Apprenticeships
Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Cormack(11 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Garden of Frognal
Indeed, discussions are ongoing with the devolved communities to ensure that we have a UK-wide programme. There are border issues as the noble Lord suggests. A lot of the apprenticeships are employer-led. We are increasingly making sure that employers define what they want by way of an apprenticeship and the sort of people they want. We certainly hope that boundaries between Wales and England will be no barrier to any good apprentice getting an opportunity.
Lord Cormack
My Lords, I declare an interest as president of William Morris Craft Fellowship and patron of the Heritage Crafts Association. Will my noble friend recognise how important it is for young people to be encouraged to go into these highly skilled crafts? Will she accept that most of the members of the Heritage Crafts Association are one-man or one-woman businesses? It is extremely difficult for them to take on apprentices, much as they might wish to do so. Some of the crafts are in danger of dying out. Will she do everything that she can to encourage young men and women in our schools and colleges to consider a career in what I call traditional crafts?
Baroness Garden of Frognal
I was in no way complacent about youth unemployment. We all know that it is a disastrous start for many young people if they cannot get into a job and into work when they finish their compulsory education. The noble Lord mentioned getting employers more involved. There is now, for instance, a £1,500 start-up to help SMEs get their first apprenticeship scheme going. We have seen 6,800 starts between February and October 2012, and there are a further 12,100 in the pipeline.
As for small and medium-sized enterprises, an increasing number of employers are coming on board and taking on apprenticeships. As for the larger firms, discussions are ongoing with some of the major firms that take significant numbers of apprentices. The noble Lord mentioned BT. There is also BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce. Some very large firms have extraordinarily well established apprenticeship programmes, and the Government are in constant dialogue with them to try to ensure that best practice can be passed on and that it is made as easy as possible for employers to take on apprenticeships. One of our other challenges is to reduce the bureaucracy so that there are no unnecessary disincentives to employers taking on apprenticeships. Of course, more work needs to be done, and we very much look forward to the results of the consultation and to ensuring that we take that implementation forward in the autumn.
Lord Cormack
My Lords, if second innings are being allowed, is my noble friend aware that the William Morris Craft Fellowship is always willing to visit schools and other institutions to encourage young people? Many members of the Heritage Crafts Association are indeed in the position indicated by the noble Lord, Lord Young, in that they are tiny—sometimes one-man or one-woman—businesses. Nevertheless, they are anxious to share their skills and expertise, but they also need help and encouragement of a positive, and indeed financial, nature to take on apprentices and train them fully. Some of these crafts take a long time to master.
Indeed, only two days ago we had a group in the House from the Heritage Crafts Association, including a tailor from Savile Row, a maker of wonderful leather goods and a calligrapher, all of whom are more than willing to do whatever they can to help but are very much in need—not so much the tailor from Savile Row, probably—of assistance and encouragement. Can we look to the Government to take advantage of the offers that are on the table and further assist and encourage these extremely important crafts and craftspeople?
Baroness Garden of Frognal
I admire my noble friend’s ability to bring to everyone’s attention the organisations close to his heart. I am quite sure, with the publicity that he has given them, that people will be very anxious to take up those offers.
Telecommunications: Mobile Phone Services
Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Cormack
Baroness Garden of Frognal
I was not aware of that, but using churches in high and rural areas may be a great solution. I am sure that all these considerations are taken into account when deciding where to place the receivers.
Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012
Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Cormack
Lord Cormack
I am sure everybody would welcome the discounts, but would it not also be a good thing to discourage selling of the torch flames?
Baroness Garden of Frognal
My Lords, that may well be the case, but the torches are actually the property of the people running, and I do not think the Government could get directly involved in that.
As part of the 2012 legacy, we also wish to reverse the decline in sports participation. The Government launched a new youth sport strategy on 10 January with £1 billion of lottery and Exchequer funding. This will mean a much greater focus on young people, particularly 14 to 25 year-olds, and this strategy aims to deliver: consistent growth in sports participation in the 14 to 25 age range and across the adult population; an excellent sporting experience to keep people playing sport; high quality talent development to create a better talent pool and help those with real potential to make the grade; and a growth in participation by people who have disabilities, including the most talented.
The School Games is the Government’s new framework for competitive school sport. It is a key strategy for creating a meaningful sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and to increase the number of pupils participating in competitive sport. More than half the schools in England—around 13,000—have signed up, including primary, secondary, special and independent schools. The UK and Brazil, which will host the next summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016, have jointly written to the IOC and to the International Paralympic Committee to ask them to encourage future bidders for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Youth Olympic Games to have in place a competition structure similar to that of the School Games.
The International Inspiration initiative is delivering on the promise made by my noble friend Lord Coe in Singapore in 2005 to,
“reach young people all over the world and connect them to the inspirational power of the Games, so they are inspired to choose sport”.
The programme develops a series of activities tailored to each country’s needs, to introduce a more systematic approach to delivering sport in school and community settings for all age groups, based on practices that have been successful in the UK. To date, more than 12 million young people in 20 countries have been reached through the International Inspiration programme. Since 2007, the programme has helped train 100,000 teachers, coaches and young leaders. Thanks to the phenomenal efforts of my noble friend Lord Bates, the Olympic Truce has a much higher profile than in previous Games. We look forward to hearing more from him about support for the Truce.
We are not complacent and recognise that challenges still lie ahead in 2012. For example, during the course of the Games we will be hosting 26 simultaneous world championships; converting for the Paralympics and then hosting another 20 events; and coping with millions of extra journeys on our transport systems. However, the omens are good for us to deliver a safe, successful and memorable Olympic and Paralympic Games, with legacy benefits for the whole country.
Before I close, I should note that the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, withdrew her name from the speakers list out of courtesy to the House because, with 100 days to go to the Paralympics, she was unable to stay for the whole debate. On behalf of the House, I thank her for observing that courtesy and express appreciation for all her achievements and for her work on the Paralympics, and assure her that she will always be welcome to raise any matter, either inside or outside the Chamber.
The Government acknowledge the work of the previous Administration in the planning and organisation of the Games. We are grateful for the cross-party support in the work that has still to be done, and for the healthy scrutiny from your Lordships, particularly given the levels of Olympic and Paralympic expertise that we have in the House. I look forward to hearing all contributions in the debate, and to the UK delivering a Games of which we can all be proud.
Leveson Inquiry
Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Cormack(12 years, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Garden of Frognal
My Lords, we are hearing consensus from all sides of the Chamber on that, and I entirely agree with the noble Lord.
Lord Cormack
My Lords, is there not another issue we should be considering: the exact role of special advisers? I cast absolutely no aspersions on Mr Jeremy Hunt, for whom I have a very high regard, but it seems to me that while special advisers have an understandable role in liaising with party politicians and so on, they should not usurp the role of the career civil servant. I believe—I raised this as long ago as the early 1970s in another place—that Governments of all parties have tended to be careless in the way in which they have used special advisers. This is not the first example we have had in the past 12 months. Could we have a review of the exact role, position and duties of special advisers within government departments?
Baroness Garden of Frognal
My understanding is that in this case the special adviser was one of a number of people, including officials, who had particular roles in respect to the BSkyB bid—but I hear what my noble friend says and if there are matters I can write to him on, I will do so.
Economy: Tourism
Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Cormack
Baroness Garden of Frognal
My Lords, we constantly look at the different factors which might inhibit people from coming here. On air passenger duty, the noble Lord may not agree, but aviation is relatively lightly taxed in comparison to other forms of taxation. There is a consultation out for this which we will be looking at closely, and will be hoping to come back before the end of the year to see whether there are factors which might cause a need to look again at air passenger duty.
Lord Cormack
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the millions of tourists who come to enjoy our great heritage assets and our beautiful countryside do not, as a rule, come to admire burgeoning wind farms? In view of the very questionable benefit to our energy supplies that these monstrosities produce, will my noble friend talk to her colleagues in the appropriate departments to ensure that tourism is not killed off by turbines?
Baroness Garden of Frognal
My Lords, burgeoning wind farms are slightly outside my remit for this Question, and there are those who think they are rather beautiful in particular circumstances. I will leave that question for another day.