UK Drugs Policy

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Lucas]

I pay tribute to the right hon. Gentleman for all his leadership on this issue as Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, and to the hon. Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert). I am very happy to take up that kind invitation. To be serious, I am very glad that the Home Affairs Committee is doing that extra piece of very important work.

Such work is important because drug misuse destroys individuals, families and communities, and an ineffective drugs policy only compounds that damage. All too often, success in the war on drugs is measured in numbers of arrests or seizures of drugs, but many of us believe that we should assess whether the harms associated with drug misuse are rising or declining.

The Home Secretary acknowledged in the foreword to her Government’s drug strategy:

“Individuals do not take drugs in isolation from what is happening in the rest of their lives.”

I agree. Poverty, social exclusion and inequality all have an impact on drug use and drug markets. Research by the Equality Trust has shown a clear and demonstrable correlation between drug misuse and inequality. There is a strong tendency for drug abuse to be more common in countries, such as the UK, that are more unequal. Ending social exclusion must therefore be at the heart of any effective strategy to reduce drug-related harms. To do that, we need to marshal the evidence.

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

Contrary to press reports, many of us on the Conservative Benches believe that evidence-based policy would be more effective in dealing with the scourge of drugs.

[Caroline Lucas]

What the hon. Gentleman says is absolutely true. In a sense, this is not a party political matter: people from across this House and the other place believe that we should have an evidence-based approach, rather than an approach that for too long has been dictated by fear, particularly fear of the tabloids. It is important to have this debate.

Antisocial Behaviour (Stag and Hen Parties)

Robert Syms Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to have this debate on a matter that concerns my constituents and causes great anger and distress. I know that the Minister, who has been delayed, will be here in a moment. I have already had a conversation with him, so he is aware of these real concerns and will have no trouble responding to the debate.

I represent Poole, which is a great constituency. It is mixed: it has areas of poverty and deprivation, but also some exclusive areas with quite high-status housing. It has posh blocks of flats and some big houses. Branksome Park, Canford Cliffs, Sandbanks and Penn Hill are strong residential areas lived in, generally, by professional people who have worked hard all their lives. There are few pubs. Indeed, it is difficult to get a drink; there are one or two wine bars and two or three hotels, but by and large it is not historically an area where someone would go to have a pub crawl or a night out drinking—they would either go to the quay in Poole or the centre of Bournemouth. Excitement for the area is normally a car alarm going off or a fox getting into the dustbins of a home and making a noise. It is not a high-crime area, generally. It is a very peaceful area, in which people enjoy living. Constituents sometimes have to work very hard to buy a place there.

In recent years, however, we have seen residential property being used inappropriately as party houses for stag parties, hen parties, raves and family parties. There are seven or eight homes in the area that are rented out for several hundred pounds a night over a weekend through the websites of a number of businesses. Some of those properties are at the smaller end, with three or four bedrooms converted internally to take 14 or 15 revellers, and others are slightly larger and can take 40 or 50 revellers, who turn up on a Friday to have a good time.

I do not particularly blame the people who want to have a good time. They see the houses on the web and clearly want to enjoy themselves. The economics are that renting a private house and buying all the booze at a supermarket is rather cheaper than staying in a hotel, but the reality is that that spills over into causing trouble in a residential area. Apart from car doors slamming and noise, people play football in the garden and there is music at all hours of the day. There have been stories of people playing football at 3 o’clock in the morning in the gardens of some of these homes. Bottles have been chucked over fences. Constituents next door to some of the properties find that people, having had quite a lot to drink, jump into their garden and start trying to climb their trees. These parties are causing a real problem.

An agency that lets out some of these homes provides other services, such as shuttling the people to clubs in Bournemouth. It goes quiet for an hour or two and then they come back at 2 or 3 in the morning and continue to cause a nuisance. Those who rent these places out get the people to sign a document saying that they will be peaceful in a residential area, but the reality is that there is no real policing. If 15, 20 or 30 people want to have a good time and drink to excess, that leads to a spill-over of antisocial behaviour. It upsets constituents, who fear the onset of a weekend when people will come into the area.

I had a meeting on Saturday where 20 to 30 people turned up to represent various houses in the area and to set out their concerns. The reality is that we have to do something about the issue, because it is making people’s lives a misery. Constituents are fearful to look at these homes on Friday afternoon and see the number of cars that have come in. They pray for rain because people will stay inside. They know that there will be antisocial behaviour. Some of the websites letting homes have associated services. If it is a hen party, a naked butler can be rented, which is a cause of concern if they are serving drinks on a hot afternoon in the garden and are visible to neighbours. The issue impacts on many families. A constituent told me on Saturday that he arrived home with his young daughter of seven or eight to find that the house next door had blow-up dolls bought from a sex shop all the way around the veranda. He had to tiptoe over and ask them to take the dolls down, which they did.

Most of what goes on is high spirits and youngsters wanting to have fun. We were all young once—even me—but the reality is that what is happening is inappropriate in a residential area, and it spills over into very inappropriate activities. One of my constituents wrote in an e-mail to me:

“There is so much I could write about the screaming, shouting, prostitutes being delivered well into the night, loud bass music thumping day and night, car doors banging through the night, taxis coming and going at all hours, bottles thrown into our garden. I truly don’t know where to begin and we are exhausted already.”

I hear stories of elderly people barricading themselves into their homes because of the noise. A retired solicitor and his wife have bought a caravan so that they can get out at weekends and get a night’s sleep. The issue is causing real distress. The environmental health people in Poole have been doing their best with noise, but with several homes, shift systems and a limited number of machines for measuring disturbance, it is difficult, because the target is moving. They are doing their best and have been serving some notices.

One issue is whether what happens represents a change of use. I understand that there is some case law in Sussex under which people can apply for a change of use, but there are a variety of properties. One or two have been bought to be party homes, because they are a good investment that can generate £2,000 or £3,000 for a weekend. I know of at least one case where a constituent lives in his home Monday to Thursday, then moves out to a caravan and lets out the home for parties for £1,000 or £2,000 a weekend, and that would not qualify as a change of use.

The police put most of their focus on central Bournemouth. They try to stay out of the residential areas, but occasionally they get called and have warned people to be a bit quieter. I am glad to say that the police commissioner has been alerted and the police now have a designated officer to keep an eye on the issue. They have difficulty, because the parties are in private residential dwellings.

As a Government, we have moved a whole raft of antisocial behaviour legislation to a slightly lower threshold point, and that should be a more efficient way of controlling the situation. I will fire a number of questions at the Minister on that. This is a real problem for my constituents and it is ruining people’s lives. They are fearful when the weekend comes that they might face further disruption.

Legislation on the statute book makes the matter a legal thing in London. Section 25(1) of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 concerns temporary sleeping accommodation and outlaws it. This issue could not happen in Bromley, Harrow or Westminster. Indeed, with the Olympics, most local authorities were keen to uphold that legislation to stop people letting out their homes for weekend parties. It does happen, however, in Poole. I understand that it is a bigger problem in Brighton, but that city is more used to parties at weekends. It is becoming a problem in Bournemouth and Poole because the homes are available.

If someone is trying to sell a home and it is on the market for five or six months, they can benefit by generating another £15,000 or £20,000 through weekend parties, but that is at the expense of upsetting their neighbours’ lives. I have been aware of the issue for a little time, because I have exchanged e-mails with my constituents on the growing problem, but it is only in the past few weeks that I have really become aware of how difficult it is for constituents and of the number of homes involved. It is changing the nature of the area.

There are appropriate areas that would welcome stag dos and hen parties to generate money and get young people in. However, in residential areas such as Canford Cliffs or Sandbanks, such things are inappropriate. Also, people cause antisocial behaviour when they have drunk a lot, and that is of great concern to my constituents. The situation needs to be acted on; otherwise it will get worse, and I fear that the anger of my constituents is such that some of them will take the law into their own hands, because they have spent all their life working for a home and they find that it is being disturbed weekend after weekend after weekend. The situation is running people down and they are very angry indeed, which is why I have secured this debate today.

I want to find something out from the Minister. We have got rid of the antisocial behaviour orders, mainly because most of them were ignored and they had become discredited. We now have a raft of new antisocial behaviour legislation. Clearly, the behaviour of some of the partygoers is inappropriate, but they bought a proposition. I do not particularly blame them; they are coming down to have a party. However, I blame the people who are promoting these sorts of parties.

Michele King runs Deluxe Holiday Homes—I think she has had a chequered past—and she is renting out these properties. The owners of the properties are making a lot of money out of this situation. I would have no problem with these people running these events in an appropriate area, and I know that sometimes there are places in rural areas where there are fields and noise is not such a factor. However, in a residential area, in a tree-lined area such as Poole, in a quiet residential neighbourhood, this is the most inappropriate activity and we need to take some action. By taking action either against the agents or the owners—some of whom are also my constituents, I am sorry to say—we need to nip this activity in the bud, because it is having a very detrimental effect on my constituents in Poole.

When I began representing Poole—I have represented it since 1997—I did not expect, after a few years, to be having a debate on this particular topic, because I did not think that this would be the sort of thing that would come up locally. Several homes being used for this inappropriate activity could easily become 10, 12, 14 or 15 homes, and the reason is, of course, that there is an awful lot of money in this sort of weekend activity. A constituent sent me some information from the net the other day, which showed that these homes are hired for about £700 a night and sometimes in the summer some can go for £1,200 a night. Well, two or three nights is a nice earner for somebody; there are big incentives for people to do this. However, they are sailing very close to the law and we have to find a way, either by using antisocial behaviour legislation, change-of-use legislation or the environmental health people, to crack down on this activity and give my constituents a break, which they so rightly deserve after working so hard to retire in what they hoped was a peaceful neighbourhood, rather than living next door to stag dos, hen parties, raves and sometimes the most outrageous behaviour.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Syms]

I thank the Minister for the constructive and helpful way in which he is replying to this debate. Some of these ideas will be very well taken by my constituents, and give us something to work on.

[Norman Baker]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend; I am glad that he feels that way. I will be interested to see how the situation develops, particularly when the new powers are in force.

In conclusion, I make it clear that when people’s behaviour goes beyond what is acceptable and the result is harm, misery and discomfort to innocent parties, local agencies should be able to act and act fast. I believe that the new powers that the coalition Government will introduce later this year under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 will encourage those agencies and deliver on our promise to simplify the existing powers available to front-line professionals by putting victims at the heart of the response to antisocial behaviour.

Immigration Bill

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

As I have said, we have been enhancing the various services that we are able to provide in a number of countries; that includes the expansion of our network of visa application centres. My hon. Friend mentioned Russia and China. In China, we have more visa application centres than any of the other Schengen countries. We have 12 such centres there; most of our competitors have only three or four. We are also constantly working with the tour groups that bring people over to the United Kingdom, to see how we can enhance the service that we offer. The ability to apply online is also important. Yes, we require biometrics to be taken, but we are enhancing our biometric capture capability. For example, in certain cases the biometric capture capability can go to the individual applying for the visa, rather than the individual being required to go to the visa application centre. So we are enhancing these services, and we are conscious of the issues that he has raised.

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

May I support what the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw) has just said about people from Iran? I have a constituent who was in exactly the situation that has been mentioned. His parents had to go to Istanbul to apply for visas. They then had to decide whether to go back to Iran or to hang around in Istanbul for three or four weeks to see whether they could come here. They were left in limbo, and we really need a fast-track service to deal with the parents and other relatives of people of Iranian descent in the UK who want to come here to visit them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Syms Excerpts

Monday 28th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

I have a constituency interest, as constituents of mine took advantage of the scheme. The hon. Gentleman is right—it was not abused, but it was nearing the end of its natural life this year, because it was open only to those from Bulgaria and Romania, and they will be able to come to the United Kingdom in any event after transitional controls have been withdrawn. We had to choose whether to create a new scheme, and we decided that we did not need to do so because sufficient labour was available in the European Union. However, I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we will continue to keep the matter under review, along with other Departments, to ensure that our agricultural industry is not damaged in any way.

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

15. What plans she has to make it easier to deport foreign terrorists and criminals.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (James Brokenshire)]

The Immigration Bill will put the law on the side of the public, deporting criminals first and hearing appeals later wherever possible, and cutting the number of appeal routes available. Importantly, the Bill also addresses the abuse of the right to a family life under article 8 and upholds the view of Parliament that convicted criminals should be deported.

[Mr Syms]

My constituents in Poole welcomed the deportation of Abu Qatada but want to be reassured that the changes in the Immigration Bill will ensure that the law is on the side of law-abiding people from now on.

Immigration Bill

Robert Syms Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I fully welcome the Bill. All hon. Members realise how strongly people feel about this very important subject. We do not have to knock on many doors before ordinary hard-working people who are trying to pay the bills and bring up their kids start to moan about the immigration system.

The problem is that, over a number of years, the system has become somewhat dysfunctional. The Government have made it a high priority to have a firm but fair immigration policy. Hon. Members know that many legal migrants add fully to our country. Many create jobs, and there are many surgeons, doctors and others in the NHS. However, in our hearts, we know that many come to the UK to take advantage of us and see us as a soft touch, and that many are here illegally. In the Bill and a series of measures taken since 2010, the Government are trying to tighten the system and make it more robust, and to send a signal to the world that we are not a soft touch, and that we are determined to ensure that only people who are legitimately in the UK should be here.

The Bill is sensible. It streamlines the process and begins to introduce biometrics; reduces the number of grounds of appeal from 17 to four; and restricts some of the rights under article 8. The reality is that all hon. Members deal with immigration cases. We know the nature of the game and how it is played. There are constant appeals and new applications so that time goes by and people who should not really be in this country stay here. I therefore welcome what the Government are doing. If we combine it with better management of the border authorities, we will make good progress.

[Rehman Chishti]

I agree with everything my hon. Friend has said so far. We need to get things right and acknowledge when things went wrong. One important factor is the hundreds of bogus colleges set up in our country over so many years, as a result of which thousands of people who should never have come to this country did so. The Government have closed 600 or so. That is the right way forward.

[Mr Syms]

There must be a balance, because many language schools generate foreign exchange, provide good education and feed people through to our universities. The Government have ensured that the ones that survive—some will prosper—do so because they are legitimate, but many people took that route here. That part of Government policy is very sensible.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

I understand what the hon. Gentleman says about foreign overseas students, but does he recognise that, in the case of London Metropolitan university, the Home Office overreaction did a great deal of damage to Britain’s international reputation? Thankfully, that has mostly changed in respect of London Metropolitan, but do we not need to be slightly cautious, because overseas students bring an awful lot to the country?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Syms]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman’s general point—that many overseas students bring a lot to the English language centres and the university sector—but that is no excuse for the university sector not keeping proper records and knowing what happens to students. I felt very sorry for the students involved rather than for the university, but the Home Office moved quickly to try to get them into other, proper institutions. The immigration authorities acted as responsibly as they could to deal with the difficulties some students faced.

[Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the success of the Government’s policy is reflected in the fact that student numbers have fallen in those institutions that most abused the system? That proves that the steps the Government took worked.

[Mr Syms]

My right hon. Friend makes a good point.

We need to send signals to people around the world that we are serious about ensuring that people who are here illegally should not stay. That is why I welcome the measures on bank accounts and driving licences. There are concerns about private sector landlords, but if someone is about to rent out a £250,000 or £500,000 home, there is a good, solid logical reason for having the full documentation. After all, they want to collect the rent. Many residential landlords already take passport and other such details. The Bill is a perfectly common-sense approach to ensuring that there is a barrier for those who should not be here but no difficulty for those who have a right to be here.

[Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) (Con)]

I am sure my hon. Friend is aware that estate agents are obliged to take contact information—both photograph identification and proof of address—from tenants and landlords under money-laundering regulations. Does he agree that the measure in the Bill is a simple and reasonable extension of the existing regulations, which have worked so well?

[Mr Syms]

I agree with my hon. Friend. With the tightening up of measures on employers taking on workers, the measure to which he refers is one of a series to provide barriers so that we find people who are not here legally.

[Ms Abbott]

The hon. Gentleman says that the measures on landlords should pose no difficulty for people who already live here. When my parents first came to this country, landlords would routinely tell prospective black tenants that the room was gone. Does not the legislation bring us back to the situation in which people, rather than go through the rigmarole, will see a black face and say, “The room is gone”?

[Mr Syms]

I understand the hon. Lady’s concerns because of her family history, but the reality is that people who are legitimately here have many protections. All the Government are saying is that, if someone wants to rent a property, they should have a passport. For simple, sensible reasons such as getting credit, most people need some kind of documentation, so the problem will not be insurmountable.

On the NHS, I welcome the health surcharge. Nothing annoys my constituents more than the feeling that resources that should be devoted to their care are being used by people who do not have a right to them. All hon. Members know that the NHS has not followed its policy of collecting money. The easiest thing to do is say that someone does not come from abroad and collect the money as if they were British citizens. The Government’s measures are sensible.

As our constituents feel so strongly, we must have a firm but fair immigration policy. If they do not believe the Government take immigration seriously, the only people who benefit are extremists. We know that many people have extreme views on immigration.

[Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con)]

I am sure that, like me, my hon. Friend hears pleas for unaffordable, high-value and new treatments for cancers and so on, but the pot is not limitless. Our constituents wish to know that those who have contributed to the pot will be able to take from it in their time of need. We might provide universal health care, but we do not provide global health care.

[Mr Syms]

Absolutely. The measure does not affect accident and emergency or short-term care, but it is a signal that the Government are serious. We should not squander resources on those who do not deserve them, particularly if people are waiting for operations. One figure used today is that 4,000 more doctors could be employed if we collected the money. There is therefore a prize for tightening the system.

Given the number of hon. Members who want to speak, I do not intend to go on much longer. I broadly welcome the thrust of the Bill. I would be happy to serve in Committee if asked, and I look forward to the Bill’s progress through the House, because it is an important priority for the British people.

Legislative Reform Order (Epping Forest)

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 30th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

I rise as Chairman of the Regulatory Reform Committee. The draft order and the explanatory document were laid before the House on 21 March under section 14(1) of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006. The Government recommended that the draft order be subject to the affirmative procedure, under section 17 of the Act.

The draft order proposes an insertion into the Epping Forest Act 1878 that would allow the Metropolitan Police Authority to erect a muster, briefing and deployment centre on Wanstead Flats for up to 90 days. As we have heard in the debate, it will be quite a busy centre, with perhaps upwards of 3,500 police officers on certain days of the Olympics, providing security at the Stratford centre, the Olympic stadium and various other stadiums in that part of London.

The Home Office has reassured the Committee that the draft order is a temporary provision that constitutes no precedent, as we have heard from the Minister. It believes that it is the most efficient way to ensure the safety and security of the 2012 games, following a site selection process that found Wanstead Flats to be the most suitable location. Clearly, we are all concerned about security.

The Committee considered the draft order on 3 May. It concluded that the affirmative resolution procedure was appropriate and recommended that the draft order be approved. The report was agreed, but following a Division in which the Committee divided five to three. Under the procedures of the House, when there is a Division the matter has to be referred to the Floor of the House.

I think it fair to say that members of the Committee were sympathetic to local Members, particularly the hon. Member for Leyton and Wanstead (John Cryer), who wanted to attend the Committee but could not under the Standing Orders of the House. He made representations himself to the Metropolitan Police Service and the consultation, and I hope that he will catch your eye in a moment, Mr Deputy Speaker, to represent the views and concerns of his constituents. The debate provides an opportunity for local Members to make their concerns known.

As we have heard, a number of concerns were expressed in our report, such as the fact that the consultation document contained an avoidable error.

[Lyn Brown]

The hon. Gentleman is an honourable man. Does he not agree that given the state of the consultation, local people have a right to be concerned? Does he also accept the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham (Clive Efford) that how and where the £170,000 will eventually be spent is a concern, given the botched consultation?

[Mr Syms]

There were clearly problems with the consultation, although it is true that, as the Minister said, there were only 31 replies. However, my Committee still found that it wished to approve the order, and I hope that the House will do so today. It seems to me that there would be a very good reason for local Members to write to the Home Office to put pressure on the Metropolitan police, and indeed the City of London corporation, so that there is some local involvement in how the £170,000 is spent. Once the site is repaired, if it is used by many of the hon. Lady’s constituents, they clearly ought to be consulted about what improvements are made. That seems to be a matter for another day, but I am glad that she has put her point on the record.

Although the difficulties with the consultation were unfortunate, the Committee concluded that that should not inhibit the progress of the draft order and did not alter the fact of the site’s utilisation. There was concern about the adequacy of the consultation, because the wording used in the consultation document was potentially deficient. Wanstead Flats was described as

“essential to ensuring the safety and security of the Games”,

which was a bit of an overstatement, even though it was clearly the preferable site.

The consultation was poorly conceived, which raised unnecessary worries among local residents, and took place nearly a year after Wanstead Flats was identified as the preferred site. It was limited in scope to rule out comments on alternative sites, and the document contained a factual error about the criminal sanction. The poor design and preparation of the consultation gave the impression that the process was a done deal, and that the legislative reform order was being used as the easiest way to reach the desired solution. That is one reason why we are having this debate on the Floor of the House today.

The fact that the Metropolitan Police Service is clear that it requires the site for the policing of the Olympics is a persuasive, but not conclusive, reason for the narrow terms of the consultation, as it has no statutory function in relation to the Olympics. Direct responsibility for the centre lies with the Metropolitan Police Service, which formulated the site criteria. Its assessment against those criteria found that Wanstead Flats was the only site to meet all of them. However, it would have been more appropriate if the consultation document had taken that assessment as a starting assumption that the Department expected to adopt unless persuaded otherwise.

As we have heard, the consultation generated 31 responses. The explanatory document dealt with them in a rather perfunctory manner and should have contained a more detailed response and information. Despite the concerns raised, the report concludes that the Department has “respectably arguable” grounds for believing that its consultation was adequate.

The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee of the House of Lords reported on the draft order on 4 May. It, too, considered the Government’s consultation to have been “very poorly handled”, and drew this to the House’s attention, while concluding that the draft order was appropriate to proceed. As we have heard, a Hybrid Instruments Committee of the House of Lords considered the draft order on 23 May, concluding that there ought not to be a further inquiry by a Select Committee into any of the matters complained of by the eight petitioners.

There were genuine concerns, which is why the matter has been referred to the Floor of the House, so that local Members can raise those concerns. I am sure that there are further discussions to be had on another day about the details of the improvements to the site and the £170,000. However, I hope that the House concludes that the site in question is the most appropriate and will support my Committee’s decision by voting for this order today.

Higher Education (Student Visas)

Robert Syms Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bacon]

I certainly hope so. I hope that the Government understand, if they had not already, that two in five PhDs undertaken in this country are undertaken by overseas students. Damage that and we damage the research base of this country.

More than 2,500 scientists are working at the John Innes centre near Norwich, the Institute of Food Research, the Sainsbury Laboratory, the Genome Analysis Centre and the university of East Anglia cluster, which together form the Norwich research park. That is the largest concentration of food and plant scientists in Europe. The IFR was recently ranked in the top two of 36,000 worldwide research organisations for the influence and citation of its research.

UEA also has a growing medical school and a renowned school of environmental studies. Other growing sectors include offshore and other renewable energy, including tidal, biomass and biofuel energy production. In advanced engineering the area has more than 1,000 engineering companies, employing a skilled work force of about 10,000 people, which trade around the world with the likes of Boeing, Airbus, NASA and Toyota. Group Lotus, which is based in my constituency, is developing the next generation of high-performance cars using renewable energies, as well as being the catalyst for a large cluster of advanced automotive engineering businesses along the A11 corridor. Almost every Formula 1 team is supported by engineers based in Norfolk or is using engineering invented in the county.

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful argument. This is a very competitive area because there are other countries, other language centres, and other colleges and universities to go to. Unless we get rid of the uncertainty, we will lose millions of pounds and thousands of students.

[Mr Bacon]

My hon. Friend is right because the uncertainty is already proving damaging, particularly on the language issue, as I will discuss in a second. In East Anglia, we see around us the huge potential for a new rebalanced economy that places relatively less emphasis on financial services and has growth in all these other sectors. We have the potential for a golden triangle between Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich, where BT Martlesham has its own electrical generating capacity, because it uses more electricity for computing power than many small towns.

Where is the role of the universities in all this? It is nothing short of crucial. As the Minister knows, we need more skilled people—all Governments talk about the need for more skills. Our education system produces far too many people who are not equipped to go further, which was the subject of this afternoon’s Second Reading debate. Some people cannot study at university, because they do not have the basics in English, maths and science. We have a shortage of science and maths teachers, which is being made worse by a vicious circle: not enough students reaching the basic standard; not enough students studying those subjects at A-level; not enough good people therefore applying to university to study those subjects; and accordingly not enough graduates to become teachers to help solve the problem.

What is helping to break that vicious circle? The answer is overseas students. In many STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—courses are viable only due to the substantial proportion of enrolments from outside the UK and the EU. If we get all this wrong, we will damage the possibility of our economy recovering and rebalancing away from an over-dependence on financial services. One need only look to the United States to see the enormously important role of a vibrant university sector in driving economic growth.

In 2009, a study by the Kauffman Foundation on the impact of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which analysed the economic effect of MIT alumni-founded companies and their entrepreneurial ecosystem, concluded that if the active companies founded by MIT graduates were to form an independent nation, their revenues would make that nation at least the 17th largest economy in the world. The state comptroller of New York has estimated that college and student spending directly or indirectly provides nearly 500,000 jobs and generates more than $62 billion of economic activity. The comptroller of public accounts in the state of Texas has estimated that every dollar invested in the state’s higher education system eventually returns $5.50 to the Texas economy.

Why are those American comparisons interesting? The United States is the most successful higher education market in the world. It is No. 1, but which is No. 2? Where is the second-favourite destination?

English Language Schools

Robert Syms Excerpts

Thursday 24th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West (Conor Burns) on making a characteristically strong case for his constituents. He will be a powerful advocate for his constituents and I look forward to working with him.

I had a debate at the end of the previous Parliament on the same topic. It is vital that we get a quick resolution to the problem, before students are diverted to other schools and this country loses millions of pounds, loses jobs and loses a great opportunity for what is a world-beating industry, if we remove the bureaucracy. Of course we need a firm immigration system, but it has to be fair, and we have to be fair to the language schools so that they can do their business.