unions will be strengthened, with clear consequences introduced for any breach. We will ensure that higher education providers in England are places where freedom of speech can thrive and that academic staff, students and visiting speakers feel safe to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions. In addition, UK students will be able to study and do work placements across the world through the Turing scheme, a new international educational exchange scheme. The scheme is backed by £110 million and provides funding for around 35,000 UK students in schools, colleges, and universities to go on placements and exchanges overseas, from September.
Skills are one of the Prime Minister’s key priorities and, in this Session, we will bring forward legislation to reform the post-16 education and skills sector. I am grateful for the exceptional effort of the further education sector, which adapted so quickly to remote education during the pandemic. The skills and post-16 education Bill will form the foundation for the reforms set out in the Skills for Jobs White Paper laid before the House earlier this year. I thank noble Lords for their thoughtful welcome for the White Paper. As part of the Bill, we will introduce a lifelong loan entitlement, giving people the opportunity to study flexibly at colleges and universities across their lifetime. We will improve the training available by making sure that providers are better run, qualifications better regulated, and providers’ performance effectively assessed. As this Government are focused on improving communities, rather than just providing a ladder out of them, we will put employers at the heart of the skills system to ensure that local provision meets local needs so that people can thrive where they live. Together, these reforms will ensure that people can get the skills they need to succeed.
Supporting our highly skilled, regulated professions to deliver vital services is key. Our regulators must have the autonomy to set the standard required to practise in the UK. The Professional Qualifications Bill, introduced into this House just now, will establish an effective regulatory system for professional qualifications. It will facilitate the recognition of professional qualifications that meet the needs of all parts of the United Kingdom and support our professionals to deliver their services in overseas markets.
The Government are also committed to our role as a global science superpower. To complement UKRI as the steward of our R&D system, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill will create a new agency focused specifically on funding high-risk, high-reward research. With £800 million invested in ARIA by 2024-25, it will diversify the R&D funding system. The agency’s leaders will be able to experiment with innovative funding mechanisms and push the boundaries of science at speed. To also ensure that we have the skilled workforce to deliver net zero and our 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution, we launched the green jobs task force, in partnership with skills providers, unions and business. We are also providing over £1 billion for public sector buildings, including schools, to install heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures. This will upgrade school buildings and reduce carbon emissions.
The UK is taking advantage of its new-found freedoms as an independent trading nation. The subsidy control Bill will create a new domestic subsidy control system, to provide certainty and confidence to businesses investing in the UK. It will protect against subsidies that risk causing distortive or harmful economic impacts and ensure a consistent approach throughout the UK. It will ensure that the UK meets its international commitments on subsidy control and provide a legal framework that reflects our strategic interests and national circumstances. The Bill will enable public authorities and devolved Governments to design subsidies that deliver strong benefits for the UK taxpayer.
This Session we will also introduce legislation to support workers. The national insurance contributions Bill will introduce NI relief for employers in freeports, employers of veterans and the self-employed receiving self-isolation support payments. This Bill supports the delivery of the 2019 manifesto commitment to create 10 freeports across the UK to promote job creation, by providing a relief from NI contributions for eligible new employees for three years, up to earnings of £25,000 a year. The Government are also supporting veterans to secure stable and fulfilling employment as they transition to civilian life by encouraging employers to hire veterans. There will be NI relief of up to £5,500 per year for each hired veteran. We also want to ensure that self-isolation payments will not attract NI contributions. The Bill will also clamp down on the tax avoidance market, enabling action to be taken against promoters of tax avoidance schemes.
Public service pension reforms were introduced in 2015, and the Government agreed to allow those closest to retirement to stay in their legacy schemes. This was later judicially challenged, where it was found, inter alia, to be unfair to younger members. We will now be giving all eligible members a choice between legacy and reform scheme benefits for the period from the date the reforms were made to April 2022. We will continue to reward public servants with pensions that are among the very best available, in a way that ensures they are fair, affordable and sustainable. We will also bring forward reforms to help recruitment and retention in the judiciary, continuing to attract and retain high-calibre judges.
As we now exit the pandemic, I hope noble Lords will be assured that we will support the NHS, plan the education recovery carefully, upskill adults and drive innovation. My noble friend Lord Callanan and I look forward to hearing the valuable insights of many noble Lords today, especially the maiden speeches from the noble Baroness, Lady Blake of Leeds, and the noble Lord, Lord Lebedev, and—sadly—the valedictory speech from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord Callanan) (Con)
My Lords, it is a pleasure, privilege and—as the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, pointed out—somewhat of a challenge to respond to today’s excellent debate on Her Majesty’s gracious Speech, opened so eloquently by my noble friend Lady Berridge. She spoke in her opening remarks of many of the priorities that this Government will focus on over the next Session and gave us a snapshot of the breadth of work that the Government will deliver on. Consequently, we have heard from numerous speakers today—almost 90 of them, in fact—engaging with different topics and making very valuable contributions to this debate.
I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Lebedev, for his maiden speech, and the noble Baroness, Lady Blake, for her excellent maiden speech. They both join this House with valuable experience, and I look forward to engaging and debating with them both. The noble Baroness, Lady Blake, spoke of Leeds United. I am a Newcastle United fan, and it gives me no pleasure whatever to admit that Leeds have scored seven goals against Newcastle this season, and the less said about our respective positions in the league, the better—although I am comforted that we will both be returning to continued competition in the Premier League next year, and I am sure that we will give them more of a challenge next season.
I also congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth on his valedictory speech and associate myself with all the remarks that have been made by many noble Lords about his considerable contribution to the business of the House during his time in office. I know that he has been particularly focused on welfare reform and poverty and has given considerable service to the people of his diocese for over 10 years. I understand that he is now into his third week of retirement, which was particularly well timed with the end of lockdown and which will give him an opportunity to enjoy a well-deserved break and retirement. I am sure we wish him all the best for the future.
With so many topics to cover, it might indeed be easy to miss the forest for the trees. As we talk of building back better, climate change, green recovery, skills training, education, recovery and opportunity, it is important to remind ourselves of the dramatic context in which we are operating. There are of course huge challenges all around—there can be no doubt about that. However, I hope that there will be equally little doubt about how committed the Government are to tackling them. Our ambitions for the next Session are therefore not solely about recovering from the pandemic; they are about recovering in the right way, so that what comes after is greener, fairer, more resilient and more productive than what has happened before.
As our economy reopens, our schools get back to normal and our freedoms expand again, the Government have a legislative agenda to make the most of each of those challenges, whether that be embedding green options into our recovery, investing in skills and education, supporting the life sciences sector or continuing to support workers and businesses across the whole of the UK as they look for life to return to some kind of normality. In all of this our vision is both optimistic and realistic: built on the strengths of our four nations and a belief in our diverse people. When we talk about levelling up, that is indeed what we mean: uniting everyone behind a shared vision of a brilliant, pioneering United Kingdom, believing in the people of this great country and giving them the means to build their success in their own particular way so that, when we look back at this crucial moment in history, we will be able to say that this country led the way.
When it comes to leading the way, this country has been a true pioneer in the fight against Covid-19. I agree completely—for a change—with the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, when she talked about the work of the NHS, our researchers and pharmaceutical companies. Their work has really been outstanding this past year and I am sure I speak on behalf of the whole House across all Benches in offering my heartfelt thanks to those heroes.
Surely the most welcome news of the last 12 months has been that more than two-thirds of the UK adult population have now received a first dose of a vaccine—myself included. That is entirely to the credit of the groups that the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, and I have mentioned. They have shown what can be achieved when our health sector is given a clear goal, a lot of support and the freedom to think for itself.
The noble Lord, Lord Owen, asked about our preparation. For many years the UK has held and kept up to date preparedness plans for pandemic influenza and other infectious diseases, which provided a solid foundation from which we elaborated our response to the Covid-19 pandemic. As the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, also just mentioned and as noble Lords will be aware, the Prime Minister today announced a full independent inquiry to begin in spring 2022. That is the right place to examine the response and learn the lessons that we will need to learn for the future. We now need to turn to the continued recovery of the bedrock of health services which the NHS is world renowned for.
A number of noble Lords spoke directly about the waiting list for patients. We are committed to recovering from drops in services caused by the pandemic, but it will of course take time. This year we are investing over £1 billion to help the NHS recover further and faster from the latest wave and to begin to address backlogs in elective care.
Many noble Lords made valuable contributions to the debate on health and social care—I probably lost track of all of them, but they included the noble Baronesses, Lady Brinton, Lady Tyler, Lady Bowles, Lady Walmsley, Lady Blower, the noble Lord, Lord Knight, my noble friend Lord Ribeiro, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth, and many others. In particular, the noble Lord, Lord Patel, asked—as did, I think, the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton —about the contribution of the health and care Bill and how it will help local areas prioritise patient access. The Bill puts forward proposals for integrated care partnerships, bringing together NHS and local authorities to design and prioritise services for patients and the public, ensuring that they get the care and support they need.
In response to the second question from the noble Lord, Lord Patel, integrated care boards will have to set out how they will manage conflicts of interest. Moreover, in response to the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, in his question about how NHS reform will keep people healthy, integrated care boards and integrated care partnerships will give the NHS the means to identify priorities, including around prevention.
The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, asked why there is no alcohol strategy. This is because the Government are already committed to publishing a new, UK-wide, cross-government addiction strategy. This provides opportunities to do more work on alcohol, particularly for those drinking at high-risk levels. We are considering the emerging evidence on the increased alcohol harms and alcohol-related health inequalities which have been seen during the pandemic and what further action is needed as we develop the scope of the addictions strategy.
My noble friend Lady Chisholm rightly spoke of the challenge of the recovery of diagnostic services; this is a priority for the NHS. Additional capital and revenue funding has been made available to deliver additional diagnostic capacity through new community diagnostic hubs and pathology and imaging networks.
The noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, and the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, spoke about the welfare and morale of NHS workers; they were right to raise this important issue. As we emerge from the pandemic, it is vital that staff have time to recover and to receive the ongoing support that they need. For some people, time off will be enough; others will need more specialist support and interventions. The NHS has established a people recovery task force to develop a framework and a set of interventions to support this. Local organisations can implement this framework flexibly, depending on their own particular situation.
I pay tribute to all noble Lords who raised the issue of mental health, which is so important. The past year has been tough for many people. The public have shown great resilience during these challenging times, but we know that the pandemic has had an impact on the mental health and well-being of many people in this country. The Government have published our mental health recovery action plan, backed by a one-off, targeted investment of £500 million, to ensure that we have the right support in place over the coming year.
The noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, spoke of funding for dementia research. We are strongly committed to supporting this vital work. The Government are currently working on ways to significantly boost further research on dementia, to meet commitments made in the Conservative Party manifesto.
The noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, spoke about tendering in the NHS. The Cabinet Office is reviewing the full range of legislative proposals set out in the White Paper and is in discussion with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that we work together to shape procurement across government. The Government are clear that health and care data should be used and/or shared only where it is used lawfully, treated with respect, held securely and where the right safeguards are in place. Noble Lords should expect nothing less. The UK’s high standards of data protection will be maintained; trade agreements will not undermine—and have not undermined—the safeguards that we have in place for health and care data.
The noble Lord, Lord Astor, asked whether the Government would consider making Covid-19 testing VAT exempt. VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption, and the standard rate of 20% normally applies to most goods and services, such as testing kits. However, medical testing administered by registered health professionals is exempt from VAT. The Government continue to offer free Covid-19 testing to those with relevant symptoms and everyone in England, including those without symptoms, is able to take a free rapid coronavirus test twice a week.
Many noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Tyler, Lady Bowles and Lady Jolly, spoke about social care. The Prime Minister has been clear that long-term social care reform is a top priority as we emerge from the pandemic. We will be working with local and national partners, including those with direct experience of the sector, to consider how we deliver the sustainable improvements that we all wish to see.
There can be no doubt that, without the efforts of our health sector, this country would be in a far worse state than it is in today. The same can be said for many of our businesses, which have shown extraordinary resilience over this past year. From businesses forced to close to those finding new ways for employees to work from home, employers have had to adapt as never before.
At the same time, many workers faced the prospect of losing their incomes as high streets ground to a halt and offices closed their doors. This has been a challenging time for millions of our fellow citizens and for businesses across the country. I am proud to say that the Government have been there to help them, every step of the way. The Prime Minister has already announced that step 3 of the road map will go ahead as planned next Monday, bringing a further degree of normal life that will be welcomed by all—although, of course, he also stressed the need for us all to remain vigilant. Alongside this, the Government’s package of support has evolved with the path of the virus and will continue to do so.
The noble Lord, Lord Hain, spoke about the choices of how long to continue this support. As an example, the Government’s policy to extend the CJRS until the end of September goes beyond what many businesses have called for. The CBI asked for an extension until the end of June and the British Chambers of Commerce asked for an extension until the end of July.
A number of noble Lords, including the noble Lords, Lord Griffiths, Lord Lebedev and Lord Sikka, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth, talked about the important subject of child poverty. The Government are committed to helping vulnerable families and have acted swiftly to provide support during the pandemic through their package of welfare measures. Her Majesty’s Treasury’s analysis published alongside the recent Budget shows that government interventions have supported the poorest working households most as a proportion of income. The Government have also recently extended the subsequent winter package to provide further support for children and families beyond winter until 20 June this year.
Many noble Lords, including the noble Lords, Lord Monks, Lord Haskel, Lord Bassam and Lord Watson, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Blower, Lady Ritchie and Lady Kramer, asked about the employment Bill. Given the profound effects that the pandemic is having on the economy and the labour market, we do not think it is right to introduce an employment Bill while the pandemic is still ongoing. In the interim, the Government have taken unprecedented but necessary steps to support working families and businesses and to protect jobs. We will continue to do so.
On the gig economy, which the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth asked about, the Supreme Court judgment upheld employment law status as it stands. Other operators in the gig economy will undoubtedly be looking at the Uber Supreme Court judgment, and should also ensure that they are fulfilling their legal responsibilities.
The noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, asked about flexible working. The Government have committed to consult on making flexible working the default unless employers have good reason not to. This consultation will be launched in due course.
While building back better, we also have to build back greener. My noble friend Lord Bridges spoke about the need for government to help businesses to go green. I completely agree. Andrew Griffith MP has been appointed by the Prime Minister to be the UK’s net zero business champion ahead of COP 26. Indeed, I have spoken alongside him at a number of events on this very subject. He is energetically encouraging UK businesses to sign up to climate action via the Race to Zero science-based targets initiative, championing the actions that businesses are already taking, and helping them to exploit the many opportunities of the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Finally, I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, that I completely agree that inclusive diversity is crucial to a successful economy, and Eid Mubarak to all those who are celebrating this week.
On top of the challenges that come from working at home normally—lack of access to colleagues, working from the kitchen table and so on—many parents have faced an additional hurdle: taking on responsibility for home-schooling. Some people prefer to educate their children this way, but for the vast majority it is not a choice that they have made. Education is the foundation on which our society and economy are built. It is vital that we ensure that it is inspiring and as consistent as it possibly can be, which means supporting schools, colleges and universities, giving young people the opportunities and the access to the ideas that they deserve.
Recovery is a vital. The noble Baroness, Lady Morris, speaking with the benefit of all her experience, asked when further information would be forthcoming about the schools catch-up programme. The Government are working with the Education Recovery Commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins, to develop an ambitious long-term plan that builds back a better and fairer education system. We will make an announcement on the long-term recovery plan in due course.
The noble Lords, Lord Storey and Lord Winston, spoke about support for schools. This Government are delivering the biggest funding boost for schools in a decade, which will give every school more money for every child. We increased core schools funding by £2.6 billion in 2021 and we will increase it by a further £4.8 billion and a further £7.1 billion by 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively, compared with the 2019-20 baseline. This includes additional funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
I always welcome comments on disability, including from my noble friend Lord Shinkwin. The Government have an ambitious agenda on disability We are investing in a range of provisions to help people with disabilities get or stay in work, and we will publish a national strategy for disabled people shortly, which I hope will reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson.
The noble Lords, Lord Clark and Lord Campbell-Savours, raised the issue of Newton Rigg. We are aware of the many challenges faced by Askham Bryan College and its Newton Rigg campus and have been working to identify a sustainable solution for its future. But it is important to bear in mind that further education colleges are independent of government, and the decision to close the campus was taken by the governing body of Askham Bryan College—but we have taken careful note of the comments from both noble Lords.
Also important were the points on freedom of expression raised by the noble Lord, Lord Lebedev. The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill will ensure that universities in England are places where freedom of speech can thrive for all staff, students and visiting speakers, contributing to a culture of open and robust intellectual debate.
The noble Lords, Lord Patel and Lord Eatwell, spoke about R&D funding and European schemes, including Horizon Europe. The Government will make available an additional £250 million in 2021-22, and £400 million of the funding announced at the spending review 2020 will support the Government’s priorities and help to pay for association to the Horizon programme. As a result, UK scientists will have access to more public funding than ever before.
The noble Lord, Lord Patel, also asked about ARIA. With ARIA, the freedom to make its own decisions will be central to its success, and that means scientists, not the Government, setting its research priorities. I hope the noble Lord will agree that the Bill balances that necessary independence with good governance, and as that is a Bill I will be taking through, I look forward to debating this matter further with him.
Of course, one of the principles underlining this Queen’s Speech is lifelong learning. As I am sure many noble Lords with children and grandchildren have learned in the past year, you are never too old to learn something new, whether that means getting to grips with video calling—remembering to unmute yourself, which is my problem—and seeing a familiar face from afar, getting to grips with algebra to help with homework, or learning how to exercise better, paint, play an instrument or even to just relax. We never stop being capable of adapting and improving, and the Government recognise that.
As we strive to take our economy in a greener, more productive direction, we have a duty to ensure that no one gets left behind. While our growth will be built on many of our existing strengths and skills, where new skills are required, we are committed to providing the training and education that people will need to attain them. On this topic, the noble Lord, Lord Watson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, asked about sectors not covered by the lifetime skills guarantee. The Government are of course keeping the list of qualifications and the sector subject areas in scope under review to ensure that they adapt to the changing needs of the economy. Qualifications not included in this offer will, of course, still be eligible for advanced learner loans.
Finally, my noble friend Lord Baker, with his immense experience of education policy, asked about careers provision. We will introduce a range of measures to incentivise schools and colleges to prioritise careers guidance and to hold them to account for the quality of their careers programmes, including a strong statutory framework, tougher enforcement and an Ofsted review of provision.
While I acknowledge that this is a debate that could—and, I am sure, will—carry on into the months and years to come, I am afraid that it is time for me to draw my comments to a close for today, before I get the Whip’s warning. In doing so, I again thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this enlightened and important discussion. I trust that the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, will cross-examine my spelling and grammar with the same vigour that she has deployed in today’s debate.
The gracious Speech sets out a clear, confident vision for the United Kingdom’s path ahead: high tech, open for business, conscientious and inclusive. As we leave this most difficult of years behind, we are seeing the opportunities in the challenges and, I hope, in our people. We will build back quicker, greener and better than before, and I sincerely believe that in this parliamentary Session, we can set this country and this place on a path to a brighter future.