Skills, Vocational Training, and Further and Higher Education

Lord Wilson of Sedgefield Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Whitaker (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the inclusive approach of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Coventry. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Morgan on instigating a vital debate, and my noble friend the Minister on policies that widen access to skills and training, but some will not reach these opportunities. Alan Milburn’s searing diagnosis notes that 50.8% of females and 41.3% of males characterised as “White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller” are NEET. He says that

“Black, African and Caribbean young people had the highest NEET rates of all ethnic groups included in large scale national surveys”,

but Gypsy, Roma and Irish Travellers are, in the National Institute of Economic and Social Research report,

“2.5 – 3 times more likely to be NEET”

than average. Their increase in NEET status is 210% for Irish Travellers and 155% for Roma. However, the population context, at 0.16% of 18 to 24 year-olds, is too small for large-scale surveys. My first plea to my noble friend the Minister is to include in government analyses specific research into this neglected minority, and disaggregate Gypsies, Irish Travellers and Roma students so that the experience of these very different communities is clearly seen.

Alan Milburn omits race prejudice, the cause of negative assumptions about motivation and ability. The EHRC reports that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families experienced the highest level of prejudice of any minority ethnic group. Those who succeed in work often hide their heritage, thus also hiding useful role models. He is surely right that alienation from paths to qualifications and employment begins in school. Gypsy, Irish Traveller and Roma children—again, because their actual experience tends not to be identified—suffer different but widespread bullying and have a far higher dropout rate in all schools from that and other causes than any other minority ethnic group. Often, it is the provoked victim who is excluded, not the perpetrator, but there is no proper research. NGOs point to a lack of valuing of their cultures and history—the Council of Europe ranks the UK lowest in coverage of Roma experience and history in textbooks—lack of positive contact with parents, digital exclusion, especially during the Covid lockdown, and lack of support to get such children up to entry to skills training.

I recommend this month’s Friends, Families and Travellers report on educational inequalities for useful proposals. I declare an interest as its president. FFT’s pledge to get schools to report on progress to welcome their Gypsy, Traveller and Roma students works, as does a successful initiative for higher education institutions, which I was proud to launch in your Lordships’ House. Will my noble friend the Minister affirm her support? The gap is now in further education institutions, of particular importance for the acquisition of skills. How can my noble friend help here?

Without more practical attention, some marginalised families will continue to behave in a marginalised way and very many others will never get the chance they—and we all—could use well. Should we really allow this injustice to continue?

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Wilson of Sedgefield) (Lab)]

Before we move on to the next speaker, this is a very important debate and I am really enjoying listening to it, but we need to stick to the three-minute limit. We are going over only by several seconds, but those seconds add up, and we do need to hear from the Minister.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Wilson of Sedgefield Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd February 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am sure that the whole House will join me in offering condolences to the Jones family and in recognising the terrible trauma that they have been through as a result of the killing of their daughter. As I am sure that my hon. Friend appreciates, it is not for the British Government to interfere with police investigations that take place in another country, but I understand that the Foreign Office has been providing support and remains ready to do so. Our embassy in Bangkok will continue to raise these issues with the Thai Government, and I am sure that the Foreign Office will keep my hon. Friend updated on any developments.

[Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab)]

Q8. In the Prime Minister’s Lancaster House speech, she said of a future trade agreement with the EU:“no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain.”In the spirit of consistency, will that rule also apply to any future trade negotiations with the United States of America, where President Trump has said that America comes first?

[The Prime Minister]

I assure the hon. Gentleman that, as I have said consistently, we will be ensuring that when we negotiate trade deals with whichever countries around the world, they will be good deals for the UK.

Foreign Aid Expenditure

Lord Wilson of Sedgefield Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2016 Westminster Hall

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Phil Wilson (in the Chair)]

Members do not need to be told that quite a lot of them want to catch my eye, so I will introduce a time limit of five minutes straight away. The first person I shall call, who will stick to that limit, I am sure, is Joan Ryan.

--- Later in debate ---

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Phil Wilson (in the Chair)]

Order. I am going to have to drop the time limit for speeches to four minutes because there are still more than 20 Members who want to speak.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Wilson of Sedgefield Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2015 Commons Chamber

The Prime Minister was asked—

[Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab)]

Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 4 February.

[The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron)]

I am sure that the whole House will join me in condemning the sickening murders in Syria of the Japanese journalist Kenji Goto and the Jordanian pilot Lieutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh, and I am sure that the thoughts and prayers of the whole House will be with their families at this very difficult time. We should also think of our own pilots and their families, and of all those who serve. I can assure the House that we will not stop until the murderous ISIL extremists who are behind this, and their poisonous ideology, are eradicated.

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Phil Wilson]

May I associate myself with the comments that the Prime Minister has just made?

A constituent of mine, an agency worker, told me that he pays income tax only if he works overtime. Part of his wages is paid in expenses, even when he is on holiday, which affects his national insurance contributions and therefore his benefit and pension entitlement. The sum of £16 a week is deducted from his wages to administer his payroll, and he even has to pay for his own pay slip. Is that any way in which to treat our working people?

[The Prime Minister]

We are looking into abuse by the so-called umbrella companies that can sometimes bring such things about, but the broader point is that I want to help people like that by cutting their taxes and taking them out of income tax altogether. We have already taken 3 million of the lowest-paid people out of income tax altogether, and we plan to enable people to earn £12,500 before they start to pay income tax, which will take another 1 million out of it altogether.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Wilson of Sedgefield Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is quite right that Brighton has a superb microclimate that people should be encouraged to take advantage of. He stands up for all his constituents with great vim and vigour. In reward, it would only be fair if Brighton, Kemptown was put in the shipping forecast somewhere between Dover and Wight, so that we had a reflection of that every morning.

[Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab)]

Q7. Hitachi Rail Europe and Gestamp are working with Sunderland university to establish a university technical college in my constituency. That has the support of the Department for Transport. Will the Prime Minister assure me that he will support the college and ensure that the decision on the bid is taken quickly, so that employers and young people can acquire the skills that they need?

[The Prime Minister]

I am a great supporter of university technical colleges. They are providing a really good new set of schools for our country that focus on vocational training and education. The announcement of the new college last week was welcome news. It will open its doors in 2017. I look forward to working with the hon. Gentleman on that issue.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Wilson of Sedgefield Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

We are investing, as my hon. Friend knows, over £33 million already in extending the coverage of superfast broadband in Devon and Somerset, as part of the current rural broadband programme, and roll-out is finally accelerating. More than 10,000 premises are expected to be covered by the project by the end of the year and 74,000 by next July. On his point about the so-called final 10%, we announced back in June a quarter of a billion pounds of new money to extend superfast broadband coverage further by 2017. I hear what he says, and the plans will be set out in further detail shortly.

[Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab)]

Q8. Both Nissan and Hitachi are major investors in the north-east of England, and both have said that if the UK leaves the EU, it will damage future investment. Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that the Conservative party’s hostility to Europe is bad for business and bad for British jobs?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I agree—and I am sure I speak on behalf of most people in all parts of the House—that it would be a spectacular act of economic suicide for the country to pull itself out of the world’s largest borderless single market. By some estimates, over 3 million jobs in this country are dependent, one way or another, on our membership of the European Union.