EU: Structural and Cohesion Funds

Debate between Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Baroness Wilcox

Wednesday 8th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

Interestingly, I do not have the answer to that question with me. I do so wish I did. I would be delighted to respond to the noble Baroness by letter.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords, more worryingly, did we not send £10.2 billion in net cash to the European Union for it to waste last year? That should be compared to the mere £6.2 billion of our own public expenditure cuts. Why do we need any of the 75,000 fat Eurocrats in Brussels, who have little to do but strangle our economy with their endless regulations and waste our money which could be better spent at home? Surely the answer from the Minister to the noble Lord, Lord Vinson, should be that if we want to do what he so sensibly suggests, the only way is to leave the European Union.

[Baroness Wilcox]

The noble Lord has his own agenda which he is free to pursue. Fortunately, Her Majesty’s Government do not at the moment agree with him.

Higher Education: Funding and Student Finance

Debate between Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Baroness Wilcox

Wednesday 3rd November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

I think that it may be as part of the national scholarship programme that we will engage with that.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords, as we need to save money in our higher education system, may I suggest that the Government take a close look at the humanities departments of the former polytechnics? I ask the question against the background of my 10 years on the Council for National Academic Awards, which validated all the courses in the polytechnics until those were miraculously changed into universities in 1992. That experience led me to see that, although the former technical colleges continued to provide excellent quality after they were subsumed into the polytechnics, many of the new humanities departments—that is, the “poly” bit of the polytechnic experiment—did not. As far as I am aware, there is no quality control in this area. There is quality assurance, but that is a very different thing. I welcome the fact that the Statement says that all universities will be expected to publish standard information on employment outcomes. Will the Government ensure that this information reveals any weaknesses in the areas that I have mentioned, so that the huge sums of money that currently support such departments could be released for better departments and better institutions in the system?

[Baroness Wilcox]

I think that I agree with all of that. All universities and colleges, whatever contribution they decide to make, will be expected to publish a standard set of information about their performance against the indicators that students and their parents value. Listening to how the noble Lord described the matter from a polytechnics background—which is where I am from—I think that that will drive through very well, and I can only agree with him.

Sunday Trading

Debate between Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Baroness Wilcox

Tuesday 6th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

Yes, my noble friend has a very good point.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords, will the Minister explain to your Lordships the role of the European Council in this matter? Do we really have to go cap-in-hand to Brussels to seek permission not to work on Sundays? If so, is that not the final nail in the always fraudulent concept of subsidiarity?

UK: International Competitiveness

Debate between Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Baroness Wilcox

Wednesday 23rd June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

The noble Lord will of course be delighted that we are bringing forward the Academies Bill and he will no doubt be supporting it. We want to ensure that British higher and further education are better linked into our economy. Our priorities include an increasing emphasis on adult education, stripping out some of the bureaucracy around further education, and putting an end to the outdated distinction between blue-collar apprenticeships and further education on the one hand and university education on the other. BIS has already redeployed £200 million from Train to Gain to fund 50,000 extra apprenticeships and an additional £50 million towards capital spending on colleges.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords, does the noble Baroness recall the estimates made by the EU enterprise and industry commissioner, Mr Gunter Verheugen, that EU overregulation was costing us some 6.4 per cent of GDP per annum—around £84 billion today? Why do Her Majesty’s Government insist on staying on the “Titanic” when the iceberg of international competition is staring us in the face?

[Baroness Wilcox]

The noble Lord will be very pleased to know that we have already said that we will look seriously at the gold plating that we have been doing to European Union regulations. I am sure that he will support us in that.