Further Education Colleges: Recovery of VAT

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

There is a great deal to be said in favour of what Alan Milburn sets out in his interim review. He has published his interim review, setting out the drivers of youth unemployment. Clearly, some of the issues that the noble Lord raises are important to that and a factor in the rise in economic inactivity among those with health conditions. Alan Milburn will set out his final report later in the year, at which point he will set out his policy recommendations. I look forward to him doing so.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, picking up what the noble Lord, Lord Johnson, said, the FE college sector really is the poor man of the education system in this country. This follows years of neglect by previous Conservative Governments. My noble friend the Minister read out a number of different improvements in the resourcing of these colleges, but does he agree that there also needs to be greater parity of pay? Those who work in FE colleges are worse paid than those who teach sixth formers and much worse paid than those who teach in universities, despite neither of those groups being particularly highly paid. Will he look into this, with the Department for Education, to see whether there can be some improvement in pay and in the training of leaders in FE colleges, so that we can have better skills training in order to support the economy and a better deal for those young people who do not want to follow an academic route and go to university?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I agree with my noble friend’s overall point that we want greater levels of parity between FE colleges and other educational establishments. The Government are delivering those measures through our post-16 skills White Paper on developing the skilled workforce that our economy needs and on reaching the target of two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level learning. FE colleges are a vital part of that. One thing that I have not read out is that, in recognising rising student numbers, the Government are providing £87 million of exceptional in-year growth payments to colleges this year and are increasing funding by nearly £800 million next year.

Public Finances: Borrowing Costs

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness. As she says, there should be absolutely no doubt of the Government’s commitment to economic stability and sound public finances. She is right to say that meeting the fiscal rules is, for this Government, non-negotiable. We have set very tough fiscal rules which we meet two years early. We have set the envelope for the second phase of the spending review, which we will stick to, but I say again that will involve very tough choices on spending and they are choices that we are prepared to make.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that the global uncertainty we are now witnessing reinforces the need for economic growth, through both the policies that the Government are now pursuing and other means?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I absolutely agree with my noble friend. Growth was one of the biggest failures of the previous Government and we are determined to turn that around. The OECD recently upgraded our growth forecast, which means that the UK’s economy is now growing faster than those of Germany, France, Italy and Japan over the next three years. Following the Budget, the OBR increased its forecast for GDP for 2024 and 2025 and, for the first time, it has looked at the growth impact across a decade. It is particularly clear that capital investment, which the party opposite opposes, will lead to a significant increase in growth over the longer term.

Autumn Statement

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, while there has been a welcome increase in the number of jobs there has been a very unwelcome decline in pay. In these circumstances can the Minister say why the Government have not embraced the living wage?

[Lord Deighton]

The Government have of course embraced the most significant increase in the national minimum wage. The new rate of £6.50 came into effect on 1 October. This affects about a million people. I have already listed the other things that we have done. These include increasing the personal allowance on a consistent basis, by again another £100 to £10,600, as my right honourable friend announced today, as well as the other measures to deal with cost-of-living challenges.

Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Friday 7th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, I am extremely concerned about the time. I am certainly worried that we are drifting—

[Noble Lords]

Oh!

[Baroness Blackstone]

Please let me finish what I wish to say. This is a Committee Stage of a Bill and it is very important in Committee that we stick to the amendments on the Marshalled List and do not debate a whole lot of other issues when we are considering a particular grouping.

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff]

My Lords, I am simply trying to answer the question as succinctly and honestly as I can and not to waste the Committee’s time. I hope that my intervention so far has not done that; it is still under 10 minutes.

I realised that the man I was talking about was unable to breathe and that there was no way we could restore his airway. He was terrified and standing in a panic. I therefore gave him what I thought was a tiny dose of midazolam to calm his anxiety from the breathlessness. Unfortunately, as he relaxed, he obstructed his airway and I was then faced with somebody with no airway but still conscious, so I injected all of the ampoule and another one that I had taken with me in case I dropped the first one, knowing that I may be bringing about the end of his life. As he became blue, purple and blotchy and collapsed, the nurse and I caught him and got him on the bed. After what seemed like an eternity, he started to breathe again. He lived for four and a half hours in a peaceful and comfortable state. As I administered the drug, I thought that my defence in court would be that of double effect. That is the only time that I have thought that I would need to use that defence.

I hope that explains to the noble Lord why we go up to the limit and we know the risks that we are taking. However, that is fundamentally different from deliberately foreshortening a life that would otherwise go on for days, weeks, months or possibly years because we cannot predict prognosis.