Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Vaizey of Didcot and Elizabeth Truss

Tuesday 6th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I confirm that books are freely available in prison.

[Mr Edward Vaizey (Wantage) (Con)]

I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend to her position. I was delighted to hear the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport talking about the importance of the arts in prisons. I hope that my right hon. Friend will recognise how the arts can bring prisoners to literacy and teach them a huge range of skills. I hope she will meet the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance at the earliest opportunity to discuss what the arts can do, particularly in respect of literacy.

[Elizabeth Truss]

May I say what a fantastic job my right hon. Friend has done in championing the arts in every part of our country? His legacy lives on, and it will live on in our prisons.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Vaizey of Didcot and Elizabeth Truss

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

12. What steps he is taking to promote the digital economy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

My Department is delivering a number of programmes and initiatives that will support growth and innovation across the digital economy and the economy more generally. We are investing up to £830 million in digital communications infrastructure by 2015 and working with Ofcom to deliver the 4G spectrum auction this year, and we will shortly publish a Green Paper setting out proposals for a regulatory framework for the communications and media sectors aimed at providing a thriving environment for growth and innovation in the UK.

[Elizabeth Truss]

I was delighted to read earlier this week that Britain leads the world in e-commerce, with 10% of all business taking place online. However, I am concerned about getting more young people involved in the industry, given that the number of people studying computer science is lower now than it was a decade ago and the proportion of women doing computer science has gone down to only 14%. What are we going to do to get more young people involved in the industry?

[Mr Vaizey]

I thank my hon. Friend for that important question. As she is probably aware, e-Skills, the sector skills council, had a specific computing for girls scheme to encourage girls at school to study computing, but the Secretary of State for Education’s important speech on revolutionising the computer science curriculum in January shows that this Government are committed to ensuring that more people study computer science. We are working with industry to ensure that more children choose that option.