British Baccalaureate

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Tuesday 21st June 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I would be happy to talk to the Leader of the House about my noble friend’s idea.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the main problem is that people have to specialise too early in this country? When many of us were doing O-levels, the standards were closer to today’s A-levels, so we have the problem that you cannot specialise when the quality of the teaching you are relying on is not high enough.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I can say to my noble friend that we have worked incredibly hard to reform both academic and, more recently, technical qualifications. I proudly wear my T-level badge, although it is slightly upside down. More importantly, there is a perception that one can do either academic or technical qualifications. In our response to the consultation on level 3 qualifications, published in July last year, we set out the groups of technical and academic qualifications that we will fund and how they can be combined.

Schools: Biometric Technologies

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Monday 6th June 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

The Government are clearly not washing their hands; there are very clear procedures which schools must follow if they want to introduce this technology and very clear procedures which must be followed if a breach takes place.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, for what purposes are biometric technologies used in schools?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

There are a range of purposes. One, as the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, mentioned, is in relation to payment; another is access to libraries, where fingerprinting is often used. They are also used in order that children accessing free school meals do not have a separate payment system and are not stigmatised and their dignity is not affected.

Covid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived Communities

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Wednesday 23rd February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I do not recognise the noble Baroness’s figure of 1/10th, but we have been highly targeted in our interventions and the early data is encouraging, particularly for primary school pupils, on the rate of catch-up in all areas of the country. The greater concern is about secondary pupils, and that is why we have apportioned a greater share of the funding to that group.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, is it not the case that Covid-19 and the effects thereof are little influenced by economic background?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I apologise, but I caught only part of my noble friend’s question. I think I understood him to say that a child’s background does not have a great impact on their outcome. The evidence does not support that. We are very pleased that the disadvantage gap decreased between 2011 and 2019 by 13% at primary level and 9% at secondary level, but it is clear that children from disadvantaged backgrounds do less well in education—hence our emphasis on levelling up.

Schools: Examination Assessments

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Tuesday 12th October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, I would not expect there to be a major issue with integrity—teachers are usually honest—but rather one of credibility where A-level and GCSE qualifications are being reviewed and compared by third parties. The 2021 super-results might be written down a little for comparison by third-party assessors.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

The department is clear that these grades reflect students’ hard work in an extraordinarily difficult year. It is not unexpected, given the different approach to assessment that was taken, that the grades look different, but students can and should feel proud of their achievements.

National Lottery

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Wednesday 14th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

The Government reviewed all the evidence available and, based on that, concluded that to protect income for good causes and tax revenue for the Exchequer—which, obviously, is also spent in the public interest—the current model of taxation should remain in place.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, while I accept the good intentions of the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, I cannot agree with his proposal. I support the National Lottery’s existing remit to raise funds for community, arts, heritage and sports projects. Recently, 40% of lottery funding was for health, education, environmental and charitable causes. I estimate that more than £1 billion was awarded over two years to respond to Covid-19—the largest contribution made to pandemic relief beyond that made by government. This seems to illustrate the scope for substantial National Lottery expenditure on health. What is the average annual expenditure on health by the lottery in normal times and what percentage of total lottery spending is accountable for health?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I echo my noble friend’s reflection that the lottery distributors played an important part in responding to the pandemic and getting funding to organisations all around the country. There is no specific figure on health, but he is right that the National Lottery Community Fund has that as one of its four key objectives. More broadly, the work of all the lottery distributors could certainly be argued to be making a difference to the nation’s mental health and, particularly in the case of Sport England, to our physical health as well.

Channel 4: Funding and Governance

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Thursday 1st July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

It is clear that BBC editorial policy does not trump the law of the land. The noble Lord will be aware that the BBC is undertaking a review of its editorial policy, which will report later this year.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

In what specific ways does the Minister think Channel 4 might benefit from private ownership? What changes in its remit, if any, might government propose?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

We hope through the consultation to discern two particular areas among others. One is access to additional capital; Channel 4 is reliant on advertising for 90% of its revenue. The other is potentially greater agility to respond to market developments as we move forward.

Television Licence Evasion

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Tuesday 26th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

Perhaps it would help if I quote directly from the Government’s response to the consultation in relation to the noble Lord’s valid and important point. We said that:

“The government considers that a future decision on decriminalising TV licence evasion would benefit from a clearer picture on the wider drivers of BBC income in the face of market and other trends.”


So, we need a rounded picture of those issues on which to take a decision.

[Lord Flight (Con) [V]]

Do the Government agree that legislation decriminalising TV licence evasion would, in practice, render paying for a licence optional and constitute a halfway house towards getting rid of the licence?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I do not entirely agree with my noble friend but he is right that it risks sending the wrong signal to the very small minority who seek to evade payment. We feel that it is more constructive to look at ways in which the BBC can support those on low incomes to pay the licence fee.

Covid-19: Arts Sector

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Tuesday 15th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

The right reverend Prelate is absolutely right. The figures that I just gave to my noble friend Lord Black in relation to culture recovery fund recipients do not include the supply chain, where we think significant numbers of contracted employees will also benefit. We are very aware of these issues and share the right reverend Prelate’s concerns.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, freelance workers in the arts sector have been among the worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with all booked engagements simply cancelled with no remuneration. While the third grant to unemployed arts workers was indeed provided at the end of November, individuals who managed to finance themselves during the first grant and so did not need the grant at that time are unfortunately ineligible for third grants. Will the Government please install their eligibility? The recent measures mean that there will be no live performances in the London area, and the Greater London area theatres do not have the financial resources to put on live performances and will need help when government rules permit live performances.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

The Government share my noble friend’s sadness at the impact of the recent decisions on London theatres but, obviously, that decision was taken on public health grounds. Under the new tiers that came into force recently, live performances are permitted in Covid-secure indoor venues in tiers 1 and 2. In relation to those self-employed people who did not access finance in the first two phases, they are not necessarily excluded from the third grant if their business has been badly impacted by Covid-19.

Gambling Legislation

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Wednesday 9th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her question. We are delivering on our manifesto commitment to tackle issues around loot boxes. We had a bespoke call for evidence, which closed on 22 November. We plan to publish our response early in 2021.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, I share the late Lady Thatcher’s discomfort with gambling, which encourages addictive behaviour. I am keen to know what key issues the Government intend to focus on in the forthcoming review of gambling legislation.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for his question. The scope of the review is intentionally very broad, because we aim for it to be as comprehensive as possible. The three big priorities are the safety of children and whether we are doing everything we can to keep them safe; whether advertising and promotion are carried out responsibly; and whether the regulatory framework is working. Within that, are the voices of those with lived experience being heard?

Covid-19: Cultural and Creative Industries

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Monday 26th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I do not wholly recognise the numbers that the noble Lord cites. We are very clear that we stand by our freelancers across the creative industries, both directly through the Self-employment Income Support Scheme, as well as through major packages such as the £500 million Film and TV Production Restart Scheme. We estimate that this will directly support between 40,000 and 50,000 new jobs in the sector, many of which will be taken by freelancers and the self-employed.

[Lord Flight (Con) [V]]

My Lords, what is the estimated value of the total annual output lost by the cultural and creative industries as a result of Covid-19? What proportion of GDP per annum does this represent?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

As my noble friend knows, the cultural and creative industries have been a critical and rapidly growing part of our economy, representing about £111 billion of gross value added in 2018—or 6% of GDP. We estimate that, up to August 2020, output in arts, entertainment and recreation was about 28.1% lower than in February 2020.

Covid-19: Regional Theatres

Debate between Baroness Barran and Lord Flight

Monday 28th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I am pleased to reassure the noble Lord that that is exactly the way that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State and the Minister for Culture are approaching this. They recognise the critical value of these institutions to communities and the people who live and work in them.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, I support the speech of the noble Lord, Lord McNally. He went to the heart of the issue. I would like to widen regional theatre to include music and, indeed, opera. I have a young friend, aged 30, with a brilliant bass voice; he has been called on to sing in Covent Garden and the Met. When this started, all his bookings just faded away. There was no cover and no protection from the theatres. I am pleased to hear the Government are cognisant of the issue and what needs to be done, but I beg them to find the right way to save our theatres and our wonderful regional opera. I think we perhaps have something to learn from Germany.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for highlighting the pressures that some extraordinarily talented performers face. We have tried to move as quickly as possible on this. We have already allocated £3.36 million of emergency funding to 135 grass-roots music venues, and we are currently processing over 4,000 applications for over £880 million to the cultural recovery fund.