Annette Brooke
Main Page: Annette Brooke (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)Department Debates - View all Annette Brooke's debates with the Cabinet Office
(10 years, 8 months ago)
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The Deputy Prime Minister
As I said earlier, we inherited a situation in which we needed to restore stability to the public finances, create growth, create employment and create an incentive for people to work. That is why there have been some controversial reforms, but we have also introduced the biggest change in the personal income tax system in a generation, taking 3 million people on low pay out of paying any income tax.
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)
T7. How big a contribution is the Government’s universal free school meal policy expected to make to social mobility?
The Deputy Prime Minister
Despite some claims to the contrary, this policy has been researched and worked on for many years, including two two-year pilots. The evidence shows not only that children get a health benefit from eating more healthy meals and a social benefit as they sit together to share those meals but that the policy is having dramatic effects on closing the attainment gap, which is still too wide in far too many of our schools across the country.