Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

There are often bonus levels that are extreme, but it is important to recall that at the peak of the financial crisis when the Labour party was in charge, there was a bonus pool of well over £12 billion. That has now shrunk to a tiny fraction of that, and at least one bank to which the hon. Gentleman referred—Lloyds—is making a significant improvement in the supply of small business lending.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

3. What steps he is taking to reduce the amount of EU regulation which affects businesses.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)]

The Government continue to press the European Union to reduce burdens on business. We are focused on delivering the business taskforce’s report, their 30 specific recommendations for reforming EU law, and the “compete” principles that should apply to all new EU legislation. We have already achieved good progress on seven of the 30 recommendations, and we are seeing growing recognition of the “compete” principles among major European business organisations and in the European Parliament.

[Bob Blackman]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. Businesses in my constituency complain not only about EU regulations, but about the fact that other countries do not play by the same regulations, and that when our civil servants implement regulations, they gold-plate them. What action is my right hon. Friend taking to remove that gold-plating and ensure that we do the minimum possible to abide by the rules?

[Michael Fallon]

I think there was too much gold-plating in the past, and we have reviewed all 132 directives implemented in the past two and a half years since we tightened the rules on transposition. Of those 132, there is only one example of a directive being gold-plated. That is the consumer rights directive where we took the decision to better protect consumer interests in the use of premium lines.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

As everybody acknowledges, business investment has been badly hit since the financial crisis, but with the economy rapidly recovering, I think we all expect—and the surveys suggest—that there will be a movement forward in terms of business investment, once capacity has been fully utilised.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

T5. The number of students coming from India has dropped by 25% since the new restrictions were introduced, which means we have fallen below the United States as destination of choice. What is my right hon. Friend doing to ensure that we attract the brightest and the best to our universities for the best education in the world?

Curriculum and Exam Reform

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 7th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Last, but certainly not least, Bob Blackman.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

It is clearly crucial that young people gain key skills at the earliest possible stage, particularly in mathematics. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that under the new curriculum, children will learn their 12 times table at the age of nine, rather than learning the 10 times table by the age of 11? Does that not demonstrate the huge shift that is going on to improve standards?

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that. There is a higher level of ambition at every stage in the national curriculum and a decisive shift towards 21st-century subjects, so that mathematics is more rigorous and the computing science curriculum is more attuned to the demands of today. Critically, that curriculum will not only prepare people to be the programmers of the future, but help to keep children safe online by ensuring that e-safety is at the heart of how children are taught in primary school.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 21st January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I absolutely accept the hon. Lady’s point that Conservative-controlled Trafford is a superb local authority, and we can see the many schools that have flourished under its care over the years. As a strong local authority, not only has it welcomed the growth and expansion of outstanding schools—such as Urmston grammar, led by Mike Spinks, in her constituency —but it recognises that schools sometimes have a responsibility beyond their borders to help others to improve. In Northamptonshire we would not have schools improving had it not been for the actions of David Ross and other outside sponsors. Similarly, I know that there are schools in the north-west that wish to extend their wings, not least Altrincham girls grammar in Trafford, helping schools in deprived east Manchester.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

20. Three of the schools in my constituency have become academies, but there are still some laggards. What can my right hon. Friend do to encourage the rest of the schools to offer the same opportunity enjoyed by the young people in those academies?

[Michael Gove]

I think that the best thing I can do is join my hon. Friend in visiting those schools in person, so that we can have a charm offensive to persuade them to become academies. He will provide the charm—and I will complement him.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Gove]

I congratulate Newham council on its leadership, and I congratulate all those involved in music education, who have been supported in London by the Mayor through the scheme that he has introduced to ensure that more children have access to instrumental tuition.

Darren Henley’s report on music education was greeted as probably the best report on the subject that had been written, and enacted by any Government, since the dawn of time. I am grateful that there is such widespread recognition of our commitment to school music.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

T9. Some 18,000 young people and teachers have had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz thanks to the wonderful work of the Holocaust Education Trust. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should commend those who are organising events across the country to commemorate the awful evil of the holocaust, and that it is important that all young people learn the lessons from the past so that it is not repeated in the future?

[Michael Gove]

I absolutely agree, and at a time when we are seeing the effects of prejudice and anti-Semitism on the rise—all of us will have been watching news programmes over the weekend horrified at the re-emergence of murderous prejudice in north Africa and the middle east—we will all affirm the vital importance of the work that the Holocaust Education Trust continues to do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 16th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

The explosion of apprenticeship places is indeed welcome, but small businesses in particular have difficulty taking on apprentices. What is my hon. Friend doing to help small businesses to take them on?

[Mr Hayes]

My hon. Friend is right: Britain’s small businesses are the backbone of our economy and of our communities. In the light of that, we are reducing the bureaucracy associated with apprenticeships and, excitingly, we are giving a special apprenticeship bonus of £1,500 to every small business that takes on a young apprentice.

School Funding Reform

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I visited almost all the local authorities in the F40 area—very possibly because they contain a number of Conservative-Liberal Democrat marginals. For a variety of reasons, I want to ensure that I am fair to all local authorities, which is why we will prioritise funding on the basis of need.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

The London borough of Harrow was at the absolute bottom of the queue for BSF funding, because all the secondary schools are outstanding despite being in very poor buildings. At the same time, there is a basic need case estimated for 16 forms of entry at primary school within the next four years, which is the equivalent of two additional secondary schools. How quickly can we start to see some finance flowing to get the places for the children who need them now?

[Michael Gove]

I hope that the finance will be flowing in this financial year. That is the intention. I appreciate that Harrow, like a number of local authorities in London, including Tower Hamlets, Barking and Dagenham, has specific problems. We need to look at them all in the round in order to ensure fair funding for all.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Teather]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) will just have to wait with bated breath for our early years statement, which will be out shortly and in which we will make further announcements about Sure Start and how we intend to improve the quality of early years.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

16. How many schools in (a) Harrow East constituency and (b) England have converted, or applied to convert, to academy status.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)]

Three high schools in Harrow East have applied to convert to academy status and are aiming to convert in a collaborative partnership with four other high schools in Harrow. A primary school is also aiming to convert in the autumn. More than 1,000 schools in England have applied to convert to academy status since June 2010. The total number of open academies, including those opened under the previous Government, now stands at 801.

[Bob Blackman]

I congratulate the Secretary of State on leading this quiet revolution in education in this country, freeing schools from the dead hand of local education authorities and allowing them to develop and grow. What role does he foresee local education authorities fulfilling in the future, and what arrangements is he making for the governance of these new schools to enable them to flourish and grow?

[Michael Gove]

Local authorities have a crucial role to play in education in ensuring fairness of admissions, making sure that the needs of children who have, for example, high-level special educational needs are respected, and making sure that when it comes to behaviour and attendance, there is appropriate collaboration. They also have a critical role to play as champions of excellence. The best local authorities pursue this role with vigour. Not all do, however.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 9th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We are all delighted to bring a bit of joy into the Minister’s life.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

17. What steps he plans to take to target adult learning provision on those who most need support.

[The Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning (Mr John Hayes)]

It is a joy to answer successive questions, Mr Speaker.

Support for those in greatest need is the key priority for this Government and our skills strategy. We have protected funding for basic skills and provision for the unemployed, we have targeted entitlements to help those in most need, and we are reforming adult and community learning to engage better with disadvantaged people.

[Bob Blackman]

I thank my hon. Friend for his answer. One of the most disadvantaged groups of people in society are those who were failed by the academic system in their youth. This Government have set their stall out to ensure greater social mobility. What will my hon. Friend do to ensure that those in that group fulfil their potential under his plans for the future?

[Mr Hayes]

This Government, against all expectations and in the most difficult financial circumstances, protected the budget for adult and community learning. It is no wonder that Alan Tuckett of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education said:

“The adult and community learning safeguard is a key platform on which the Big Society can be built.”

This Government, true to their word, defended adult learning—the people’s policy, the people’s Minister, and the people’s party.

School Places (Finchley)

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Tuesday 24th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) (Con)]

Thank you for granting permission for this debate, Madam Deputy Speaker. I must first apologise for delaying the House prior to the recess.

Education is at the heart of the Government’s agenda, as is allowing good schools to expand. On Monday the Secretary of State for Education said in The Guardian that he was going to change the admissions code to help to meet parental demand for good schools. He said:

“We hope the new admissions code allows the possibility of increasing planned admissions numbers so good schools can expand, and there will be underperforming schools that have fewer and fewer numbers.”

That is spot on, but it assumes that the popular schools are able to expand. In Finchley there is no shortage of good schools at primary and secondary level. We even have schools with the space to expand; what we do not have are the capital grants to fund the expansion. The schools in Finchley are part of the family of schools in the London borough of Barnet, and Conservative-controlled Barnet is consistently one of the best local education authorities in the country. Barnet is enthusiastically pursuing many new academies and free schools.

Before turning to the lack of capital support from the Department, I want to reassure my hon. Friend the Minister that the council has not sat by and done nothing about the shortage of places. Several years ago, it recognised that there would be an increase in demand for primary and secondary places and, in the absence of Government support, it embarked on its own £250 million primary school expansion programme. Starting in 2004, using a mixture of prudential borrowing and capital raised from asset sales, the programme set about rebuilding, expanding and refurbishing the primary estate. Barnet is forecasting that pupil numbers in the maintained secondary sector will continue to grow, and that they will grow by 22% by 2015-16. That is the second highest growth rate in the UK. The situation is not helped by the Greenwich decision. LEAs are unable to put their own pupils first.

The factors combine to create a demographic shift that Barnet council cannot cope with—certainly not without help. Hitherto, enough help has not been forthcoming. This outstanding LEA has not been rewarded for its education record. Having delivered new schools on time and on budget, however, the authority was invited to join the last phase of Building Schools for the Future. I hold no affection for the BSF programme, as I saw Barnet council being forced into a process it did not need and could not afford, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds. The promised £83 million under BSF would have allowed three schools to expand and be refurbished—and two of those schools are in Finchley. The schools lost out when BSF was cancelled, so good schools and a good local education authority were penalised again.

I am sure that the capital division of the Department will argue that Barnet has received capital that it should use for expansion. I know that, because it wrote to me in forceful terms to tell me, but Barnet has received an average of just £14.6 million over the past few years for non-academy, non-children’s centre spend. That is money earmarked for new boilers, new toilets, roof repairs, rewiring and so forth—simple basic maintenance. With more than 120 schools in Barnet, that is just £122,000 per school. To put that into perspective, the cost of rewiring one secondary school alone was £1.9 million. The allocation does not go far. It is true that the council could have diverted that capital for school expansion, but is the capital team really expecting a first-class local education authority to tell parents that their school’s broken boiler or leaking roof cannot be fixed because the money has been spent on expanding another school in a different part of the borough?

The council cannot simply borrow the money. I would like to stress that borrowing approval, supported or otherwise, is no help at all. Barnet council has been on the funding floor for several years and borrowing approval is useless if the debt servicing cost is unaffordable because it falls on the general fund paid for out of general council tax. The capital allocation formula appears to need a complete overhaul. The increase in demand for state places has been seen across every borough in London. It is inequitable that London accounts for 64% of pupil place shortages and yet receives just 26% of the capital allocation.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful case for the plight of Barnet, and indeed for the whole of London. Does he agree that we are talking not only about issues related to expanding schools, but about allowing parental choice, so that faith-based schools are an important part of the equation? We have identified the need for a Hindu secondary school located between Harrow and Barnet, and I look forward to working with my hon. Friend to secure support for it from the Department.

[Mike Freer]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. The expansion of the Hindu faith school somewhere between Barnet and Harrow would not only meet parental preference but relieve pressure on the remaining schools in the maintained sector.

To return to the iniquity of the shortage of places and the capital funding allocation, that discrepancy between 64% of places and just 26% of funding means that London is short-changed by more £300 million in the existing allocation.

The current shortage of primary places has been met by providing additional classrooms in portakabins, by changing information technology rooms and libraries into classrooms, or simply by making children travel much further to an available school space. That is not a sustainable solution.

Things are no better in the secondary sector. The area is served by the Bishop Douglass mixed Roman Catholic comprehensive school, which is over-subscribed with 383 applications for 180 places, and by the Compton mixed comprehensive school, which is also over-subscribed—and every applicant from Finchley N2 was rejected; not a single pupil could get a place there. Mr Speaker went to the Compton school—or the Finchley Manorhill school, as it was then called—but he would not get in today, as he lived too far away from it. Then there is Christ’s college, a boys-only school—again over-subscribed, with 424 applications for 150 places. St. Michael’s Catholic grammar school for girls has 370 applications for just 96 places. We also have Henrietta Barnett, a highly selective girls school, grossly over-subscribed with 2,000 applications for 180 places. Then we have Copthall, a girls comprehensive. It too is over-subscribed, and 100% of applicants from N2 were rejected simply because they lived too far away.

In the past fortnight alone I have received 200 emails from worried parents. Let me report just some of what they have said. Mrs Catherine Atkinson wrote:

“I have lived in East Finchley for 28 years. My son got into Fortismere by the skin of his teeth 8 years ago and I remember the stressful wait for the letter saying he had the place. Those not so lucky because they lived maybe 200 yards farther away from the school were offered either Bishop Douglass school or…Christ’s college.”

That would more difficult today, because those schools too are over-subscribed and full.

Mrs Carey wrote to me:

“I live in Long Lane. My daughter is in year 5 and my son is in year 4. Our position is as follows: Fortismere—we’re not in catchment and are unable to afford property prices in Fortismere catchment. Wren Academy Church of England—we are not churchgoers and we are not close enough geographically either. Compton—not in catchment. Christ’s College—we would be in catchment for our son, but that is not much help for our daughter! Bishop Douglass—it is at heart very much a Catholic school”,

and they are not churchgoers.

“Henrietta Barnet is highly selective.”

In Barnet, first preferences granted stand at just 62%, and once second preferences have been allocated, just 85% of parents secure their first or second preferences. That is well below the national average of 85% and 96% respectively. I appreciate that capital is scarce, and I appreciate the difficulties that the Minister is experiencing. I am not asking him to issue a cheque this evening, although I am pretty sure that we would name a school after him if he did: the “Gibb Academy” does have something of a ring to it.

I hope the Minister will accept my view that we must seek to overhaul the capital allocation formula, reward good local education authorities, fund good schools so that they can flourish and expand, help parents to secure their preferences, and give pupils the best possible education and start in life. All that I ask this evening is that he agree to meet me, along with the chief executive and leader of the council, to discuss what targeted support he is able to provide.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 31st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Edward Davey)]

The hon. Lady is right to raise this matter. She will know from her time working in the citizens advice bureau in her area how significant this matter is. Some debt advice agencies out there—frankly—do not act in an acceptable way. We are considering this issue under the consumer credit and personal insolvency review, and will make an announcement after the Easter recess.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

T9. I am all in favour of encouraging enterprise and start-up businesses. However, what will my hon. Friend do about the current scandal of businesses trading, taking people’s money, closing down overnight, then starting up the next day with the same directors and defaulting on all due payments? That is a scandal in society and we must stop it.

[Mr Davey]

My hon. Friend is exactly right, so I hope he welcomes the statement that I have made today on this very issue. Following a consultation launched by the previous Government, we have concluded that action needs to be taken on phoenix companies when assets are sold to connected parties without open marketing. Our proposals, which are in the statement, include insolvency practitioners giving three days’ notice to all creditors before the sale, which we think will be valuable.