GCSEs

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. It is simply that there are some quite difficult issues to deal with when it comes to finding exactly the right way to ensure that speaking and listening skills, in particular, are properly assessed, but I absolutely agree with him that we need to do more to encourage the take-up of languages. Unfortunately, it dipped under Labour; it is now increasing, thanks to the changes that we have made with the English baccalaureate measure.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

Businesses that I have met in my constituency have told me of their concern about the level of literacy and numeracy among some school leavers, yet pupils can only sit the exams that are in front of them, and teachers are surely right to teach to those exams. Does that not show that the current system is not operating fully for everybody, and that the Government are right to focus on it, and fix it?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend puts the case brilliantly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will come back with me to Markham Vale in his constituency, which I visited at his suggestion—[Interruption.] Real regeneration is taking place there with Government support.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

I have raised the issue of interest rate swaps with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State before, and I am grateful for the action he has taken. However, the problem is still hurting businesses in my constituency, so will he keep the issue firmly on his radar and work with colleagues across government to bring it to a conclusion as swiftly as possible? [Interruption.]

[Vince Cable]

I am sorry; I did not catch the hon. Gentleman’s question.

[Mr Speaker]

I am sorry if the hon. Gentleman’s words were lost; let us hear them.

[Andrew Jones]

I have raised the issue of interest rate swaps with Ministers before and have been grateful for the action taken, but this issue is still hurting businesses in Harrogate and Knaresborough. May I ask the Secretary of State to keep this issue on his radar and to work across government to try to resolve this as quickly as possible?

[Vince Cable]

Yes, the hon. Gentleman is right: interest rate swaps were a major scandal. The Financial Services Authority has, as he knows, already set in train a process for remedies. I am working very actively with it, but it is very much in the hands of the FSA and the banks to produce a just solution. [Interruption.]

Apprenticeships

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Thursday 14th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

We have introduced a grant of £1,500 for small businesses taking on their first apprentices, precisely to help them with the bureaucracy that the hon. Lady mentioned, and I would encourage her to tell the small businesses that she talks to that it is available. The take-up has been good, but we need to ensure that everyone who could benefit from it knows about it.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that employers will welcome the greater control of funding so that they can direct resources to where they need them most?

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Thursday 20th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

The inquiry that the Department is now carrying out will be into the conduct of the directors, and various consequences will flow from that. We cannot investigate the wider social consequences, but the hon. Gentleman is quite right that severe loss has been suffered, not just by the workers but by the Government, who are having to make up the redundancy pool.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

Companies in my constituency have contacted me about how interest rate swap product mis-selling is threatening their very futures. May I urge my right hon. Friend to work with colleagues across the Government to try to resolve this issue as quickly as possible?

[Vince Cable]

I have already been working closely with the Bully-Banks group and the Federation of Small Businesses, which is deeply concerned about the problem. The scale of the scandal is becoming larger by the day, as more cases are uncovered. It is clear that the banks—or some of them—behaved extremely badly in the sale of such products. I am not fully satisfied that they are yet conforming with the spirit of the FSA’s advice on the matter; indeed, yesterday I met the chairman of the new regulatory authority to discuss with him how we can support small business more actively.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Monday 18th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Teather]

It is important that we allow schools the freedom to look at the individual needs of the child and put in place the kind of support they need to address whatever is holding them back. Part of the point behind the achievement for all programme is to encourage schools to look at individual children and get behind whatever may be holding them back, which may be special educational needs or an issue to do with confidence, or even the interaction of the two, as the hon. Lady has indicated.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

16. To ensure that vulnerable children do not fall through the gaps, will my hon. Friend reassure me that if statements are removed, they will be replaced by something as legally effective?

[Sarah Teather]

The planned education, health and care plans are not at all about downgrading legal protections, but about strengthening them. For example, we are extending protections from 16 right up to 25, giving young people protections in a way that they did not have previously. Similarly, there will be a new duty on the health service to work jointly in the commissioning and planning of services, not just for children with education, health and care plans, but for all children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Local Enterprise Partnerships (South-West)

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 10th November 2010 Westminster Hall

[Neil Carmichael]

May I just say that all Back Benchers in the Chamber at the moment are south-west Members? I am; the right hon. Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw) is; the hon. Member for Chippenham (Duncan Hames) is; and my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Abbot (Anne Marie Morris) is.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

I am from Yorkshire.

[Neil Carmichael]

My hon. Friend is not from the south-west. Nevertheless, this is an important question, because what happens in Cornwall or Somerset affects what happens in Bristol or Gloucestershire, because they are in the south-west and all under the one regional development agency which, thankfully, will be abolished in 2012.

My second point is about the necessity for local authorities to co-operate with each other, specifically in connection with economic development, and I think that that point needs to be discussed in this debate.